I know because "I might not be here on Friday" is harder to deal with than "I won't be here on Friday." Getting spooled up about the zen mysticism of mountaineering does the same thing always does: "you wouldn't understand you're an outsider" is an unsympathetic standpoint, particularly when your use of your time absolutely does not matter to the organization you're taking time off from.

My cousin flies hot air balloons for a living. You wanna go up in a hot air balloon? You buy a ticket. Then you call to book. Then you call the morning of to see if the weather looks viable. Then you call the afternoon of to see if the weather still looks viable. Then you get to the meetup spot and see if the weather looks viable. Then you drive out to where you're launching from and see if the weather looks viable. I used to chase for him and you can scrub the launch at any point - a few times we got the gondola off the trailer, started rolling out the envelope and then called it and put it all back. It sucks, but it's what you need to do in order to make things "possible, safe and enjoyable."

Every single paying passenger on his balloons is making some form of "might be busy tomorrow/hope to be busy tomorrow" scheduling conflict. During flying season? I know I might not see him for months at a time. It's how his business runs.

It's not how your business runs.

It's how my business runs, too - about once a week, my plans are scrubbed because my wife's plans are scrubbed. Back before we had three midwives it happened about three times a week. I took one vacation between 2002 and 2015. It cost my wife $10k in lost revenue because saying "I'm going to be gone for three days the last week in October" means every prospective client with a due date between October 1 and December 1 decides that of course those three days are going to precisely overlap with their birth. Most of my wife's friends would just not tell their clients. Oopsie! Looks like you got a different midwife! Too bad, so sad! Because realistically speaking, three days out of sixty means a five percent chance but that loss of five percent versatility means one hundred percent rejection.

Watch this sleight of hand:

Okay, I'm going to go climb <mountain here> and now it's a week out and the weather is horrible, or glacier conditions or rock conditions suck due to seasonal/weather patterns from earlier in the season. So, great, I booked way out. But now it's not going to happen but the team is available the following weekend - am I going to keep the original dates or take a day or two the next week?

Who's climbing the mountain, you or your employer? Then who should assume the risk of bad weather, you or your employer? 'cuz right now? You're expecting your employer to absorb it.

I'm going to take a day or two the next week...unless there's a major deadline, executive review, etc. I do have some priorities ;)

Sure. And what I'm saying is that, based on the way you're approaching this, there may be a priority mismatch between you and your employer. This is your opportunity to close the gap.

If it's that impactful that I am shifting around a couple of days then I need to look at why does that matter so much?

And here we are.

And if I got fired for it while still delivering results? Then I'm not the right cultural fit anyway.

Certainly. But if you got fired because you underestimated the stress you put on the organization then here's your opportunity to reassess the situation.

I'm not saying don't climb mountains. I'm not saying don't take time off. I'm not saying don't hang out with your buddies. What I'm saying is it's hella easier for you to call in brosif than it is for your organization to spackle around your serendipity.

PROTIP: every person who thinks he's saying "you just don't understand" is effectively saying "I'm just not going to bother explaining it to you." I owned a harness and Five Tens before you were born so maybe contemplate why I have an opinion rather than looking for reasons it's invalid.