Freakishly Linked To Your Coworkers

I work in a factory, and because others that make similar products to us closed for the health crisis and we stayed open, we’ve received a LOT of business. The problem is that it’s caused many of us to pull up to seventy-two-hour weeks — twelve hours a day, six days a week — for the entire year so far.

When I overwork like this, I start having stress dreams about work. After a particular one, I go in the next day to talk to my coworker who works just before me on the line.

Me: “I had the weirdest dream last night.”

Coworker: “Yeah, so did I.”

Me: “Mine was a work dream. Like, I dreamed that I woke up this morning to get ready to come in, and I couldn’t remember coming in at all yesterday. Then, I realized I’d been a no-call-no-show and freaked out, ‘Oh, man! [Coworker] is gonna kill me!’”

He looks stunned.

Coworker: “That’s f****** weird.”

Me: “How so?”

Coworker: “I had a dream about work, too. You just didn’t show up, so it was just me running all three machines by myself with no help, while [product] kept piling up, and I was ready to kill you.”

We need a day off.