Playing Hooky

Sometimes it's important to work for that pot of gold. But other times it's essential to take time off and to make sure that your most important decision in the day simply consists of choosing which color to slide down on the rainbow. 

Douglas Pagels, 'These Are the Gifts I'd Like to Give to You'

It's going to be nasty out there today. Not as nasty as they originally thought, but nasty enough for me to play hooky. Actually, as I look out the window I see it's not really bad at all, but they've been fooling me for two days now.  Yesterday I thought the weather would be bad, and I would be off...and there was nothing.  Now I wake on another planned day off, and there is nothing. They say now that overnight tonight is going to be the worst.  Well, no one ever said I couldn't take off two days, did they?  Whatever guilty feelings I may have, they are are all mine. No one cries and bemoans when I call in.  It's all in my mind.  

All kinds of worries race through my mind... such as who was going to cover my group, what about my intake, or so and so is coming for their individual session, and I don't want them to make the trip for nothing. Of course, when they wanted to take off, they didn't care that I might be sitting around waiting. And, on more than one occasion, I went to work sick to meet with a client who didn't even show..  I felt like I was letting everyone down when, the truth is, I was letting myself down when I didn't take a day that I really 'needed' so much.  As a result, I felt overworked, stressed out, and disenchanted with a career that once meant so much to me. 

I don't like to talk about regrets, but I am sorry it took me so long to realize that playing hooky from work is really necessary, and I shouldn't feel guilty about taking 'my time'. I earned it, and if I don't use it, I will lose it. Learned that one the hard way when 156 sick hours went down the drain when I left my last job. And the place is not going to fall apart because I am not there. So what if I have paperwork to catch up on?  It will still be there when I go back...and, besides, is there any such thing as catching up?  Not anymore there isn't. I've also learned that completing all of your work can actually be detrimental for you. In fact, the more you do, the more they expect.  That's another one I learned the hard way...and the main reason my caseload is larger than anyone else's caseload.  Oh, I could sit back and play the 'blame game' that I am singled out and expected to work harder than the others, but whose fault is that?  I'm the one who had to do it all.  Now I pay the price.

So, take a lesson from someone who knows.   If you need that day, whether it's to catch up on some much needed rest or to recharge our batteries with some alone time,  and you have the time coming, take it. Don't work yourself silly, and then look back in your elder years and wonder why you missed out on so much. As hubby always used to say to me when I crawled out of bed feeling as if I'd been run over by a steamroller..."When you drop dead, they'll only find someone to take your place." And you know what?  He's right. There WILL always be someone to take my place because that's just the way it. is.

Thanks for letting me share.