For me, nothing deconstructs the whole idea of “official authority” more than when a patient asks me for a work excuse letter.

Because it seems like this should be a defined process.  Like there’s an official work excuse format and specific criteria for who deserves it, and maybe you get entered into some kind of Central Work Excuse Database, I don’t know.  That’s how I thought the world worked when I was younger.

But actually what happens is I open up Word and type something like: “Dear Employer, Employee was for real sick and not lying.  They were at our clinic which is a real clinic with a waiting room and everything.  I’m a nurse and I said so. I’m wearing scrubs right now.  Ok bye.”

I suspect even more of the world is like this than I realize.  In most ways, I think that’s a good thing.