OK. Let me start by saying that I still like and respect my boss. He is far and away the best boss I have ever had.

BUT...

Yesterday he yelled at me (OK, discussed in strong language) about this last proposal I worked on. He got on my about things I had no control over, and things that I was told were already done that were not. How am I supposed to know that? When I ask the capture manager if X is done, and he says yes, I assume that, in fact, X is done. When the proposal was handed off to me, the person who handed it off went over everything with me, and told me X was taken care of as well. Also, I can't help it that no one, over the course of the whole proposal, told me that certain resumes were supposed to be in there, even after I went over the whole list with the capture manager. I also can't help it that I had to rewrite the whole meat of the proposal, even after the writers made changes.

I don't mind be yelled at when I screw up. I don't like being yelled at when things are outside of what I can control.

And let me just say this. I'm generally fine about working over holidays. I know that being single and family-less I will almost always get stuck with that. But this year, since we have the Friday after Thanksgiving off, and since that week is generally a pretty quiet one, I asked to take Wednesday and Monday off as well. You would have thought I had asked to take time off during the beginning (or end) of the fiscal year, when we really get slammed. I don't have plans, but I do have a ton of vacation time just sitting there waiting for me to take it. And I really need some time off. I'm tired, I'm stressed, and I'm on edge emotionally.

Nonetheless, he basically told me, without so many words, that I shouldn't ask for holiday time off since I have no one to spend holidays with.

I can't help it that I'm an only child, and I can't help it that my parents are dead. I can't help it that I'm not in a relationship and that I have no children. Why do I have to be penalized for that?

I work hard. I almost never get sick. In fact, the only sick days I have taken were six days after my surgery. I have taken exactly three vacation days so far, in over a year with the company, when I went north in June. Why I am I being given a hard time for asking for time off when there is basically no work?

Maybe I just need to take a sick day one of these days, just because I'm tired. Like, really, really tired. (And before you start worrying, I just think my thyroid is low. I get it checked again next week.) Maybe I should even be sick today.

Sigh.

The only problem with that is that I have never done anything like that, and I would feel guilty calling him and faking it.

Sigh.