Classic Rant #67 (August 14, 2009): Working For the Weekend, Not On the Weekend

I don't know how many of you this post will address, but how does anybody work on Saturday and/or Sunday without feeling that they were left out of something?

I have had office jobs my entire working career (with the exception of when I was a teacher for a few years), and office jobs are basically Monday through Friday ventures.

However, in my current job, which I have had the past 13 years, during one roughly three to four week period during the calendar year, my group must come in on Saturday to do some work--and the time has come this year. I am a writer, and we put out a pretty hefty issue in the fall, which we start now, and we must come in on the weekend so that we get the darn thing out on time.

I don't know about you, but the Monday to Friday grind is more than enough for me. I am in the office before 6:30 a.m., and don't leave until 5:30 p.m., five days a week (my choice; because my wife works, I can't put in the extra hours in the evening, so I do it in the morning).

Anyway, when I work on Saturday, I most always do it very early in the morning. For instance, my wife happens to have to work all weekend (she works in a bank that is open just about every day of the year), so I come in at 5 a.m. and work until 8:30 a.m. or so. Even working those hours, I always feel that I am losing a day out of my weekend, I am losing my Sabbath (not that I am religious), and I am dead tired by Saturday evening into Sunday.

It especially hurt when my kids were small, because I had no pep or energy when they wanted to play with me; I was literally the too pooped pop.

I just don't know how people work on the weekend. I guess like my wife, you get used to it to a certain degree. But the weekend is for relaxing, being with the family, and also, for that matter, for gearing up for another work week.

I applaud those who work on the weekend on a regular basis. But for me, Monday to Friday is more than enough.