Life Lesson: It's OK To Take Overtime, BUT.....

[gimmethesimplelife]

at least in my case, I need to leave a little bit of time for me. Even if it's just fifteen minutes every other day. In bed today feeling like death warmed over with cold symptoms and a temp of 102F. Have started taking garlic and am already feeling a little better and am breathing a little easier. One nice thing of living in a heavily Hispanic area is that many Hispanics have retained faith in (legal) herbs as medicine......I can likely ask my neighbors for some antibiotic tea and get a few teabags without having to go down to the store to get them myself.

And I'm digressing. My point is that I believe that some people can just work, work, work, work, and make that their identity/point of pride perhaps - I am not one of them. I need more balance in life than that, which is why I personally believe I'm in bed today. Will catch up online and on reading - I did manage to get a morning off last Saturday and I made it to the VSNA booksale at the state fairgrounds and I have a bunch of books to read.

When do you know it's time to take a breather? I seem to have this ability to ignore any signs my body gives me lol.......Rob

[Teacher Terry]

I never could just work to the exclusion of other things. I need balance. Your body is forcing you to slow down.

[JaneV2.0]

I was getting six weeks, two months? in vacation/individual days off by the time I retired. I took every last minute. I don't understand work, work, work. I've always felt employment was just an unpleasant obligation. A real calling would be different, of course, but I would think people would even need some time out from that, to recharge and avoid burnout.

So enjoy your forced exile ; I hope you get some regular time off soon.

[ApatheticNoMore]

If I get sick then yea I know I can't keep driving myself to do more. Not that I'm the worlds most ambitious anyway and true overtime is not allowed really but I always have 100 other non-work things going on. And I also feel that if I don't keep driving myself I won't survive.

Vacation days, hahaha, that's a funny one, tell me another one, no I have none of that. I literally postpone going to the doctor or getting a toilet fixed because contractors just lose money if they don't work (my coworker works overtime sometimes to bank time for such though, it's smart, but sometimes after even 8 hours of that grueling boredom I can bank no more - on a good day where the work is not as boring I could, but often it's real boring).

[catherine]

When I'm overworked, I don't get sick--I get angry. I can tell when I'm out of balance--I want to kill everyone (just kidding). It's a subterranean rumbling that doesn't go away until I'm able to even my life out. Life is too short to be one-dimensional.

That being said, I have worked many, many long hours for long stretches. And now, even though I have more control over projects being self-employed, when I take on too much, I still get resentful. But the good thing about self-employment is when I do have slow times, I can do whatever I want. I don't have to find busywork or take up space in an office.

Take care of yourself, Rob! Look at the extra money you'll have.