If you are an avid reader of this blog, then, apart form having my eternal gratitude, you may recall a post about an acronym. (If not, see the entry titled "WAB" from May 12). Today's post is about another acronym. 

You may have guessed by the title of this post, and also by the pictures, that the acronym to which I refer is "WOW". Actually, "WOW" is not a very good acronym, because when you see "WOW" you tend to think it refers to something amazing or cool or at least positive. But "WOW" stands for "Work on Weekends", which is neither amazing nor cool, nor does it have (m)any positives.

I suppose it is a positive if you hate your partner and kids and can't bear to be at home. Then WOW probably is quite handy. Also if your work is your passion - like if you were a pro sportsman - you might not mind. There is one small positive if, like me, you are self-employed, and that is that you can usually charge for your work on weekends. Apparently there are some jobs where even if you are an employee you still get paid overtime. I have some accountant friends and I think they are in this freakish category. And when I say freakish I mean that I am sickeningly jealous, because for 15 years I was a mere employee in the advertising industry, and I worked many weekends, and not once did I get paid for it. In advertising work on weekends, your bosses try to sweeten the deal with some Nando's or pizza for lunch. Or, more deviously and cleverly, you are duped into thinking slavery on weekends - sorry, I mean work on weekends - is a good thing because it will be good for your career, but only if you don't complain and do produce devastatingly good work that will change the world. 

Am I sounding a tad bitter or cynical? Perhaps my bitterness and cynicism (what a great sounding word, by the way - "cynicism" - try say that three times fast) is more about having to work this weekend than a hangover from all those weekends I worked in the past at the hands of my advertising bosses and their clients. Perhaps not.