Most bosses have at least some discretion when it comes to work conditions, scheduling, recognition, exposure to decision makers, deciding what tasks are assigned to whom, who gets extra training opportunities, where each employee works and with what coworkers, and so on.

You need to figure out what resources are at your boss's disposal and what you can do to get more of them. What hard work can you offer? What extra efforts? What value? What leverage? What can you bring to the table as a bargaining chip to earn more of the discretionary resources at your boss's disposal?

When you are thinking, "I don't want to work on Thursday," you need to say to your boss instead, "if I were to do A, B, and C by Wednesday at midnight, then would it be possible for me to not work on Thursday?" Try to start gaining more control over your rewards by focusing on the value you bring to the negotiation. Help your boss help you earn that Thursday off. That means you'll have to help your boss monitor, measure, and document that you in fact completed A, B, and C by Wednesday at midnight so that you can, in fact, not work Thursday. In this way, you can help your boss use his power over scheduling to both give you more flexibility and get more work out of you faster.

That means you need to always stay focused on what is valuable to THIS boss at THIS time. If you want to be able to cash out special rewards on an ongoing basis, you need to make sure the boss feels like he/she is getting a very good bargain. Make sure the boss is delighted to be making this special arrangement to reward you because you are delivering so much value in return. If the boss truly feels that he's is getting that value---much more work from you, much better work from you, special hard-to-find work from you, faster work---then the boss is going to be happy to continue with the arrangement.

That's why I always tell people to look out for really tough assignments, really special assignments, and really hard roles to fill. Look for ways you can suffer and sacrifice and save your boss a lot of worry and trouble. Don't be annoyed when all the pressure is on you. Be grateful for the opportunity. This is your big chance to prove yourself and make a huge investment in your career. This is your chance to build up a significant positive balance in your management relationship account. Build up your professional reputation. It's also probably a big chance to trade your willingness to suffer and sacrifice for extra generous rewards and maybe increased flexibility. See if you can 'make a deal.' If you can't make a deal just now, bank the investment. It will probably pay off sooner than you think.