Many in the print publishing industry take Fridays off during the summer. I have heard that this is because the heat in NYC, the center of the publishing universe, gets stifling and people escape for the more tolerable climes of The Hamptons or The Poconos or wherever. Though it makes sense, I wonder why it seems to be a tradition in the publishing industry and not so much in the say... the banking industry. If any one can shed a light on this for me, I would appreciate it!
Anyway, if you are not in the print publishing industry, you are probably working on Fridays; but have a reasonable expectation of clocking out as it were and kicking back for the week-end. Through the efforts of unions over the decades, you will have week-ends, holidays, and paid vacations. Increasingly nowadays, though, that "time off" comes with that ubiquitous and somewhat insidious 21st century umbilical cord, the cell phone.
The above picture is the shadow of the Studio Director at Blackstone Audio, Inc., after hours in the early evening at the dog park. He is taking a call from a narrator. He often gets calls from narrators et al at all hours of the day and night, weekdays and weekends, holidays and vacation. If you call Grover and he doesn't answer or return your call right away, it's usually because he's on a chain of calls dealing with some issue or challenge; or he is literally in a place where the signal couldn't get through (e.g. the Javitz Center, Klamath National Park, etc.) He views it as a part of his job to be accessible to narrators in particular to answer any and all concerns regarding casting, research, and whatever.
There are jobs in the audiobook industry that are "9 to 5" but at a certain level, the job isn't so much a job as a lifestyle. The love for the art and craft of it carries you through 24/7/365 :-)
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