Posted by chicagomedia.org on September 06, 2007 at 09:28:00:
From "Remarkable Woman Magazine":
We work too hard, we play too little. There's never enough time to get everything done. We prioritize ourselves into tight schedules of responsibilities with hardly a moment for ourselves. Are we having fun yet? To address this question, we approached four women with widely diverse professional lives.
Their responses and perspectives were quite enlightening.
When Work Is Way Too Much Like Fun
Rebecca Ortiz, Radio Host, 102.3 WXLC
When Rebecca Ortiz gets up each weekday morning at two-thirty, there are probably at least some fellow thirty-year-olds who are just coming home. Does that cramp her style or make her work feel like drudgery? Not at all! As a radio personality and co-host of the popular Joe and Rebecca Show on Lake County's 102.3 WXLC, her job is too much like fun to really be work.
"We're lucky to do something that involves playing music and talking. It's our job to entertain people and to help them get up and get moving in the morning," Rebecca explained.
Hers is a long day: in the studio before four to read the news and surf the web to catch up on all the news, especially the Hollywood gossip for her "Hollywood Freakshow" entertainment reports, which air at 6:10 and 8:10 each morning. After four hours on the air, the balance of the workday is spent cutting commercials, meeting with the boss once a week, checking email, and sometimes just hanging out with the rest of the staff. By late morning or early afternoon, Rebecca is back home where she may take a nap for no more than an hour. Then she is good to go until as late as midnight. (Yes, that's right; she only requires about two-and-a-half hours of sleep.)
When asked what she does for fun, Rebecca needed a little clarification because for her, work is fun—so much so that even an excursion to the mall becomes possible fodder for the next morning's show. If she relaxes in front of the TV at night, she's thinking of the show.
Relaxation is a different matter. "My down time is spent with my family, who lives locally, or my friends and I like to do things alone," Rebecca observed. "I listen to music and play the guitar, very simple stuff to relax."
But everything (including a date) has the potential of becoming an anecdote or an observation for the show. Work? Play? As far as Rebecca is concerned, they are one and the same.