Not showing up 100%

I may be especially involved in a book that I am avidly reading when there is even a little break in the action. (Sometimes I just read a sentence at a time, but am so into the book that this is still, for me, worth the effort of going back and forth.) When lots of my energy is going to what I am reading, I have less energy available for interactions at the window, and I am more likely to be simply matter-of-fact with customers who present themselves at this time. It’s easy to make a case that I am then less fully focused on the here-and-now, not giving 100%, even a little like the robot I, overall, do not want to be. But this work can, honestly, be so boring – especially near the end of a shift, when I have already been doing it for several hours – that I kind of need to offer myself the carrot that, when things slow down, especially later in the evening shift, I’m going to give myself the little reward of reading stuff that I am really into. I feel no guilt about, at some time, “showing up” a little less for the work. Offering myself the carrot allows me to feel better about the shift and the job itself. It is part of what allows me to keep going for this shift, in this job