Calling sources on a holiday

It's amazing how many of you apparently don't have mothers. Obviously, you can make the call, but it is insensitive and I don't blame the guy for being upset. Polite reporters, I have found, usually do far better than those who just don't care about such things.

 

I agree what you do is try to call later in the day. I'd call at 7-8 p.m. on Mother's Day if at all possible. Christmas Eve, call earlier in the day. Christmas, call at night. If people still get upset, that's pretty weak. I mean Christmas night, the hoopla generally is over; people even go to movies. Thanksgiving, you call at 8 p.m., most people eat in the afternoons and watch the games, etc.
I would make calls on holidays, just try to make it at non peak holiday times. I mean calling at 8 p.m. on Christmas Eve is pretty dumb. At noon or 1 p.m., not so bad.

 

When did Mother's Day turn into one of the High Holy Holidays? Call your mom, buy her some flowers, take her to lunch. It's over. Shit.

 

To the original poster: What was it, a news story that had to go in Monday's paper or something that could have waited even if that would inconvenience you? It may be your Sunday, a part of your weekly workweek, but to the coach it's probably the day he has promised his wife he'd take the kids and give her some free time or a family event in exchange for all the dinners and bedtimes he has missed all spring.

It sounds like lots of people on this thread aren't married and/or don't have kids, because I have a hard time believing any dads would say "forget it, no biggie, he signed up for this when he accepted the glory of coaching high school for $4,000 a year." Hawkeye's post was good; if you HAVE to call and it can't wait, you do it, but start with an apology and explain why the call had to be made now.

 

I agree with most of the posts.

You're lucky he answered the phone. My experience is trying to reach someone on just about any holiday is difficult.

Can't let it bother you, though.

 

So is your rule that all Sundays off limits unless there's a strict next-day deadline? Regardless, getting testy with someone for "calling on Mother's Day while I'm trying to relax with my family" is pretty dickish.

 

I've rarely had a problem, doing sports, news and obits (calling family members) on holidays. The only time anyone's gotten testy with me, I've simply asked if I can call later, so whatever they're doing will be over. Unanimously, they said okay. I call later, get what I need and everybody's happy... well, except for the dead person.

 

I think I answered the Sundays question by noting that this was probably the one day the coach had been promising his wife. Reading back, I see I didn't use the words "Mother's Day" in there; apologies if that made it unclear. But yeah, now that you mention it, I do work most Sundays and I do try not to call people that day unless I know they're at a game or doing something else related to why I'd be calling. Heck, for a lot of people that's a church day.

Regarding "dickish," I don't know -- coach might think it's dickish that someone intruded on his family time. You have to put yourself in the position of the person taking the unexpected call and saying to himself, This really couldn't wait till Monday morning?

The single, childless sportswriter is a rare animal. It moves unnoticed in its habitat, foraging for food while the rest of the world is asleep, beginning to rest just as the sun's regenerative powers revive the land around it. While other worker ants devote the same eight hours for five consecutive days to their task, then fall flawlessly into one unbroken line stretching miles until they reach their colonies, the sportswriter ant will often choose the exact opposite pattern. It is believed that only a monogamous lifestyle and offspring can retrain the sportswriter ant to come and go from the colony at the appropriate time.

 

This is awesome and cannot go unnoticed. Nice work, sir.

 

Would it have been OK to call Hank Greenberg on Christmas?

After all ....

 

I'd like to copy Allen Iverson's rant.

We're talkin' about a phone call here; one phone call. A phone call. It's a phone call.

My god, if the coach gets that mad over a phone call, he's an ass. It's a simple phone call. With cell phones nowadays, shit you could have texted him first to ask if it was a good time, but nobody should get upset over a phone call.

 

For the record: Not single. Not childless.