Day of Mistakes
Posted at 6:00 AM on January 4, 2010
by Dale Connelly
(33 Comments)
Welcome to the first Monday of 2010!
And now a word from our sponsor - Lloyd's of Monday.
Friends, you may have heard that Monday is the Day of Mistakes. Brains that have become accustomed to the relaxed pace of the weekend sometimes have trouble adjusting to work week demands that suddenly re-assert themselves on Monday morning, and as a result things tend to go a little bit wrong during the early hours of the day.What kind of mistakes?
Math errors.
Major language flaws in contracts and legal documents.
Measuring mistakes in cooking and construction trades.
Classroom teaching gaffes that traumatize good students.
And friends, the Monday effect is amplified if you've had a week (or two!) off.
That's why many insurance policies (read the fine print!) don't cover errors and mishaps that occur early on a Monday, and won't pay the costs that result from any foul up that happens at any time during a Monday that follows immediately after a major holiday.
A prudent employee would spare his or her employer some horrible expenses and terrible embarrassment if that employee took the initiative to stay home today, nestled safely under the covers since the bed is a very safe and mistake-free place (if you are alone) and the regional temperatures happen to be brain numbingly low.
Lazy? No!
Selfish? Never!
Think of it as an act of bravery and a pre-emptive strike against the Monday Blunders.Of course not everyone understands this reasoning, so when your employer calls to ask "where are you?", answer this way:
"Boss, believe me - I am doing you a huge favor. But if you really want to roll the dice and have me come in, it would be wise to take out some supplemental insurance from Lloyd's Of Monday - complete coverage for the Day of Mistakes."
Try it! What have you got to lose except the Monday Blues?
Our friends at LoM have their own motives in giving you this provocative advice, so take it with a grain of salt. But ...have you ever called in sick when you were ... otherwise?
Comments (33)
Good Morning to All,
Dale, I would not even think of calling in sick. I was raised by a woman who had a history of standing up when the national anthem is played on the radio. However, I am a bit more flexible. I don't mind if others call in sick.
As for the Monday blues, I think drinking lots of coffee and not eating too many cookies left from Christmas would be a good approach.
welcome back, Dale! (and Mike, hope you got some time off also!)
when i was younger i would take a "mental health day" on occasion. quite brazen. quite delicious. but as i aged, switched careers, got co-workers i loved who (i realized) would just have to work harder if i didn't show, i stayed healthy.
now i just need LoM for cooking (forgetting, over or under measuring an ingredient or especially for dropping the ingredient or the whole thing on the floor).
happy 2010
i love that image of your Mom, Jim - thanks!
I did skip work once when I was very young. I regretted it so much it taught me a lesson to never do it again.
first monday of the decade.
i am error free on mondays so far this year as far as i know.
i havn't called in sick for a bunch of years because i am self employed and i can never fool myself. prcrastination if the vibes are off is a regular issue but thats the extent of my monday response.
in china they pay attention to the way the numbers and sun and moon line up in the universe and they do take days off when the sun and moon are not aligned. i wish i could have an alert when that is going to happen. it feels like i am in the midst of it sometimes but i have no way to verify it and no way to anticipate it. i am familiar with having monday problems described by lloyds policy happen on tuesday wednesday and thursday as well as friday saturday and sunday. what then?
Like Steven, I suffer from too much guilt to skip out of work. I am also self-employed (for the moment, but thinking I need a better boss who is more aware of the fact that I need time off), but when I was in a job with co-workers, the nature of my work was usually such that if I took time off, the work just sat there and I was out the time to get it done, but the deadline had not budged an inch.
Wish I had known about Lloyds back then. Suppose it is too late to get a policy for today, as this Monday would be considered a "pre-existing condition"?
Love your mom, Jim. Bet she had no trouble with cookie restraint either. Admirable woman!
Welcome back Dale ansd Mike! Can you play the Rock and the Egg for me? Thanks!
Aaron
What a timely topic, as I just left a message w/ my boss that I'm staying home. I only WISH that I was "otherwise"... feeling better than over weekend, but thinking I should keep my germs to myself at least one more day. The sad part about being home sick as an adult is the lack of "mothering". My mother was great at bringing saltines and Orange Crush and fluffing pillows and blankets. It's just not the same when you have to drag yourself to the kitchen to make your own tea and arrange your own blankets. Oh well, at least I get to hear the entire show live today!
Greetings! I may have done once or twice, usually accompanied by a call with a faked sore throat or cough. As a secretary, I remember I had to lie for my boss a few times, which I hated -- but it was for good reason.
He was interviewing for a job in CA and didn't have vacation time -- plus didn't want his totally dysfunctional boss to know. He was a bright, ambitious man stuck in a job with nowhere to go -- so I lied for him. I had visions of being called on the carpet by upper executives and being fired for lying for my boss.
Thank goodness for LoM! Happy Day everyone!
Happy 2010! I am stumbling thru feeling deprived because I had to start the year without hearing the Allan Sherman medley that includes Old Lang's Sign. Dale, any chance you can help me out?
I am all too guilty of presenteeism-the word professionals use to describe those of us who go to work even when we are sick. I work for someone who never misses a chance to take a day off. It is hard to respect a grown-up who thinks he needs to spend a week at home for self-diagnosed pink-eye.
Stay well and warm!
Barb and Catherine, I guess my mother was very proper. However, I always had a sweet tooth and did my best to try to get cookies out of the cookies jar without making any noise to give away my cookie stealing.
Good Morning RH,
Welcome back Mr.C. I rarely play hooky. (Why is it called that?) In my earlier days I did once in a while - that was before the district gave us any personal days. Now we get 2 a year, 3 if you've gotten thru the year w/o a sick day. Lots of times I've had the extra day. It's such a pain to plan for a sub- that's why classroom teachers go to work sick.
Morning everyone and welcome back, Dale! I bought a Lloyd's of Monday policy years ago and used it so much that the cost of the premiums became exorbitant. It dawned on me then that I would be money ahead, and my employers would be much happier, if I simply didn't come in on Mondays. Works like a charm!
Can you play "Monday, Monday" by the Mamas and the Papas, Dale and Mike? Thanks.
I have been guilty of the "mental health" day. I also had a fairly prim and proper mom - but she approved of the occasional day off to have time for yourself (not from school, mind you, but a day away from work was approved).
Happy Monday all!
Welcome back, Dale!
Up until a few years ago, I was a school teacher. Since it was incredibly time-consuming to get sub plans ready, I usually just went in sick, which is awful, I know. My current place of employment offers us only 5 sick days a year which do not carry over, so I use them wisely.
Have a safe Monday, everyone.
Saltines and Orange Crush??
Hooky is believed to be derived from Dutch "hoek" (corner) from a hide-and-seek game. Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn played hooky. I had to explain the word after about 1983.
Saltines and Orange Crush?
Ditto on teaching. If you are trying at all as a teacher it is so much easier to go in sick. Besides, you got all the germs from the kids anyway.
SALTINES AND ORGANE CRUSH??
I find that taking Monday off wrecks the whole week, at least at the agency at which I work. Fridays are the best days to take off, and I wish that all our Monday holidays would change to Friday holidays. That said, I am taking today off. Happy Monday everyone!
It's good to see LoM getting some press, Dale. Wouldn't it be cool to hear the lady say (when you start up RH on your computer) "Support for Radio Heartland is provided by Lloyd's of Monday...?"
I believe I used my LoM insurance the last spring I taught -- I took a Monday (et al.) off whenever I woke up feeling particularly anxious. I was moving from Bay Area California to NYC that June (1974), and pretty close to the edge emotionally. Staying home allowed me to use up all my accumulated sick leave, and allowed the children to get to the end of the school year without getting yelled at so much. Not terribly professional, but there you are.
I'll send this to my sister, who is facing a potentially rocky re-entry at HER pre-school in CA.
Just saw this post on facebook - came from a friend who lives in Ohio.
"Back from Florida - supposed to be going to work but my garage door is frozen to the floor, can't get my car out! Any suggestions? This sucks!"
Is this a great example showing the need for Lloyd's of Monday insurance, or a great excuse for not going to work on the first Monday after some time off ????
One of my very rare hooky days as a teacher is very memorable.
One 1977 October day in morning homeroom, it was announced that the advanced math teacher’s classes (across the hall from me) were canceled. Because so many of my homeroom students cheered, as a joke I told them that they were being rude because he was very sick. A minor rumor started but died out soon.
Two weeks later I took my hooky day. Most of my homeroom students went right across the hall to advanced math. As revenge the math teacher told his students that I had an accident riding my bike into work along Hwy 61 that morning. The next period most of those students went to physics, where they were studying momentum and inertia at the time, and asked the teacher if I had been hit. He said that I had been hit by a Mac truck and that I was all right but the truck was totaled. The story went all over the school.
About 10 the principal called my house and was clearly surprised I answered. He asked how I was; I faked sounding sick as well as I could, wondering if I was busted. About 2 my pastor, who was out of town, called to find out what hospital I was in. That evening we were bombarded with calls (many from out of town) offers, of food, etc., which went on for many days. At Christmas I got cards from many places asking about the accident.
Many students from that time remember that I had a bike accident, as if I really did.
I am now a retired sub teacher so I don't have to deal with sub notes now, but I'm sure it isn't any fun getting notes ready for subs as has been mentioned this morning. Even with very good notes, it was hard for me to get every thing done that grade school teachers do for students. I gained a great appreciation for all the work that grade school teachers do.
Now that I think of it, Wednesday is the worst day of the week where I work. I work for a State agency, and there is a saying, coined by my husband, that "Wednesday the system feeds on itself". If anything annoying or stupid is going to happen, it is most likely to happen on Wednesday.
It sounds like LoM could benefit from a partnership with United Excusers. This could be the first major merger of the year.
...and don't get me started on the origin of the word 'hooky'...
With all the posts from teachers and former teachers, I was reminded that today's my son's first day of student teaching. If anyone reading this is the parent of a high schooler in Tacoma, Washington, it might be a good day for your child to place a call to LoM. And, for that matter, LoT, LoW, and maybe one or two more to be on the safe side.
Any advice you might have for a first-time teacher (or parent of a first-time teacher) would be much appreciated!
I think I need LoM insurance for my home computer. I have been battling the thing (and its maker) for months now to get it to stay functional - but it seems to have a thing against streaming audio, especially on Mondays. Sigh. Crashed mid show today (though it did freeze with streaming stuck on - being forced to listen to Connie Evingson isn't all bad).
to follow Clyde's great story: bless me TB bloggers, it has been 50 years since my last confession. this was really, really low. in my early 20s i was working nights (11:30 to 7). my cousin and i drank a bunch of Gallo wine late afternoon and i just didn't feel like going in to work so about 8 pm i called and said that i had to go to my hometown because my Father was very ill. the supervisor said no, i had to come in because they had no one else, so i did go to work.
a year later my Dad died (not at all connected - he was not ill) and i got a very apologetic note from the supervisor saying how very sorry she was that she had made me come to work that night. i felt so guilty about her guilt but i never fessed up. and that pretty much ended the chance that i ever fake something to avoid coming in to work ever again.
you're right, Clyde - whether you get caught or not, it doesn't pay :-)
Clyde, what a great story!
Dale, does Gordon Bok do a version of the Freeborn Man song? When the Clancy Brothers started singing, I heard Gordon's voice in my head. Or maybe I need LoM coverage for my frozen brain.
Did you see that MPR News Q is reading and learning from this blog? They have an article entitled Not a stampede, but some find profit in goats.
Next thing you know those news fols will apprear at public events with goats on their lapels!
TGITH-- I got you started on "Hooky." Come on run with it. This should be fun
Don-- my advice for student teachers:I have none, except, it will be overwhelming; but if you are meant to be a teahcer, you will stasrt to figure it out. Somewhere in the middle of your first year of teaching, you will stasrt to feel in control. That's probably a lie. It will take a year or two after that.
Good luck and Godspeed to your son, Don! Advice to new teachers - start out being overly strict, THEN ease up later. And turning off the lights unexpectedly works at least once to get the room quiet.
Dale - too late for today, but could you play "Do We Have to Go?" by (maybe) Metamora sometime this week?
Clyde... you're right, saltines and Orange Crush doesn't sound like a gourmet feast but when I was growing up, we never had pop in the house, so Orange Crush was an incredible treat. And, of course, in my mom's day, saltines were the bland food of choice for an upset tummy!
Teachers have to learn to draw the line some how when it comes to bad behavior.
I told them that I couldn't make them do their work, although I wanted them to do it, but they couldn't bother others so that they couldn't do their work. However, I still had trouble, but then I was a sub and subs usually have trouble no matter what the do.
Geez; you are all too funny!
I've been lucky that I've either been self employed or at least able to set my own hours in all my jobs. So as has been said; if I took today off I just have to do it tomorrow...
And somedays working while sick because it absolutely positively has to be done today.
Stay warm everyone... good luck with your garage door to Teri's friend!
My cold weather excuse is that geese chewed off the plug of my cars block heater!
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