According to the calendar, this was supposedly a short week with the Memorial Day holiday on Monday. It sure didn’t feel like a short week! Why is that?

Well, the work never stops. In my line of work, there is no shortage of projects and things to do. So, it’s not like the work distribution stopped on Monday. The faucet remained wide open. I think many of us end up squeezing five days of work into four days.

The same affliction applies to holidays as well as any other days off. I call it the PTO Penalty, and it hits you at both ends. You have the rush and frenzy before taking time off to tie up loose ends so that you can take time off without worrying about things. Then you get slammed with all the emails and nonsense when you get back to work. It gets to the point where you don’t want to take time off just to avoid this penalty, but that is not healthy for one’s overall health.

I sure hope not all jobs are like this, but the vast majority of mine certainly have been. It is yet another reason to break free from the Matrix.