bitterspeak

I think most of us - at some point anyway - go through the "can I afford to take this day off?" kind of thing. Especially if it's a traditional good money day, e.g. a holiday, friday or saturday nights at most places or a night where you are understaffed. Worse, maybe you're sick or having a family emergency and you need to weigh not only the cost of the day but the importance of your job versus the importance of the other parts of your life. Somewhere between table numbers and side work we learned guilt. I think, also, a lot of us started too early in this business to know how to stand up for yourself and to create boundaries. These are important issues and definitely things I will explore, but not right now.

Right now, I'm wondering what the cost of a day of it - both in context and implication.

See, I really needed an extra day off this week. I just didn't get much out of the weekend, I've been babysitting supposedly stable code, and I haven't slept right in a while. I just needed that day, and I wanted it to be tomorrow. Here's the thing about that: tomorrow also equals my student loan payment. Or, my phone bill and two credit card payments. Or...you get the "expense math." I've finally saved a little money so I wouldn't miss these payments, but I would like to not use the savings just because I take a day off. I day I deserve to take off. Or want to. Which is? I can't figure it out. In the end I will be working. It should be fine and then it's one more day until a long weekend.

The final deciding factor - the stress of missing the day which could pay the load would negate any relaxing benefit of taking the day off.

You really can't win. But it would be nice to sit an inning out once in a while.