I don’t think I would trade having a weekend off with going back to working on weekends…ever.
I’ve had a myriad of jobs in my life. I’ve been a cashier at a supermarket, worked at Family Planning, been a psychiatric case manager, worked at a few bars and a liquor store. I’ve planned weddings and other major events; I’ve worked at a floral design studio. I’ve been around. (I guess I should make a major point here that I am not a job-jumper. I’ve actually worked multiple jobs at once, and held most of my positions for multiple years.)
Anyway…all of those jobs required me to work on the weekends. My last two jobs (and my current job) afforded me to work a schedule of Monday-Friday eight hours a day (8:30-4:30, 9-5:30, etc). So you’d think that at least since 2007 I’ve had free weekends. This is so far from the truth. 2012 is the first year that I haven’t worked on the weekends. From 2007 until January 2012, I’ve worked (almost) every single weekend at my part-time position as a psych. case manager for adults with mental illnesses. So for the most part, I was working 7 days a week (or 6 days for those weekends I treated myself to a day off). Truthfully, I didn’t mind this schedule.; I actually kind of liked it. There were definitely times it was overwhelming, but I loved my part-time job, and on most days, I was able to do homework there or just relax (i.e. have ice cream parties) with my clients.
I didn’t realize the necessity of weekends until Mr. O came along. There is the obvious factor: I needed time off of work if I wanted to spend time with him. There is also the semi-psychological factor: I needed to decompress. I needed some time to be “off.” I am always “on,” always. It’s nice to chill a bit. I didn’t realize that I was never relaxed until I was forced to take some time off. Also, we have Wolverine all weekend, so even though I can bond with him a few days a week, it is so much cooler to hangout with the little guy all weekend. So I started taking weekends off in 2011. I still worked a lot, but I probably averaged about two weekends off a month-which is a lot if you are used to working 7 days a week. I started liking time off, I mean really liking it. So I started taking more and more time off.
Honestly, I used a lot of the time off for school. But at least I could do my school work in the same building (or even the same city) as my two guys. I made the conscious decision not to pick up any shifts during my thesis-semester (Jan-July 2012). It was tough. I missed my clients so much; I still miss them, but I did what I needed to. And now that I’ve graduated, well, I’m just trying to spend time with my guys. (That, and I haven’t slowed down one bit since school started. All I’ve been doing is Spry-related activities in my free time).
I love my weekends. I love having those weekends where we have no clue what we are going to do, so we just go with the flow. I love having those kind of weekends where we are ridiculously busy with too many plans. I just love my weekends with my guys.
So, yeah. It might be Monday morning. Yeah, I might be a little whiny when I get to work because a Monday is usually busy. You know what though? I just had a great weekend. And in four more days, I will have another great weekend. You tell me I’m not lucky… I certainly won’t believe you.
Side note: I write this on a morning where a huge amount of people have a long weekend (jerks), and I’m stuck going to work (sigh).
The job I’m at now is the first job I’ve ever had with a set schedule: 7:30-3:30, Monday to Friday). Like you, I had no idea how important weekends off were until I actually had them!
It is nice to decompress for sure!
I work at a bank that has extended hours and is open seven days a week, so not only do I work past 5, past 5:30 even, most nights, I also work a lot of weekends. This weekend was the first weekend I had off since the beginning of October. I actually interviewed for a job two weeks ago that would have much better hours (M-F, 8-5, work-from-home, no weekends), but I’m forced having to decide if I want to give up my chances of getting my Master’s in literature and maybe even my MFA in writing for an ideal job. Honestly, the job sounds great, and I would love to get paid more, have better work hours, save money on gas, and have my weekends back, but there’s that “what-if” feeling I keep getting in terms of funding. If I got the funding to go back to school, it would be a dream come true. But of course I won’t know if I got any funding until next year, long after I’ll know whether or not I got this job, so it’s a tough thing to figure out. I really want to be able to support myself, but I also feel this pull to go back to school.
I think you should go back to school AND take the new job.
The new job is perfect for NOW, so take it. If you get funding next year for school, then you go back to school next year and quit the new job. Make your RIGHT NOW as perfect as possible, because this is the current reality you are living.
If it makes you feel any better, I was at work today, too. I was also in the dark (literally) because everyone else IN MY OFFICE had the day off. Sigh.
In the dark? Oh, no! That really stinks. Especially since everyone had the day off. I bet you got a lot done though!