I Don't Like Monday Holidays

I wanna shoot the whole mess down.

We're going to talk about a little bugaboo! ‘Peace and Love’ to all of the great holidays out there, but I've got a bone to pick.

In my line of work, as a freelancer, I don't have the luxury of taking a lot of days off.

Today is one of those "Monday holidays". President's Day.

Do a lot of you people out there, like the Monday holiday?

I have been beating my head against this one for years.

Everyone deserves a day off. President's Day is a great holiday day, Martin Luther King Day. Veteran's Day. All the greats. Why shouldn't we have these bank holidays?

I was emailing our developer in the UK because that's the world we live in now. He was on holiday on our holiday. 

And I said, "enjoy your time, get to our code whenever you can. Enjoy your time off. Just relax".

I'm transmitting from one of those isolated phone booths in a WeWork, which is something I like to do on occasion. The cafe is cheaper, but the amenities are nice.

I wish I could have a WeWork membership all the time, but the Monday holidays find me here.

It's fine. It's nice. It's cool. They have free coffee here. I could work more permanently in a WeWork because of the nature of my work, changing so much. It's very comfortable here. My current WeWork Life Hack is that they don't tend to have a lot of people in here. So you can pretty much choose one of these phone booths all day.

It doesn't seem that busy. And no one has kicked me out per the 30-minute time limit on phone booths. Superman only needs a second, I guess. But they would have seen Clark's ID card check-in, so I think Superman would not use a WeWork even if the Daily Planet was low on desks.

The last time I went to the WeWork, it was in the Back Bay near Boylston St., in a building I used to go to comic cons in. I love the history of the city, but also my own personal history with spaces in Boston. There was so much room at that WeWork that I could barely even see anybody else around, let alone people in the other phone booths. To be completely honest, if I had a phone booth just like this at my house, I would probably just stay in it. My dream is to own something and build a shed for my podcasts and work.

I tend to work 10 AM - 6 PM (ish) every day. I kind of keep everything into those hours. I have tasks I need to do, and I'm trying to get them to when other people are working.  That's not to say I don't do some work at 3:00 AM or  10:00 PM or 6:00 AM or on weekends. I do luxuriate in a flexible schedule and make my own hours—part of the many great things (the number one thing?) about being freelance in 2022.

I find the Monday holiday adds extra stress to the world. Why don't three-day weekends start on Friday? Most people take it easy on Fridays anyway. There is a time constrain imposed, always with these damn Monday holidays. The Friday before is fucked up and the Tuesday after is fucked up and stressful. Every. Damn. Time. 

People push the deadlines, they try to 'get this in before the long weekend', they apologize for 'I thought I sent this last week can you do it NOW?' emails on Tuesday. 

I try to be ready to fulfill for my clients for whatever they need, including working on that Monday holiday if I need to. That's all fine. The construct of people's expectations around these extra days off is really what confounds me. Take a look at your monthly calendar, see of there is anything pressing that needs to get done and take care of it two weeks before.

If you want to unplug, fine, do it but handle your business well in advance of creating tension on Friday before or, if you missed something, the Tuesday after. Be mindful that the world hasn't stopped. Don't cram your 8 hour day into two extra-long 12 hour days on Friday and Tuesday. 

Seriously, it doesn't need to be like this.

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