10/4/07
I'd like to know what your Fridays are like, because every job I've ever had... something kicks in around 1-2pm that makes serious work excruciatingly difficult. The same thing happened in school, when the teachers unlucky enough to get us after lunch had to deal with the breakdown of basic rules that they, too, felt hard-pressed to take seriously.
Now, in the freelance world, it's quite a different story. Friday afternoon forces a reckoning, a "did I accomplish what I set to do this week" that is usually distilled into a "um, perhaps not" and it wasn't that long ago when that meant something close to financial disaster.
When you work a freelance life, there is no weekend, there is no time when you are truly "off", and back when I had no health insurance and was desperate for every frickin' gig, Friday afternoon meant no good news for at least two days. I'm blessedly lucky to have managed an occupation that has no office, but any of you who have freelanced know it can wreak havoc on your stomach lining.
To quell that horror, I took That Internet Job, and before I started to loathe it (and it loathed me back), I recall the joy that accompanied Friday afternoons, because we were all truly able to leave it all behind. The 8am-6pm grind would flitter away like it didn't exist. Friday afternoons felt like summer vacation, an impossibly long swath of time that would never end. Sunday night? Never heard of it - sounds crappy!
Even at the dot-coms, we'd stop looking at the internet on Friday afternoons (and the stats for this site show something similar). And so I ask - what are your Friday afternoons like? Can you focus? Does it still feel a little like school?
Posted by Ian Williams at October 4, 2007 10:08 PM"Does it still feel a little like school?"
It feels exactly like school, and that's where it originates. A job (or substitute "school") is a place where you have to put in your time in a pattern. When it comes to TGIF, we are all still in third grade.
And as a freelancer, with half a dozen jobs at any given time, even though many of the demands that are made on my time pop up during the "weekend," I have a different attitude about those weekend demands... I don't take them as seriously as I would on, say, a Wednesday morning.
And yes, for us non-clock-punchers, we come to Friday and think... "wait... I wanted to have [fill in blank] done by the end of the week, and.. crap... how did it get to be Fridayalready?
By the way, that last post was me, the Mom, not Sean. He's been using my computer again...
When I practiced legal aid family law Friday afternoon was busy with the unhappy problems of others. Now, you can't get a hold of clients on Friday afternoon so it's certainly slacker.
It's still a bit like that for me, especially today, since I'm planning to bail outta here no later than 2 so I can run off to the beach for the weekend!
I'll echo Mom's thoughts on non-clock punchers and say that Friday mornings are often a stressful recognition of just how much is still on the plate to be done for the week. I go out of my way to avoid working weekends so the large workload on Friday mornings feels like an anvil hanging over my head threatening to crush my weekend. It is not at all uncommon for me to skip lunch and work late on Fridays.
If I weren't stuck in a mind-numbingly dull meeting this morning then I wouldn't have time to post this response.On the bright side, I like most of my job (present meeting excepted) and I get paid well to do work that I find interesting and challenging.
I work in publications (read: deadlines), and Friday afternoons are seldom different from any other afternoon; in fact, given people's penchant for needing things at the 11th hour, we're often even busier on Fridays. So, no goofing off for the weary here. That being said... on the way in to work, I realized I didn't take my meds this morning. When I lived 5 minutes from my office, that wasn't a problem; but now with a half-hour commute, I'm unlikely to make the round trip during the work day. So I may bail early today. Aw, shucks. :-)
Whenever I drive home from work on a Friday I can hear the soft strains of "Everybody's Working For the Weekend" going off in my brain. It makes we want to get a bad perm, red leather pants and a white headband....or just drink beer.
Nothing good at work ever happens after 3:30pm on Friday. It never fails that you get a bomb dropped on you if you are in the office. If you are not there it seems to magically disappear!!!
Yes, but I consider it a measure of how much I like my job that I don't dread Sunday nights and I don't feel like I'm being released from prison on Friday afternoons.
When I was working full-time, my husband used to say that my entire mood changed on Sunday nights. I remember that same feeling of dread in college on Sunday nights thinking about all the work I had to catch up on. Back then, it was 50% dread and 50% hangover, though.
One thing I loved about living in Manahattan was the Sunday night denial dinner. We would meet up with two to three other couples almost every Sunday night at a simple Italian place, order pizza margherita's for the table and let the wine flow like a river. It was usually followed by trips to Tasty D-lite and then under the sheets viewings of Sopranos/Six Feet Under/Sex in City.
I'm a SAHM so every day is pretty much Saturday for me! :-) I love it though - it's the best job in the world.
Friday afternoons are especially nice because I know that P will soon be home to help share the parenting gig for two days - woo!
That said, I start to get a little antsy around 4:00-5ish Monday-Thursday because it's not anywhere near C's bedtime yet, but it's been a long day at that point for both of us. That's when I start watching the clock and hope P gets home soon.
On a side note, my little world is currently being rocked right now. Did y'all hear about this? I saw it pop up on one national news site yesterday, but don't see anything on it today.
http://www.charlotte.com/109/story/305476.html
We live almost directly behind Moe's three streets back and it's one of our weekly hangouts. It's Connor's absolute favorite place to eat. So yesterday while he was napping, I posted on my mommy board that there was a black helicopter hanging out over my house and I couldn't figure out what was going on (we're near the hospital, so we see choppers coming and going constantly, but never hovering). Suddenly my Mom calls to make sure I'm okay and tells me to turn on the news.
It's just so shocking and senseless. The victims were great guys, always super friendly, and my heart breaks for their families.
I dunno ... what day is today? October?
fridays and sundays do test me and my family......school,work,seperation....but some how that is the way it is and of course one day beyond your control, it won't be like that and you will yearn for that ritual,....because that is the way it is .....above and beyond ritual and dogma is the refreshing you and the world....without the friday you could find yourself a bit lost.....!
jje-
Yikes! We have choppers flying over venice all the time, and it means scurrying to lock the windows...