Shut It Down!

So today my kids have some Fourth of July recital at daycare that I wanted to attend. I had hoped that the Firm would be closing early since 1) over 20 people are out today, and 2) the phones aren’t ringing much. My thought was that if they close early, I would just skip lunch and leave at 2:45 p.m. (presuming the Firm closed at 4 p.m.) to get to the recital in time.

About an hour ago I emailed the head HR lady and said, “I know this is terribly rude, but…” and proceeded to ask whether we were closing early, and why I wanted to know. I told her that if we were NOT closing early I’d just leave at 2:45 p.m. and take my lunch then to see as much of the recital as I could.

She wrote back a few minutes later and said, “…it’s not always a guarantee that we are going to close early on a holiday weekend. We have a lot of people out and a lot going on today…” Okay, fair enough. Although it’s dead quiet on MY floor, maybe it’s busy up on the 3rd floor. So I wrote her back and said no problem, I’d just take a really late lunch and come back at 3:45 p.m.

So a few minutes ago she sends out this email to the entire Firm: “Folks…please do not expect the office to close early every holiday weekend…It is the exception, not the norm so please do not count on it happening every time that there is a holiday.”

A large part of me is pissed off. I specifically didn’t only ask if the Firm was closing early, but that if it wasn’t that I’d just take a late lunch. I didn’t just say, “Hey, what time is the office closing today?” as though I presumed the Firm was shutting down early because of the holiday tomorrow.

Of course, I won’t say anything to her, after all – head of HR. But still, that email better not have been as a result of my innocuous email trying to figure out whether to grab a quick bite to eat now or wait so I can go to the recital.