A little pity party (working on Christmas Eve)

Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share
1

Tomorrow’s Christmas Eve and I have to work.

It’s not like I have to go to the factory and punch buttons on the afternoon shift, or ring out last-minute shoppers at the mall, or even go sit at my desk and file a bunch of late TPS reports.

I actually just have to get up and roll in to my home office and do some stuff that’s due to a client Wednesday. It’s not really hard, maybe just a little tedious. Or maybe it’s hard, I don’t know. I’m not sure how long it’ll take, maybe 2 hours maybe 10.

But I just don’t want to work tomorrow. I want to stay up late tonight and watch some junk from Netflix On Demand. I want to sleep in tomorrow just to wake up and take a nap. I want to maybe go to lunch with my friend who’s in town and if it snows, take the dog out for a romp.

I cleaned my house even though no one is coming over. My dishes are all done and my clothes are all clean. I want to do anything but work tomorrow.

But I can’t. We’re a 3-man operation here. I gave the one guy the day off with pay, because I’m generous like that. He can’t do what I need to do anyway. My partner, the other guy, he’s on his yearly Christmas trip with the in-laws. I just got word from him that there’s no Internet access at all on the “side of the mountain” he’s on and I’ll only hear from him if he can make it “in to town.”

Not to be down on my partner. If I really hated him or was frustrated enough with him, I’d pit him. But goddammit…he keeps throwing these things at me and I keep trudging along and I’m running out of steam.

He threw Project A at me with little explanation and I went into it head first. Then he asked me to stop Project A and do Project B, which I worked a handful of overtime days on and it took way longer than he quoted. Then I said “ok I am taking a day off and coming back to do Project A again full time.” I took a day off (a day spent doing crappy un-fun stuff like errands) and when I came back he had a brief note for me saying to call Client C to get the specs on Project C and please do Project C before I get back to Project A. So I dutifully do so and it puts me another week behind on Project A. I finished Project C and spent 3 days working 18-hour days on Project A, took a sick day because I got sick (stress?) and worked Project A until this Thursday.

Thursday I get a brief IM/email conversation about how I need to do Project D, they need it next week and “ok I’ve got to go we’re going to be late for our plane.”

So I bust ass on Project D, get it half done, and shoot him an email asking if I am at least going in the right direction and when is this thing due, exactly?

Tonight he sends me an email “after trudging through the rain to get to this Internet cafe” telling me that what I’ve done so far looks good, but change this and this, and they are SHOWING it Wednesday. Cripes!

So tomorrow I get to sit around and wrap up Project D, somewhat blindly because although this is our company’s hugest project to date, I’ve been left in the dark about what exactly is expected and when. He’s too busy scheduling these other projects and presumably working on his own parts of Project D to keep me informed.

He’s not a total jerk, don’t get me wrong. This is just venting. I’ve been overworked lately and it’s just a slap in the face to have to be working on a day when no one else is (ok, plenty of fine folks are working Christmas Eve and Christmas Day but no one I know…and no one in my company!)

I’m sure I will be able to take off any day I want in the coming weeks, and I’m sure my raise in 2007 was pretty awesome, and my Christmas bonus (decided upon mutually by me and Partner) was way neat but…it’s just not cool to have to work tomorrow. Not cool.

People that ponder whether or not it’d be totally awesome to be your own boss…this is the dark side. When you’re your own boss you’re anything BUT your own boss. You become everyone else’s bitch.

So, yeah. Not to be all attention-whorish…whoever else is working on Christmas Eve against your will, shout out. We’ll be trudging through together.

2

Well, I don’t have to work tomorrow, but I’d rather that I did. I’m with you on the self-employed thing, though. As a result of my clients’ schedule, I have the rest of the year off. That’s great except for the part where I have to pay 4 weeks worth of bills out of 3 weeks worth of money.

3

I have to work tomorrow. The people who are unfortunate enough to be in the hospital over the holidays still need someone doing their lab work and getting their blood crossmatched for transfusions.

We’ll be ordering out, though, and playing Christmas CDs on the lab’s little CD player, and I’ll probably wear a red Santa hat so I can feel festive.

4

I’m going to be at work filing TPS reports all day tomorrow. I don’t care much; I was off work from February to about August, so I had plenty of time to sit around then. Then I get Christmas Day off with pay, then I am forced to take Boxing Day off without pay (company is closed and I’m a temp). I am working extra hours to make up for the lost pay on Wednesday (nobody in Canada except essential services works Boxing Day; it is completely Not Done). I am going in an hour late tomorrow, because all my bosses and co-workers with seniority won’t be there. We’ll probably be kicked out early, too; people rarely work a full day on Christmas Eve Day here.

5

I’m sorry. I have to work as well, selling wrapping paper and stocking stuffers and liquor to harried shoppers. I really don’t mind, though.
I’m bringing in brownies for the rest of the employees, if they turn out edible(the brownies, not the employees).

6

TPS reports for me too.

7

I’ll be working Christmas Eve and Christmas Day - burglar/fire/medical alarms don’t respect holidays.

8

I’m working Christmas day (also a hospital), too.

We’re bringing food (I’m assigned the fruit tray) and having one of those gift exchanges where you can take someone else’s gift away from them if you like theirs better than the one you have.

My kids were sad until we moved Christmas up a day!

9

Glad that I’m no longer a radio personality for this exact reason.

Radio stations never shut down. Back when I was doing it there had to be someone there all the time.

10

Your OP seems to have more to do with your business situation than it does for Christmas. What you wrote about could happen any time of the year.

But anyway, I thank you for writing it. I was putting off something that I have to do tomorrow but was feeling like you. I don’t wanna do something when no one else is. But since all these nice people and you will be doing something, I can too. So I started on it just now and I don’t think it will be too bad really. Thanks for getting me started.

11

I’m working tomorrow too, only I’ll be in retail. Retail. Retail. Dealing with the old ladies that don’t understand that it’s the day before Christmas and we’re out of stupid marzipan or peppermint pigs. Luckily, I’ll get off at about 7:30 p.m., but still, your situation could be worse.

But anyway, hope everything works well for you. Merry Christmas and all that jazz. :smiley:

12

I have to work today too. We will most likely get out early though but I still don’t wanna go.

I want to stay home and relax. Maybe help cook some food and get all the stuff step up.

Work will be so slow since most of our customers are not open anyway and the office will be a like a ghost town since most took the day off.

The time is going to drag.

I don’t wanna, I don’t wanna, I don’t wanna!

13

Yup, working today. There’s virtually no-one in the office, the phones are dead…and our HQ just sent through a bunch of stuff for me to do.

So I suppose I’d better get on and do it while the other unfortunates who are here surf the net and drink tea.

14

I’m working today. What gets me is the foolish way American business handles today. Officially, it’s a regular business day. As a contractor with no vacation, I have to work a full day today. On the other hand, a lot of businesses I work with kick people out early on the day before a major holiday. I also sing in my church’s choir. We have a service which starts at 3:30 this afternoon. The church is easy enough to get to from work, but, since I have no idea when I’m leaving, I have no idea whether I’ll be able to sing at it. Fortunately, it’s a large choir and I’m far from necessary, but I just wish I knew if I could make it.

I may also be one of those people picking up a few things. I worked my share of Christmases when I lived in Hawaii and I know things have to be done. To all those of you who are working today and tomorrow, I give you my heartiest thanks.

15

I’m stuck working today too. The financial markets are open half a day. I’m expecting it to be very slow. However, the one bad thing about days like this is that the crazy people tend to call the company.

I’m taking New Years Eve off so at least I"ll get that 4 day weekend.

16

I’m also about to go into the office - one of our clients sent us a request for backup data last week and wants everything by January 11th. I’m taking off the rest of the week, so I’d like to go ahead and get some done. I’m working 'cause I needs the money!

17

I’m writing this from work.

My company has been so good to me that I don’t mind a bit.

18

Tell, tell!! I love crazy people stories.

19

My husband is a USPS letter carrier, so he’s working today delivering those last minute Christmas cards and presents. When he was a newbie at the job, he worked Christmas Day. Yes, the USPS is out delivering Express mail/packages that day, and he was one of the “lucky” grunts picked to go out and play Santa’s backup crew. He did admit that the customers were all really really grateful to see him, and most slipped him a tip, so it wasn’t all bad!

20

I have to sit by the phones today. I can hear other people moving about in the building, but for all intents and purposes, I’m by myself. It’s okay though. I feel like I need to be alone for a while. Doubt I’ll do any work.