What you did on your day off ( What do you mean day off?)

It's Tuesday morning which for me, means back to work after five days off. The nice part was only having to book one vacation day. Working a rotational shift means alternating between a four and five day week which sometimes turns into a mini holiday if you play your cards right. Having Friday off and "Civic Holiday" Monday, the long weekend got longer when I booked Thursday off. Five days and they're just a memory now. BTW for those living in Ottawa, the August civic holiday is called Colonel By Day, which this year happened to fall on August 7th,; Colonel By's birthday. Maybe many people in the area knew this, I didn't until doing a little research.

The weekend wasn't so kind for my roommate who had to work this past Monday. Unfortunately, working in retail sometimes means missing out on days off when others are entitled to them. It doesn't seem fair, does it? And she's a good worker too, which translates into; if you work hard, your reward is getting to work harder or at least longer. Now there's a real incentive, isn't it?

I wish retail store customers and restaurant patrons would recognize employees who have to work while they are shopping or eating out on their day off. Maybe a kind word would be helpful as simple as "I know you probably didn't want to work today, but thank you" or "I hope your day is going well" would make them feel appreciated. Sometimes it only takes a simple gesture to make someone feel good about themselves. Hey, while we're on the subject, it wouldn't hurt for managers to do something special for their employees also.