One minute I was convinced that I should – I was physically exhausted, mentally burned out and fighting the urge to break something. And it had been like that for too long.
The next minute I’d think of my dad; I don’t remember him ever taking a sick day from work, and I could just hear the things he’d have to say about the idea of a "mental health" day.
One minute: I’m going to be a lousy employee today and say something I’m going to regret.
Next minute: They pay you to work. Do your job.
One minute: I just can’t make myself do it again today.
Next minute: Suck it up.
Sorry dad … I’m doing this for me.
I dialed the number and the phone rang eight … ten … twelve times, and while I waited my mind flashed back to the one time I skipped school and spent the day at a friend’s house, drinking beer and listening to Led Zeppelin.
“This is different,” I told myself. “Isn’t it?”
My coworker picked up on the thirteenth ring.
“This is Dan,” I said. “I’m not feeling well. I’m going to take a sick day today.”
I wasn’t sure if calling it a “sick day” instead of a “mental health day” was a matter of semantics or cowardice, but it seemed prudent.
I was about to interrupt a lengthy pause by asking “Are you there?” when my co-worker said “Ohhh-kayyy … “
Another awkward pause.
“OK. Well, see ya tomorrow,” I said. I hung up the phone and unplugged it.
That was easier than I thought.
I went back to bed and got the sleep I’d missed during my should-I-or-shouldn’t-I debate.
I woke up about noon, baked a frozen pizza and ate it while soaking in the bathtub; if you haven’t tried it, I highly recommend it.
The rest of the day wasn’t nearly so productive: I read a Hardy Boys mystery cover-to-cover, watched my VHS recording of the seventh game of the 1991 World Series (I knew the ending, which eliminated the stress and added to the anticipation), spent the entire day in my bathrobe, ate an absurd amount of chocolate Haagen-Dazs and went to bed early.
I felt a thousand percent better when I returned to work the next morning, and knew that my day away did everything a “sick day” is designed to do -- it gave me a chance to heal without infecting those around me.
And while none of my coworkers asked if I was feeling better, I noticed that many of them took “sick days” over the next few weeks. And most came back “healthier."
I just hope they discovered the benefits of eating pizza in the bathtub.
Dan Conradt, a lifelong Mower County resident, lives in Austin with his wife, Carla Johnson.
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