Querying Stickies in Custom Query Shortcode

I’ve adapted the idea in this tutorial (https://digwp.com/2010/01/custom-query-shortcode/) to create a custom query shortcode.

I’ve got it all working, listing each entry in alphabetical order by surname with a shortcode such as:

[staffloop the_query="post_type=staff&order=ASC&meta_key=surname&orderby=meta_value&departments=crt&posts_per_page=-1"]

The adapted function behind that is:

function staffloop_shortcode($atts) {

   // EXAMPLE USAGE:
   // [loop the_query="showposts=100&post_type=page&post_parent=453"]

   // Defaults
   extract(shortcode_atts(array(
      "the_query" => ''
   ), $atts));

   // de-funkify query
   $the_query = preg_replace('~&#x0*([0-9a-f]+);~ei', 'chr(hexdec("\\1"))', $the_query);
   $the_query = preg_replace('~&#0*([0-9]+);~e', 'chr(\\1)', $the_query);

   // query is made
   query_posts($the_query);

   // Reset and setup variables
   $output = '';
   $temp_title = '';
   $temp_link = '';

   // the loop
   if (have_posts()) : while (have_posts()) : the_post();

      $temp_title = get_the_title($post->ID);
      $temp_link = get_permalink($post->ID);
	 $first_name = get_post_custom($post_id, 'first_name', true);
	  $surname = get_post_custom($post_id, 'surname', true);
	 $title_eng = get_post_custom($post_id, 'title_eng', true);
	 $title_de = get_post_custom($post_id, 'title_de', true);
	 $email = get_post_custom($post_id, 'email', true);

// output all findings - CUSTOMIZE TO YOUR LIKING

	if(qtrans_getLanguage()=='en'):
	$output .= "<strong>" . $first_name['first_name'][0] . "?" . $surname['surname'][0] . "</strong><br />
	<span class='title'>" . $title_eng['title_eng'][0] . "</span>
	<div class='clearfix'></div>
	<a href='mailto:" . $email['email'][0] ."'>Email</a><div class='clearfix' style='border-bottom:1px dotted #CCC;margin-bottom:10px;padding-bottom:10px;'></div>";
	endif;

	if(qtrans_getLanguage()=='de'):
	$output .= "<strong>" . $first_name['first_name'][0] . "?" . $surname['surname'][0] . "</strong><br />
	<span class='title'>" . $title_de['title_de'][0] . "</span>
	<div class='clearfix'></div>
	<a href='mailto:" . $email['email'][0] ."'>E-Mail</a><div class='clearfix' style='border-bottom:1px dotted #CCC;margin-bottom:10px;padding-bottom:10px;'></div>";
	endif;

   endwhile; else:

      $output .= "nothing found.";

   endif;

   wp_reset_query();
   return $output;

}
add_shortcode("staffloop", "staffloop_shortcode");

However, where this fails is in terms of sticky posts. They get ignored and appear as part of the regular alphabetical order where I would really like to push them to the top. I tried passing a post__in parameter to the query such that it ended up looking like:

[staffloop the_query="post_type=staff&order=ASC&meta_key=surname&orderby=meta_value&departments=crt&posts_per_page=-1&post__in=get_option( 'sticky_posts' );"]

to no avail. In case it was something wrong with the get_option bit as it related to the preg_replace lines in the function, I tried to declare a global variable in my functions.php:

$sticky = get_option( 'sticky_posts' );

And subsequently adjusted the shortcode to:

[staffloop the_query="post_type=staff&order=ASC&meta_key=surname&orderby=meta_value&departments=crt&posts_per_page=-1&post__in=$sticky"]

Also to no avail.

At this point, I’m at a loss and am reaching out here for advice from people better versed in this stuff than I.

Many thanks!!!