Monday Morning Reflection: The Saturday-Sunday 12-Day Week

Once again The Cube has gotten suckered by a failure to add up the numbers.

This is not an Accounting failure - heck, does anyone care if the Company loses another $100K due to a misplaced decimal point or juxtaposition of 6 and 9? (Well, anyone beyond federal auditors, stockholders and, perhaps, the Controller up on Floor 23 ripping his eyes out in disbelief.)

No, this is the kind of addition failure that hits where it hurts - me. I agreed to work over the weekend. Again.

Let's put this in perspective. The Cube likes the work. The Cube's ego loves the attention that goes with "Only you can do it." And, back when The Cube was hourly, the concept of OverTime tripping gaily into DoubleTime was an absolute ecstasy!

And, to be candid, The Cube's social life ain't so hotcha these past few months, so we're not talking loss of Quality Time here. The Cube, too, can rent a DVD online and over the mail: there's no need to sit in a cinema, alone, among squalling babes and make-out middlebrows to watch... well, anything.

But today - this Monday morning - after two fulfilling days of productive enterprise witnessed by only myself and the cockroach in the corner, The Cube is driving to work realizing that "I didn't work an extra two days - I'm working 12 days straight!" It's Monday morning and I wanna go home. I wanna take a day off. I wanna see daylight.

I wanna knock myself in the head with a ballpeen hammer and remind myself for the twenty-fourth time: Live a Life!

The Cube is even growing nostalgic for the sound of cellphones ringing in a darkened theater.