Ennis wrote:
chetan_rao wrote:
While I agree it may not be right to compare mundane jobs 1:1 with high-profile jobs because the pressures are different, what doesn't change is respect. Everyone expects are deserves basic respect at their workplace, no matter what the stakes are, financial or otherwise.
The referee runs around for the same amount of time on the same pitch, having to make decisions that can sometimes decide matches and championships (and the bazillions of cash that goes with it), and is probably more frustrated than any individual player because he has to put up with the lousy antics of TWENTY TWO prima-donnas, and their managers/support staff/teammates on the touchline. I still don't see a ref screaming obscenities at a player or anyone associated with them.
Why should shouting obscenities be assumed a part of a high-performance workplace? Or do you mean to say there are no decent, respectful people in high-performance workplaces?
As for your argument about the uncertainties of a footballer's life, that's got nothing to do with being disrespectful. The quirks of the business (they willingly signed up for) are well-compensated, They get paid more money in a week than a regular Joe would make in 10/20 years, and if they don't like it, they're free to become a nondescript respectable regular Joe themselves.
Nothing to do with the profile of the job, just the energy involved in the job. Someone could be a very high level project manager where things are planned months in advance.. or someone could be running around, amped up on testosterone and bumping chests. Why shouldn't they be allowed to vent when something doesn't go their way? Why are referees beyond reproach from players and managers?
The quirks of the referee business (they willingly signed up for) are well-compensated. They get paid far, far beyond the average wage and if they don't like it they can go back to being lawyers and teachers.
Good referees are respected anyway. People who are poor at their day job generally aren't.
EDIT - btw, the footballers does come down to respect. Dumped in to 2nd strings, told you no longer have a job, told to uproot your family and live in another country because we just bought someone better than you despite teh fact you have 3 years left on your contract...
Funny, how you think swapping a few words and throwing my own argument back at me rudely somehow validates your position. Or do you think that's how football 'fans' should behave too?
They all sign up willingly for their high-pressure jobs and are compensated handsomely (I'll take your word on refs salaries, though I'm willing to bet it's not even in the same universe as a footballer's wage), but that doesn't give them the right to act like savage cavemen when frustrated. If you want players/managers to be allowed to vent, why not the refs? Why does the onus of being professional fall to them, when a bunch of amped-up brats are goading them with obscenities? You think it's justified to abuse a ref because he got a decision wrong, how about players who willingly play-act and generally act like jerks? Why do they get a free pass?
Both sides (players and officials) should be held to the same standards of acceptable behavior, and if they can't handle it, they don't belong where they are. I don't think anyone wants to see a footballing match where it's officially a verbal/physical free-for-all.
P.S. A footballer getting treated badly by his own club has nothing to do with the topic at hand. Their peeve is with the club and they're free to sort it out with them. I wonder why we don't see more instances of players openly abusing their clubs and managers when treated badly? Probably because there are REAL consequences of doing that, as against abusing a ref which usually gets them nothing more than the proverbial slap on the wrist, sometimes not even that?