Hi everyone (note: long post)

I’m going to tell you about my awful trip to Barcelona. 

I wanted to be nice and take my assistants on a weekend trip to Barcelona, so there were seven of us in total who went.

Once we arrived on Thursday, I treated everyone to dinner; after dinner, we gathered for a little P meeting where we went over routines and read out Heléne Olsson’s points on what makes a good assistant.

This wasn’t appreciated, partly because I’d asked people not to be on their mobiles all the time, but apparently we’re living in 2025 and people can’t cope with being at work without their mobiles. 

After that, five of the assistants left, including one who was on duty.

So one of the assistants who wasn’t on the rota had to help get me into bed, as it takes two people. 

The next day, one of the scheduled assistants arrived an hour late, so once again one of the unscheduled assistants had to help out. 

Before the trip, we’d sent out a letter saying that on days when you weren’t on the rota, you could do whatever you wanted, but that we’d all get together every evening for dinner; we’d also sent out a travel agreement where the assistants were clearly informed that this was a work trip. 

On Friday evening, there were only four of us having dinner together.

On Saturday, I went out with the two assistants who were working to see Barcelona. 

At 4 pm, one of the girls was due to be relieved; we weren’t at the hotel, so the girl who was due to take over had to come to where we were.

She arrived at the spot completely out of her mind and started shouting and screaming that I was breaking every law and rule in the book, and that she certainly wasn’t going to push me back to the hotel in my wheelchair because she thought it was too hot.

And then she handed in her notice with immediate effect, leaving me and the other two assistants sitting there looking completely baffled. 

On Saturday, the four of us had dinner together again.

On Sunday we were due to fly home, and it came as a shock to three of the assistants that we had to vacate the hotel rooms by noon at the latest.

One of the assistants who was on duty just went off to pack and disappeared for four hours.

Once on board the plane, the captain announced that there was an air strike in France, so we had to wait for a slot, which meant we had to sit in the plane for an hour and a half before we could take off.

Once back home, another of the assistants resigned on Monday, citing sick leave.

Since then, there has been a lot of row and squabbling about wages and so on.

We claimed travel expenses in accordance with the tax office’s rules, but then all hell broke loose, so to restore some peace and quiet we revised the wages and paid them out without any deductions.

But now one of the assistants is claiming that she has got up at least four times a night for over 30 minutes to turn me over! 

I’m so fed up

I tried to do something nice and fun and was kind enough to invite two newly hired assistants, and as a thank you for that, I’m now in negotiations with the union to prove that it doesn’t take half an hour to turn me over.

I’ll never be kind enough to invite anyone on a trip again because this is wearing me down.

I’m losing my hair, I’ve got gastritis, my muscles are twitching and aching so much I’ve got muscle soreness, and my speech is just getting worse and worse.

So thank you to all the assistants who were there and made sure I had a lovely weekend in Barcelona, sigh!

Please share this so everyone can see what can happen behind the scenes