&gt;A lot of devs actually understand needing to take random days off here and there even without having underlying issues.<p>Yeah a good manager should let people blow off a day or two once in a while.  Especially since these days you are likely to get a text message at any time of the evening or even at night for you to fix something.<p>This reminds me of a time in 7th grade.<p>In that class we had these desks where you could flip up the top to access your books.<p>I was sitting next to Elissa who had a huge collection of wacky packages. [1]<p>You know how everything is funnier when you aren&#x27;t supposed to laugh?  Elissa and I both lifted up our desks, pretending to rummage around in there, and she would show me cards to make me laugh.<p>We both laughed uncontrollably and thought we were getting away with it too.<p>In reality there was no way the teacher didn&#x27;t know we were goofing off, but since we rarely made trouble he just let us blow off some steam.<p>Each of us makes surplus value for the owners of the companies we work for.  Humans need unstructured time, slack, to goof off, call it whatever you want, and not that fake nerf gun levity that tries to pass for it in most startups.<p>[1] <a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wackypacks.com&#x2F;" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.wackypacks.com&#x2F;</a>