Heart and Mind

Not Going to Work on Black Friday, part 1

"Is your office open the day after Thanksgiving?"

I've gotten that question every year since I entered the work force, and almost every year the answer is the same: yes. Unfortunately.

However, in recent yearss, I have made it a point to take that day off whenever possible. Which, in recent years, means every year.

One time I heard that only a couple of people came into the office on Black Friday and they ended up closing at, like, 11 AM or something. That was extreme. Still, that usually is an early day...maybe 1:00 or 2:00 or 3:30. Never to 5, it seems.

That's why every year I can't help but ponder the question: "Should I not take that Friday off and get more bang for my buck by using my vacation day on another day where it's 9-to-5, all-business?" After all, I don't work in retail, so Black Friday is usually a dog of a day, and really easy going. Maybe I can do nothing on that day and also leave early, so I shouldn't waste my personal time.

Still, I've decided I will always take that day off. There are several reasons.

First of all, this nation is terrible with time off. We get fewer holidays than practically everywhere else. Of course, I haven't done any hard research (or any research at all) into this matter, so this is theoretically all hearsay. Still, I'm apt to believe it's true, considering many of us only get six holidays. The big six: New Years, Memorial Day, Fourth of July, Labor Day, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. That's too few.

So, with those paltry numbers, you will occasionally get a 3-day weekend (on Memorial Day and on a few of the others once in a while when they fall on the proper days of the week to make a 3-day weekend. But you never get a 4-day weekend.

A 4-day weekend! What a delightful concept that I seem to know well, yet am puzzled by how I possibly could! I'm not puzzled for long, though, as upon further pondering, I realize why I might know about 4-day weekends. School. Back in the halcyon days (yeah, right) of youth, you would get those 4-day weekends every now and then. Nowadays, though, it's just teachers who get them.

So, I'm taking it. I want my annual 4-day weekend, and with Thanksgiving always falling on a Thursday, the Friday works just fine.

Another reason is that I always feel like I desperately need time off around Thanksgiving. One of my clients is a retail chain, and all the advertising work that goes into the Christmas season actually happens in October and November. In fact, when the Christmas season gets into full swing is precisely when things start slowing down for me. I've been looking at red and green and elves and santas for months already by the time Thanksgiving hits.

But the most important reason why I take that day off is that in order to fully enjoy the well-earned holiday of Thanksgiving, I can't be thinking of the fact that I have to be going to work in the morning. If you can't settle into your family and turkey with that wonderful feeling that you have when you know you have a full weekend ahead of you, you're really getting gypped on this important holiday. Going to work on the day after Thanksgiving can make it seem as much of a screw-job holiday as Easter. Maybe it's not that bad, because at least when you get up for work, it will be Friday and not Monday. Still, if they moved Easter to a Friday or something, though it might not fit with the Christian reasons for having it on that day, we weekday-working-folk would probably enjoy it more. Even regular Sundays throughout the year are dampened by this ever present sense in your mind that tomorrow it's back to business.

It's the anticipation and the knowledge that the best is yet to come that truly makes your time off good. That's why I have long been of the opinion that Fridays are, indeed, better than Sundays, despite the fact that you have Sunday off and you have to work on Friday. Except on Black Friday, in my world, when I'm lucky enough to be able to not go to work. (I also have similarly seemingly-logic-defying theories about why Tuesdays are worse than Mondays, but I will save those for a future "Rating the Days of the Week" blog entry.)

Well, this is part 1 of my Black Friday thoughts. There is much more to say, but I will have continue my thoughts in a separate blog entry. Just to keep things fresh... This entry is long enough to stand on its own.

And, by the way, I do realize that some people don't work a Monday through Friday schedule and that it could make my entire blog entry seem worthless. That's OK, though. I am mostly writing for the people who do work Monday through Friday. There are enough of us out there, to be sure.

posted by Steve @ 8:49 PM