Reprieve

Well, the stress is off for the rest of the week. The extra stress, that is: all that normal work piled up is still To Do.
I haven't been blogging much about it, but the lab is obliged to earn accreditation soon, and the initial dossier for partial accreditation was due, not a minute past and no exceptions, on Oct 31st. Our Quality Dude decided that our dossier was due this Friday, because next week there's the All Saints' school holiday & he is taking the week off. Ya gotta have your priorities.
So! Friday, huh, for having the Validation des Mèthodes for sequencing finished, and the 18 documents that make up the initial dossier all ready and signed, and all of it in the mail. A tall order, but possible with enough tearing of hair and gnashing of teeth and shivering in anguish and artful dodging and suchlike. Several of the 18 documents refer to other documents that make up our Quality System. Most of those other documents have names, at least the ones high up in the documentary heirarchy. Name, yes, but little else.
Monday morning we discovered that France, in its infinite wisdom and generosity, has changed the calender.
Oh, thank goodness.
What, now, with a week to go?!
Any reprieve is welcome.
The next deadline, the one at the end of May, is maintained. And at that time the various documents not only have to be named, but filled out. So we still have our work cut out for us. It used to be that we'd send an initial dossier now, and the COFRAC would ask for supporting documents as necessary before visiting us and looking us over in person sometime before May 31st. Now we just have until May 31 to send the whole thing.
Right now we're looking over our shoulders to see they're not changing the calender back. They've done that before. Last spring there was a law passed saying the whole thing was moved back two years, and just a week or two later they passed a new law cancelling the one that cancelled the old calendar.
Make up your minds!

We all think that the COFRAC looked up from its paperwork and noticed the gigantic tidal wave of dossiers arriving, all of which had to be gone over & the labs visited in the next 7 months, and realised there was just no way. They're drowning in the dossiers that have already been submitted.
It was certainly our plan to submit at (nearly) the last minute and thus be last-ish on the visit schedule. This is better.
The thing is to not take too much of a breather - just enough for our health - because even May 31 to have everything completed is pretty tight.
.