I say, given the opportunity, business will continue to wring you, the lowly peon, for all you’re worth. It doesn’t matter if you’re tired, or if you are deserving of a break. Emotions don’t play a part in the machine, right? I guess I expect that. It makes me think of that tag line for The Apprentice (Yeah, remember the first season when that was worth watching? Ha!). I forgot the exact word usage, and I really can’t be bothered to look it up, but the basic gist was: it’s not personal, it’s just business. Done. Acknowledged.

I’m only bringing this up because this whole thing has been on the forefront of my mind today. Over the past month, I’ve been putting off taking a vacation. I’ve been working a good amount of extra hours, and over time I accumulated a couple of days off. Due to various circumstances, the general consensus among me and my colleagues is that we need to take these days off as soon as possible. The window of opportunity for us is closing. Also, given the chance we’re sure the powers that be would rather keep us busy and tell us that there’s just no opportunity to take time off. Anyway, in the end, I’ve had to work through through the period before Christmas and the time until New Year’s Day. Of course, I’ve gotten the statutory days off, but that’s hardly a break, is it? Someone had booked time off and I stuck around to make sure that we had the numbers to face any tasks thrown our way. So…now, I finally decided that I’ve waited long enough. I booked a week off for the week after New Year’s Day. Wonderful, right? Finally, I could look forward to getting some time away from the office to recharge and rediscover my interest in work.

When I got home I noticed that the on call pager (which I have this week) said I had a missed call. It was my project manager. I tried calling back but there was no response. So, I checked my work email and indeed there was something there for me. Apparently there were some rumblings from the powers that be that there was a preference that I’d delay my vacation to the end of the month due to a large workload. Ooooooh. That really got my blood boiling. My manager basically asked me what I thought. My mind was going through so many thoughts, among which were: shame, anger, and worry. Yes, I recognized that the workload was indeed large. At the same time, I knew that next week the team would have full resources in office, apart from myself of course. So, I knew that it won’t be like I’m abandoning the team. In fact, I’d be taking time off at a time when the team can definitely handle it. After much thought though, I realized that this was exactly the scenario that I’ve been talking about. It’s the role of business to at least ask if I can continue working, right? Luckily, I know have a bit of fortitude to just say “no.”

Saying “no” is so difficult! I have the type of personality where I don’t want to disappoint anyone. However, so often that leads to me being taken advantage of. I’ve told myself time and time again that I need to be stronger. Why would I be any less entitled to time off than anyone else? Enough is enough, damn it. I don’t want to hear anything from anyone about this being unprofessional. I’m sure the business would rather have someone rested and wanting to work instead of someone burnt out and bitter about the whole operation. I don’t want to hear anyone tell me that I’m just being irresponsible and lazy either. Holy crap, I continue to work my ass off for this team. Anyone who doesn’t recognize that just isn’t qualified to judge anything about this team at all.

Trust me. In the end, it will all work out because everyone is truly doing their part in making sure we’ve got a good product. Now…just get me away from there for the next week and there will be no issues.