But Baby It's Cold Outside...So Go To Work

About an hour after I came into work today I heard a co-worker (A) exclaim that she was going to take a contract out on another co-worker (B). Not because she hates her or thinks she is a horrible person, but because it is the holidays which means half of my department is off and we are all covering for those who aren’t here. And one of co-worker (B) files just went to hell in a hand basket. So for a while I pondered how much money co-worker (A) might give me to “whack” co-worker (B) but then started to think about taking time off at the holidays.

I can understand taking time off if you have kids or the need to travel to see loved ones in far away places like Iowa or Kentucky…but why take time off, in December, when the weather is crappy if you are just going to putter around the house and get caught up on your laundry?

Aren’t those vacation days better used on a balmy May day when Spring has finally arrived and the thought of being a cubicle monkey makes you want to hit something so you call off and head to the zoo instead to look at some real monkeys? Or on a sultry summer day when the lure of the local pool is just to great and you want to come back to work a shade darker due to copious amounts of exposure to lights that aren’t of the florescent type? Or on a rare fall day when Indian Summer swings through town and your favorite baseball team is doing well in the post season and someone couldn’t use their ticket and gave it to you with the pre-paid parking pass?

Those are when you take those extra days off. Not when it is going to be blustery and snowy. When you can’t enjoy the outdoors for fear of frostbite and hypothermia. When the days are so short that you start to forget what natural light looks like.

Crappy days are what work was made for. It’s a place where you can sit away from windows and forget how cold it is outside in a nicely regulated office. Sure the commutes can suck, but it is a tradeoff for being at work when things are quiet, thus giving you a chance to organize yourself for when business starts to pick back up, after the holidays.

So when you don’t see posts on a day when Chicago has some glorious weather you will know why.

~ The Office Scribe