Lent Day 5: Leave

I'm going to paraphrase some comments I've heard from friends in the past three days in respect of what they're going though in their day to day lives. These friends have various occupations and live in various geographical locations. The details have been changed but the information remains the same...

'It's my son's gala at school today but I'm not going to go because my Dad is in organ failure and I know I'll need leave for his funeral so I'll just miss the gala.'

'I've had to work flat out this week despite having a dreadfully ill daughter who has been in and out of hospital for the past five days.'

'I have a family funeral that my husband has had to organise but I can only afford to leave my job for half the day so I'll work the morning shift and then go.'

'I have cancer but am really grateful that my employer is so supportive because I'm only technically allowed (...) time off but they're stretching it another month.'

What is going on guys? 

Since when did humans negate the very events that make us human so we can work at a desk/punch in some numbers/teach some classes/pretend to email someone? 

Something is terribly wrong here. And I would like to remind you that I have heard all of the above in the last THREE days. 

The only way to start changing this terrible relationship between humans and the workplace is with ourselves. A culture of guilt doesn't just appear out of nowhere. 

Those snide comments around the water cooler that say, 'oh you got a days leave for your sister's wedding? How nice.' or, 'So you must have been really sick to take three days of leave hey?' or 'Is your kid in the A Team or something?' have to stop.

I think people are having a hard enough time with life to have to start legitimising how they spend their time to their colleagues. And I would argue that this is definitely a work place phenomenon. I remember at my previous school a woman would literally tally up everyone's invigilation slots to make sure they were all fair. Ain't nobody got time for that. 

But this season of Lent blogging is supposed to be bringing me closer to God, not just turn me into a whining employee. Firstly, I'm not going to feel bad that someone will have to cover one of my classes this week when I go to watch Eva's first swimming lesson, and I'm also not going to hold it against someone if they take leave for something that is important to them. 

I think we need to start seeing time as Einstein did - relative. An hour for you on a random day might be the hour someone has to sit at a deathbed and say goodbye to a loved one. Fifteen minutes of emailing for you might be the 15 minutes when someone gets to see their child shine in their first school day. When we start honoring the milestones and minutes in the lives of others then maybe we can start enjoying our own without that menacing guilt creeping in to steal our joy. There's a reason they call it 'leave'.