I said no
I’m a pretty major people pleaser. I just want to make the people around me happy and happy with me. I think it’s a natural instinct, given that I grew up working retail at a very service-oriented bookstore. And I do like that service comes naturally to me.
But, that also means that a lot of the time, I say “yes” to people when I would really rather not. BUT, today when my boss called me and asked me to come in for 6 hours, I took a moment to think about it, and respectfully declined.
Maybe if I didn’t have anything going on, I might have done it. But today is a busy day for me: I have 100+ pages of a book to read for school, plus a paper on it to outline. I need to take the dog for a long walk. I need to change my car’s oil. And this evening I’m going to play a game with an old college friend.
And giving up on doing all those things just wasn’t worth 6 hours of overtime.