This year my employer has given everyone a day off for their birthday, which is very lovely of them.
This year, my birthday falls on a Saturday, so I get the option of a day off on the Friday beforehand, or the Monday afterward.
Let’s look at the options.
If you take the Friday off, you’ve got a short week. Yay!
But you’re trying to Get Stuff Done in time so that the people who needed the aforementioned stuff have it for when you’re off, and they will promptly generate more stuff that they need from you when you’re back. You then spend Friday pottering around doing non-work Stuff before it’s the weekend. Birthday happens, cake is eaten.
Then Sunday evening arrives with the ‘oh gods it’s Monday tomorrow’ feeling. Monday still happens and it’s a week until the weekend again.
OR
You take Monday off. Yes, the preceding week is longer (well, no longer than usual), but you Get Stuff Done, the people who need the stuff get the stuff, and any new stuff they now need goes on the list of stuff to do.
Friday evening arrives, you go to the pub with your best mate and his dog as per usual, have a couple of beers before retiring back to his place to listen to the new vinyl he’s bought, and try some new whisky that one of you has acquired since last time.
Saturday pops up, you go to parkrun, have a nice day pottering around doing birthday stuff, someone else does the washing up, you have a lovely Chinese takeaway with the in-laws, and go to bed full of noodles and cake.
Sunday meanders into view, you have a day of pottering around doing Sunday stuff, finish off the birthday cake and maybe read one of the books you got as a present before Sunday evening arrives with the ‘oh gods it’s Monday tomorrow’ feeling. Followed immediately by a BUT I’VE GOT THE DAY OFF CLEVER ME!
Monday morning rolls around, you turn off the alarm that you forgot to cancel, roll over and go back to sleep. Until the cat turns up to stand on your bladder because OMG HUMAN STARVING CAT, you get up, feed the cat, then go back to bed.
Monday evening rolls around but now it’s more of an ‘oh, Tuesday tomorrow’ feeling. Tuesday turns up, and suddenly you’re a day closer to Friday and the pub and that new bottle of something delicious that you got as a surprise on your birthday is just waiting to be opened and sipped whilst listening to something fabulous on vinyl.
Guess which one I picked?
Only the very best people are born on the 13th
In my line of work on a Friday you get folk who rock up with "This went wrong on Monday but I have left it to get worse all week and now I need you to fix it*right now* because weekend"
Then on Mondays you get "This has been a nightmare all weekend"
So essentially the best outcome is to somehow swing both days off and let someone else mop up the problems 😉