Busy at Work. Is Tomorrow Really a Day Off?

[canyonwalker]

I've been busy at work this week. Partly that's because I've been trying to protect tomorrow as a day off. That's pushed a lot of things I might otherwise do Friday into Wednesday and Thursday. Already by EOD Thursday I've worked more than 40 hours this week. That's frustrating because it's not really a day off if you still have to do all the work, just at some other time. That's not taking a day off, it's just rearranging the workweek. And this week wasn't even supposed to be about compressing 5 days of work into 4 days. That day off tomorrow is supposed to be compensation for burning part of my weekend on work travel two weeks ago. Well, at least after working hard this week I do have tomorrow off. Mostly. 😥

Comments

[sorcyress]

As a schoolteacher, I am _very_ familiar with the idea of rearranging the workweek. Making sub plans is pretty much always more trouble than it's worth, especially when you can't get a guarantee that the sub will know your high school subject enough to actually teach/help the students, so you have to perfectly set up the lessons so that it's the right time for some independent work.

Anyways, it sucks and you have my sympathies!

[canyonwalker]

Delayed response here. As I reread your comment today it reminded me why I consider making sub plans a waste of time and don't do it anymore. I mean, subs aren't a thing in my line of work like they are in teaching. But one time-- and this was, like, fifteen years ago now-- my boss asked me to make sure I had a colleague trained to handle an important duty of mine while I was out for a week.

I carefully selected from among my colleagues a person who I believed had the skill and temperament-- plus the willingness-- to do the task. Then I spent an hour-plus preparing materials and training that person. Then I confidently left on vacation... only to find when I got back that my sub totally rubber-stamped everything while I was out. All the effort, all the care I put into setting up someone to cover for me-- it had zero value. I might as well have let my empty chair do the job. Since then I've refused to waste time on elaborate sub plans.