Without going into detail, my job is medical and one large aspect is filling a slot on an emergency response team for the facility where I work. Our typical emergency response role is for a long term process going on here that essentially runs 24 hours a day and will continue to do so until complete (several years from now). The specific medical coverage we provide is actually for a support operation that usually runs during business hours (close to that, anyways) and has been running on Saturdays for several months (and will also continue to do so for several years). As luck would have it, the large 24 hour operation was going to be shutdown this weekend, so we would have had our first truly free weekend in several months.
Cue the French. Part of the large process is that it involves international treaties with several countries who will send inspectors periodically. Usually they come during the week and their presence is barely noticed by the facility at large. However, they require medical coverage just like the big operation and wouldn’t you know it, they schedule their visit for not only a weekend, but the one weekend in several months in which we were actually going to be off. Nothing of note happened, but we we’re still required to be present and available in case something did happen. I’m sure it was of no consequence to them that they were screwing dozens of people out of time off with their families. I don’t know, perhaps their international inspections take them away from home as often as we have to work weekends. Doesn’t make it any more tolerable, though.