Tuesday, May 06, 2008

r e s p e c t

It's tournament week! For those that don't know of which I speak, it's the annual party known as The Players, where the best golfers in the world (except the very best one, this year) come to my backyard and play. It's a great week to watch golf, shorts and spaghetti straps, and party.

Part of this deal though is work. I work well within the crowd zone for the tournament, and therefore have to be shuttled in from a satellite parking lot. Part of that deal, since getting to your car to eat is a monumental task, is an arrangement by which we can eat, breakfast and lunch, in the tent where the tournament volunteers eat. The food is good, and it's cheap...about $2 for a decent bacon, egg and cheese sandwich and hashbrowns for breakfast, or burger for lunch. I bring my lunch most days, so I'm not scarfing down burgers every day, but I will hit breakfast. Yummmmm!

Part of that deal though, is knowing that it ain't our tent. The tent is there for a reason and that reason isn't me. It's run by the tournament volunteers. They have volunteers who cook the food. They have volunteers who stock and run the place. It's their thing. There's a sign...a very large sign...at the entrance that says "Working Volunteers ONLY from 6:00 to 8:30 a.m. and from 11:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. I can understand that. They have to get in and get out to do whatever it is they do, and others, like me or volunteers that aren't actually working at the time, don't need to be crowding the lines. Therefore I'll wait my turn.

I came in this morning and one of my co-workers is sitting at his desk with a plate full of breakfast, and I asked him about the sign and he said, "Yeah, I know. I went and figured if they don't stop me, I'll just go through."

Now, do people just not understand? Why go chompin' on the hand that's literally feeding you? This is a privilege. It's good food, and it's cheap, and it's within walking distance, and it smells delicious as you walk up from the shuttle bus to the office. It's a nice perk. Do you want to screw that up? It's not our show. We're just piggy backing on it. Someone's being nice to you and you're slapping them in the face. It's not a matter of whether someone will stand up and stop you. It's a matter of respecting the people it's there for. It's also a matter of next year having them say...yeah, we've been nice to you, but some people keep abusing the privilege, so we're not throwing it out there anymore.

I didn't make a huge stink, but I made it obvious that I'll be waiting until 8:30...when they say they'll let us use their stuff.

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