If you're paying attention in the sports world, this week marks the kickoff to the NCAA basketball tournament, a.k.a. March Madness. But even if you're not into sports, you might still see some action in the form of a heavier workload: 6 percent of workers said they plan to take Thursday and Friday off to stay home, watch the games and follow scores.
Taking time off for TV isn't limited to March Madness, though. We know plenty of folks (myself included) took a day off work last April to tune in to the Royal Wedding from across the pond. Plenty more might take a day loff to watch their favorite Olympic event this July when the 2012 Summer Olympics hit London.
You'd think that since invention of the DVR, we wouldn't be stuck to our TV sets this way. Now that it's so easy to record TV and watch it back later at a more convenient time, we're not bound by the TV guide.
Yet still, sporting events and world news events (like the Royal Wedding) seem to call for live viewing. You want to see it as it happens. Who wants to watch the game when they already know the score?
So we want to know: Do you ever take time off to watch TV events as they happen? Or are you happy watching a playback when it's convenient for you?
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I'll take time off from my busy schedule Sunday nights to watch the highly anticipated BBC series, Frozen Plant. Otherwise I'd be up 8-11 listening to my favorite (and most long running live folk music on the air) radio show, Bound For Glory and prepping for the week ahead. That's the only TV viewing I plan on for the next few months.
I haven't taken time off from work for TV yet. For the royal wedding last year I just came in an hour later and stayed an hour later. That doesn't count. For anything Olympic, I just stream live feed on my computer while at work, so I can listen as I work.
I don't have a DVR yet because so much content is available online to stream. I'm probably more likely to take time off for a movie than for TV. Then at least I'm out of the house and it would feel like a little mini holiday.
I'm a huge and unabashed fan of tv in (nearly) all of its forms, but I've never taken time off work to watch something live. Maybe if it was somebody I knew? (Like, if a college roommate was competing in the tether-ball Olympics...)
However, I am known to shut people down when they suggest going out Thursday nights, and one of my frien...acquaintances had the audacity to suggest that I "surely [can] just watch the recording" of the Lost finale. Un. Acceptable.
If my college team made the tourney, I took the day off of work. It's just too stressful to be sitting in the office watching the gametracker click away. Taking the day off had the added bonus of celebrating the win or being crabby with the loss.
Now that I'm home with my kids, I have the freedom of watching the games. And they made the tourney this year! Woo hoo! I'll be glued to the TV Friday afternoon. I'm even arranging a friend to pick up my kids from school so I can watch the whole game :) Yes, I'm that obsessed.
I don't plan my time to watch TV (I just pretty much do it every day or so), but for sports events (hockey playoffs or olympics in my case), I will plan some time if my teams are playing on some evening. I never had to miss a day of work, nor would I ever do it, for a game. I'm lucky the interesting hockey games take place in the evening, so it's easier to plan time to watch it.
I remember staying all day in bed with my new boyfriend watching the last day of Olympics (waiting for the hockey gold medal game) in 2010. It was a pretty amazing day :)
I'm fine watching recorded shows. I don't get into any "big social events" like Award Shows, Super Bowl (sports in general), etc. I prefer watching things when I can whizz through the commercials. The only shows my husband sometimes INSISTS on watching as they air because he can't wait are The Big Bang Theory and The Walking Dead. :)
I work in the television industry, so I don't need to take time off. I have a TV at my desk with access to satellite. :)
Of course, when certain events come around, office productivity seems to drop off a little...
I haven't taken time off for TV but I haven taken time off for video games. I requested a day off to play through Portal 2 when it was released. Fortunately, my office is laid back about such requests so long as your work is done ahead of time!
I coincidentally watched all of Downton Abbey S1 last year on a sick day, but that was coincidental! I've got my hands on another BBC show that, erm, won't be available on these shores for a few months, and the temptation to call in sick rather than wait for the weekend is very strong. But I have willpower. :)
I've taken days off to watch the tourney a couple of times, and also worked from home once to do it. I'm off this Friday, but will be traveling. First time in about 5 years that I won't be home to watch the first couple of days of the tournament live. Don't really have the option of streaming at work either. Pretty bummed about it. I can't really imagine taking a day off to watch anything other than this. I've rescheduled by an hour or two for some things though (championship parade, opening day, etc).
I've only ever taken time off to watch the Royal Wedding. Though in 2014 the hubs and I might be taking a few days or half days to watch the World Cup - there were a few games in 2010 we would have preferred to watch live.
Take time off of work to watch TV? I don't even watch TV when I'm home. Pretty much the last thing I have any interest in.
Haha, I took last Monday off to watch the second season of Downton Abbey, since it was expiring off the PBS website (I don't have cable). But never, ever before that.
I'm a big soccer fan and have totally taken time off to watch my beloved Liverpool, as well as the World Cup, certain UEFA Champions League matches, and may take some time off this summer to watch the Euros.
DVR is an amazing tool, but with all the social media (twitter & facebook especially) it can be really hard to manage to make until home without finding out the score.