Guilty Leaving the Office

Since I have the best boss in the world, “ME”, I can come and go at my leisure at my skin care studio. If I’m not at work, I don’t make money. Very simple. It’s a good incentive to stay at work on the days I would rather do something else. Since I haven’t found a cheap replacement for shoes and sushi, I stay at work.

A few weeks ago, I thought I was getting the flu. Oh no! What’s an esthetician to do? Here I am leaning over a clients face and my nose starts to drip. Like a slow motion scene in a movie, I feel the drip start to separate from my nostril and I just know what’s going to happen. Yes, I scoop it up with a tissue and continue the extractions. After ten years, I have the “scoop in silence” move down pat. If I were at any other job, I might have called in sick. No one wants a facial from someone who is sniffling, coughing or sick. Yet clients think nothing of coming in sick. “Really, I’m not contagious anymore!” Since I don’t have health insurance, I can’t afford to get sick or stay at work and get sicker! So I gave it the good college try and went to work everyday and left early. Ah, the guilt. How did my job become my mother's voice in my head? Stay, go, stay, go. Shoes, sushi, stay, go, sushi, go, stay, shoes. Go for sushi and shoes and stay home!