Alarm Clocks

I'm old school and have a machine that plugs into the wall (I know, right?) as an alarm clock.

"Way to date yourself.”

“Why don't you just use your cell phone?"

Yeah, yeah, I don’t live under a rock and appreciate the incredulousness. But, hear me out. I'm not the most...well...I'll just lay it out there: I don't wake up in a positive mood. I'm a bit of an angry waker.  Essentially, I want to murder whoever or whatever woke me up.

My old-school alarm clock has a snooze button on the top that I can (very angrily) smash to get the obnoxious thing to shut up. It's rather cathartic. You know what you can't smash? Your phone.

At least, not without buying a new one.

I've also heard plenty of people griping about 'sleeping through their alarm.' This is not a thing in my world since my old clock has the most nerve-grinding sound known to man that blasts my brain into being awake when it goes off. Phones just don't have that kind of...power, if you will, on any of their different alarm sounds.

You know what else doesn't have the power to bring someone from sleeping to waking? Not setting an alarm at all.

And thus we segue to the point of this post.

I recently got an email from one of my clients regarding a contractor who left on her lunch break and never came back. Not surprisingly, the supervisor wanted me to end the assignment for walking off the job. So, I did my due diligence and called the (former) employee up to let her know the assignment has been terminated.

Me: Unfortunately, your supervisor let us know you left work last night and never came back, never notified anyone, so they decided to end your assignment.

No Alarm Clock (NAC): I didn't leave without telling anyone. I went on lunch and took a pain killer in my car and fell asleep.

Me: Well, your supervisor is uninterested in having you return because you never came back.

NAC: Well, I was out there the whole time. Nobody came to get me or said anything. I never left the site. I just fell asleep after taking my medication.

Me: That may be, but you never returned to work after leaving for break.

NAC: I just told you I didn't leave the site. I fell asleep in my car.

Me: That you didn't actually physically leave the site is irrelevant. You never returned to work. You probably should've set an alarm on your phone if you were taking medication that has a side effect of drowsiness or felt yourself getting tired.

NAC: They all could've seen my car out there. They should've came and got me!

Me: It is not their responsibility to track you down and wake you up if you fall asleep. You were on the job. They, too, were on the job and were, therefore, probably doing their own jobs instead of spending time trying to find you when you could've set an alarm to avoid the whole situation. Now, is there anything onsite you need us to retrieve since you will not be returning to work there?

Even after all this time, it still boggles my mind that people who are legally considered adults still do not know how to take responsibility for their own actions. You were working at a job. It's not daycare where someone is there to hold your hand and keep you out of trouble or wake you after naptime. Try adulting for once and use an alarm clock. You know, because you're an adult.