That’s right, my last day off was March 25th, 2007. As of today, I have worked seven days a week for one full year without taking a single day off. I’m not sure whether I should be bragging or bitching about it, but there it is. Of course, I only work four to five hours on weeknights and six to seven hours on Sundays, so it’s not like I’m putting in a full eight hours at the office seven days a week. Still, I’m almost certain that this is an experience that I would not care to repeat. On the other hand, I’m kind of proud of it in a weird way. I have a crappy job, but at least I have stamina! Or stupidity. Or possibly both.
So what’s the longest any of you have worked without a day off? Can anybody out there beat my record?
ETA: Actually, it’s 366 days in a row. I forgot that this was a leap year.
You might have noticed the lack of a trophy for this accomplishment. Perhaps you should take some time off and let The Man line his pockets off someone else’s back.
Asmovian: I deliver newspapers. Technically I’m an independent contractor, so in order for me to take a night off, I would have to find, hire and train someone reliable to deliver my routes for me while I was gone. This is not as easy as it sounds; I’ve done this work off and on for several years and I’ve had bad to very bad experiences with substitutes in the past. If I hire a substitute and they mess up too badly - miss too many papers, don’t show up, etc., I could end up losing my contract because of it. That and the expense of hiring a sub have kept me from taking time off. I’ve looked into it a few times, but it never quite worked out.
I’ll get some time off soon. I put in my thirty days notice a little while ago because I’m moving out of the area, so I’ll finally have some time off at the end of April. And by time off, I mean I’ll just be dealing with finals, term papers, packing and graduation stuff. But not work.
The most for me was 3 or 4 weeks (it’s been awhile). We were asked to provide slides for a conference at the last minute and had to work 12-hour days for about a month to get it done.
Holy cow, girl! That’s dedication! You’re almost like the dad on Everybody Hates Chris except he has two jobs - sometimes three.
Then again, if you’re going to school full time too, I’d say you have 2 jobs.
So when you move are you going to pick up a new route if you don’t get a job in your field right away? I’d advise against it - seems like you might end up a paper delivery person for life
I’ve worked two jobs at time for long stretches before, but never three, unless you count school as a job. I had a period a couple of years ago when I was working two jobs and I went about three months before getting a day off. That was much more stressful because my weekday job was as an admin assistant, my weekend job was as a receptionist at a museum and I was taking 12 credits of classes in the evenings. I actually ended up going back to throwing papers to get away from all that. It’s really much less hassle, believe me.
I will not be looking for a new route once I move. I’ll probably end up doing office temp stuff, or else doing retail or factory work until I find a job in my field. If I find a job in my field…
Fir na tine, on behalf of all paper boys and paper girls everywhere, thank you for your appreciation. It’s been about ten years since I delivered in sleet or snow. Now I’m in Florida, so it’s more hurricanes and tropical storms. Sometimes I think I preferred the snow.