One way to make my point...

A friend of mine at a snazzy private college was getting static from his department for refusing to come in on Wednesdays when he traveled over the weekend. He'd be in on Monday afternoon, all day Tuesday and Thursday until early afternoon -- then he'd leave for a debate trip and come home VERY late on Sunday night.

At one point a prissy little prick who isn't at snazzy private college made a series of comments about my pal's cushy schedule, getting to travel and all -- on the school's money. This kind of irritated my pal, who was a year or two behind the little prick on the tenure track -- and my pal was worried that his "absences" would be seen as lack of work.

Of course, since I also traveled for debate -- I knew that while it may be very enjoyable work -- travel for debate is not a vacation and requires responsibilty 24 / 7. My pal has been a coach much longer than I, and he knows what a toll this can take on family life. His Wednesdays were family time, as his wife's schedule was flexible and he had a pre-school aged daughter.

Eventually prissy prick said something like, it really isn't that bad is it -- My pal decided to put an end to the comments in a very simple way -- he offered to call the prissy little prick at every significant point in the trip -- at home -- so, he called when he left campus with the team. He called when he got to the hotel after 10 hours of riding in a 15 passenger van (it was late by prissy prick's time..) he called after his 6:00 wake-up call every morning of the tournament, and when he went to bed at midnight... he also called when he left the tournament to drive 10 hours home and called when he got back to campus (about 3 AM). Prissy prick took all the calls, wished my friend well and when he figured out this was my friend's routine 2-3 weekends per month, was my friend's biggest supporter of debate and tenure... probably because he was afraid they'd never find someone to replace my dedicated pal --