I manage a dental office. With COVID guidelines, we have multiple times/week where team members are unexpectedly gone because of a runny nose or a child sick and has to stay home from school (prior to COVID it was totally acceptable to come to work or send the kid to school). When a team member is gone I have to fill in – it’s something that falls into my urgent and important box in my job expectations. I do my best to calendar my week but feel like it gets completely derailed multiple times a week due to these unexpected absences. I cannot say no to having to fill in and do what it takes to run the business but it can negate all the work I put in to my calendar. How can I somehow plan for these unexpected occurances? Pre-COVID was fine but with strict sickness guidelines it’s a total pain the butt!