Health & auditing/assessment schedule

It is almost one year since I wrote a blog here; I have carried out many assessments and audits during the last one year. While I continue to "help" people to "help themselves" (see my blog entitled Auditors' dilemma in this section), many times I had to be helped to do my work...it was indeed a difficult time for me.

I have been suffering from Rheumatic Arthritis for almost two years now and it had created many difficult situations before/during/after audits. When I had the "first" attack, my right thumb had swollen suddenly and I was in the midst of an assessment. I could not use my fingers on the laptop ! I was not sure as to how to continue with the assessment. Discontinuing the assessment meant a lot of wastage of money and time to the Assessee organization. While I continued for a few hours with pain, the swelling disappeared as it appeared. I could complete the assessment and heave a sigh of relief.

In the next instance, having agreed for an audit of many units of an organization and having finalized the dates well in advance I had to go through the audits with pain in the leg joints as well as in fingers. I had to wear a larger than normal size shoe as my feet were swollen often. My contact from the organization even hinted at my "smell" of the pain-reliever ointments that I was using. But there was this sense of responsibility to complete the work in time; I had gone through travelling all over India and to different units and completed the work in time..in spite of pain in the shoulder, hand and leg joints....

At least on two occasions I could not wear a shoe as the swelling on the feet was too large to accommodate the large pair of shoes that I was carrying; luckily these were assessments to be carried out in offices and I could go with "slippers" with the permission of the assessee.

Since the "attack" appears un-announced, it is difficult to plan for it ! Neither is there an indication whether it is going to be on the leg joints or arm joints or fingers. Once it happened that my jaw joints were attacked. I could not eat food...I had to get back to liquid food.

The reason why I referred to these instances (these are only a few of many I faced) here is to highlight one more dilemma auditors face. Is it right for the auditor to cancel a well planned audit because of the last minute health issue if that involves loss of money and time for the client ? Can he take the liberty of deviating from formal dressing if he wants to continue with the assessment in spite of his sudden illness ? When in pain can he carry out a fair auditing and assessment ? (I do believe that this has not affected me as an auditor; but that need not be the case always). What is the experience of others on this issue ?

I am sure that cancellation of the audit is inevitable if I face a situation where I have to be carried on a make-shift stretcher because I can not move my leg (which happened to me once when I was in my institute)
 
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