Imagine this… you’ve already bought your plane tickets. You had the time squared away at work, so you made sure you added it to the vacation calendar. The family is excited and ready to go and then you get a call (email, text, you get where I’m going) saying you won’t be able to take your vacation time from work. Hmm… what is an angry employee to do now? Go, and potentially lose a job or have to deal with pending consequences or don’t go, and disappoint your family-and yourself? Okay, close your collective mouths… this didn’t happen to me, but it did happen to the Baltimore Ravens.

Because of the devastation that Hurricane Ike caused in Texas, the Ravens were unable to travel to Texas to play their opponent, the Houston Texans. For this reason, the Ravens’ “bye week” (Yes, you got it… their vacation week) was the chosen week to re-visit this competition. Now, of course, you can never predict what a natural disaster is going to do; however, there has been a lot of chatter about the Ravens being complainers and whining over nothing-that it’s their job to play. Well, it’s our job to be a lawyer, a surfer, a podiatrist, a blogger… but, when it’s time to go, Baby! (Yes, I needed the exclamation point there for impact.) It’s time to go. The other part of this is that while all the other teams are getting their rest and relaxation, the Ravens won’t be getting a break at all.

I’d just like to see folks taking it a bit easier on the Ravens since they are human and they have families like the rest of us. And although they’re making a lot of money doing what they do, they like time off, too.

And, this is an example for us all… put your time in early and buy those plane tickets in advance. (That’s always a good excuse for the boss as to why you must go!)