Unpopular: I could use another shutdown/lockdown
I am approaching my third 50-hour work week in the last four weeks. It feels like I have days where every waking moment of my life, or close to it, revolves around my job. It’s as if my job is as my sole existence.
In just the last month alone, I’ve had a couple 12-hour workdays, two 14-hour workdays, three straight 11-hour workdays, I’m supposed to be covering a football game an hour away from me few hours from now despite being beyond exhausted and feeling like I’m going to have to will myself on pure adrenaline before I come back after midnight tomorrow and cover stuff all day tomorrow starting at 10 a.m. and will look like a 12-hour workday, if not more.
Sunday will be my first day off since last Saturday, the 1st.
Don’t get me wrong, my job can be very rewarding. It can be fun, have its proud moments and memories I’ll forever cherish. However, as far as I’m concerned, I’m really in need of a break, longer than just going on a weeklong summer vacation or going home for the holidays the last week in December.
A lot of it is my fault. I push myself until I can’t, and in what’s coming on three years at this job, I’ve had to will myself through burnout and exhaustion. Deadlines keep tightening to add to the stress, and while I’ve more than pulled my own weight, I’ve worked with some who consistently haven’t.
As far as I’m concerned, it isn’t fair that I worked the whole time during the shutdown/lockdown, people giving me story ideas and texting me 20 times an hour to the point I got a headache. That was supposed to be my time off to myself. I wanted to be a contestant to on the reboot of Who Wants To Be A Millionaire with Jimmy Kimmel.
I’d watch a bunch of films and documentaries, or I’d read books like Red Badge of Courage and David Copperfield, even though I still kept plenty of busy. I also was working seven days a week before the shutdown happened.
Sometimes, I’ve been the only person on my desk for more than a month while the other position was vacant, pushing myself to the point where I thought I was going to collapse in the sun one time. I get back from a vacation in Pennsylvania this summer and I have 12 summer baseball game in 14 days.
I keep giving and giving and giving and I feel I have nothing left to give. And yet, I’m going to be still giving anyway, as Sunday is only two days away and it feels forever away.
So, I’d love to have another shutdown or lockdown to catch my breath, even if I’m the only person on the planet who wants this. I’m an introvert and don’t go out much. So, the shutdown really didn’t affect me too much.
If I could take a time machine back to March 2020, I’d gladly do so.
= new reply since forum marked as read
especially when I get three hours sleep because of daytime assholes or I have to take care of such things as car repairs 
If you want to continue pushing yourself, it's a non-negotiable.
Ir's unfortunate that our society encourages and virtually demands the lifestyle you describe.
Good luck to you, I couldn't ever survive that. 
