!91928435 By Jackie Roe, TW Social Director*
Another Friday, another Deuce Club! What does the TWibe have planned for the weekend? You can bet I'll be watching plenty of baseball once again. Who are y'all rooting for in the league championship series? What are your predictions? For those of you who haven't been following, yesterday saw the first game of the NLCS, with the Philles besting the Dodgers in an offensive shoot-out, and by the time this goes up, Game 2 will be well underway. As for the ALCS between the Yankees and the Angels, Game 1 starts tonight at 7:30 TW time; feel free to use this space to discuss the action, as we did last week. (That was fun!)
I've neglected to mention our TW Facebook group for the past couple of weeks, so here's a reminder to join, if you haven't already. Just search for "TennisWorld > Real World," click on "Request to Join Group," and respond to the message I send you about your moniker. Then you're in! And for existing members, stop by and check out the most recent photos and discussion topics ... I'd love to get things moving there again.
All week, we've seen article after article, blog post after blog post, Tweet after Tweet about scheduling issues on the men's tour. Don't worry - I won't ask you to regurgitate your opinion (though maybe some of you will want to do that anyway). But it gave me an idea: We keep yakking about tennis players' schedules, but what about our own? James Martin argued that players have it much easier than those of us in the real world, saying "[they have] a maximum tournament requirement of 25 weeks ... [d]on’t know about you, but I’d fancy a work schedule like that." Let's put his opinion to the test right here, shall we?
Tell us about your work schedule. And don't feel restricted to just giving us a year perspective - you can talk about your daily or weekly schedule, too. Are you a teacher who gets summers off? Do you take a trip to a certain spot at the same time every year? Does your job require you to work on weekends? Or maybe you don't really have a set work schedule at all because you're a student, between jobs, a stay-at-home parent, a freelancer ... something of that sort.
I'll fill you in on mine to give you some ideas, if you need them. My day-to-day schedule is fairly typical: I work Monday through Friday, from 8:30 to 5. Okay, so it's more like 6 or 6:30, alas. I'm one of those. Sometimes you'll even find me working at home, late in the evening, but I try to limit these occasions since I really believe in maintaining an appropriate work-life balance. But not everyone feels the need to strike such a balance; the concept is muddied for those whose life is defined by their work - tennis players are a good example. Maybe you fall into this category, too.
My schedule for the year is pretty standard, as well. I'm not entitled to any special vacation periods, though I'm fortunate to have loads of PTO (paid time off). One guess as to how I use up those days! Yep, I treat trips to tennis tournaments as my vacations; I can't remember the last time I took a "real" vacay, but you won't hear me complaining about this alternative. Loads of live tennis, sun, and fraternizing with TWibers ... not too shabby. Aside from holidays, these tennis trips are the only events that break up my work year. (It's funny - I wish I had more opportunities to use tennis as a break, while players want more opportunities to take a break from tennis!)
Not terribly interesting, huh. But I'm guessing some of you have less conventional work schedules; whether you do or don't, I'd love to hear about it! So, once again, give us an idea of what your daily, weekly, and/or yearly work schedule looks like. Consider things like how many hours per day and weeks per year you work and when, if ever, you're able to get away or take time off. Also, channel your inner Rafa or Roddick and let us know what gripes you have about the schedule and what you'd do to change it, if you had the power.
Try not to depress yourselves - that's not allowed in the DC! - and have a fantastic weekend, everyone!