June 2001

"You got your work in my baseball! You got your baseball in my work!"
Two things that don't go together!

EVIL ROBOTS EDITORIAL STAFF
OFFICIAL POLICY

On Russell Street, heading north into Baltimore City, one can see many billboards. This is not the cool kind of billboards you find on I-95 south or on the Atlantic City Expressway, these are pretty generic. One billboard, however makes me sick every time I see it. It is for Nextel.

This add has four stadium seats with phone line ports behind them. The add wants you to think that you can go to a baseball or football game and still be able to work. With your Nextel phone, every seat in the stadium is your office. Isn't that great?

No!

For a number of reasons, the modern world has decided to cherish working hard more than playing hard. I hear more and more people these days talking with great joy about the 60 and 70 hours every week. It does not matter that their salaries are for 40 hour work weeks, because these people 'love' to work.

This publication does not believe in working sixty hours for forty hours of pay. We, the editorial board of Evil Robots, believe in kickin' back. For more about kickin' back, read our archives and current Kickin' Back section..

This ethic is fine for those who are starting their own business, or maybe trying to feed a large family, but for the majority of people, work does not need to be their life. Regardless, people accept their fifty or sixty hour weeks, no matter what the long term effects may be.

Of course, for some, the long work hours are not only badges of honor, but proof of loyalty to their employers. While that is very honorable, you should read about all the laid off, overworked, dot-com employees who are looking for new people for whom to become loyal.

Anyway, this damn billboard not only tells people that working at all hours of the day and night for your day job is a good thing, the sign tells you to bring your cell phone to the ball park. This is damn wrong!

Evil Robots Rule for Baseball Games #1: Don't bring your work or cell phone to a ball game. At least turn the phone off. Violation of this rule is one of the few occasions we endorse public beatings.

We have other rules about baseball games, but they are not important right now. What I am trying to tell you, gentle reader, is that work should not come to a ball game.

We make these rules to conform to greater truths about life. One of these truths is that life is to precious to be spent in the office. While you need to work to make money, you do not need to work your life away.

Of course, Nextel would have you think that working at the ball park, or when you are with your friends and family, is a good thing. From what I see happening to the people I know who carry their office with them 24 hours a day, that lifestyle is wrong. For these individuals, death will be a reprieve, while for the rest, death will be a tragedy.

So please, at the end of the day, unless you're a spy, give up your cell phone, turn off your pager, and have a good time. It is better for life to be enjoyed than ignored.

Play ball!