One of the key ingredients of the character of a good person is ETHICS. We are all faced with decisions every day in our lives and our decisions are ultimately decided by our personal system of ethics.
We face moral and ethical decisions every day in the tennis officiating world. We have all seen people who have failed in life's pursuits because of their inability to develop and live by a strong set of ethical guidelines. Our FAC sets forth many of our ethical guidelines (on the back page), but sadly those guidelines are often ignored and abused.
Here are a few of our "ethical battlegrounds" that we face in our tennis officiating world:
1. Are we honest about our assignments or are we one of those people who continually cancel out on one assignment to do a "better" assignment?
2. As referees, do we assign officials that we know have not passed the background check? One who knowingly employs an uncertified official is just as guilty as the one who isn't certified. Its relatively easy to go to the USTA website and check the list of certified officials.
3. As an official, do you present yourself as a certified USTA/ITA official even though you personally know you haven't passed the background check? The USTA is very explicit when they say that you cannot be certified without passing the check, and in order to be an ITA official, you must be a certified USTA official.
4. Do you wear your officials shirt to get into events where an entry fee is charged so you can get in free?
5. Do you tell the complete truth on your mileage forms when you are working ITA events?
6. Do you criticize and complain when you are not given the #1 singles match to chair?
7. Do you continually lie or shade the truth? This is one of the greatest standards of a strong ethical belief system.
8. Do you continually bad-mouth and undermine the authority of the referee when working a tournament or match? We hear a lot about officials that go behind the referee's back to the tournament director and try to get themselves hired to referee the next tournament. That's back-stabbing at its utmost.
9. Do you consume alcohol when in your uniform? The rules are very explicit about this one.
10. Do you illegally sell or alter tickets to events that you have been given free of charge or at a lesser rate?
These are just a few of the checkpoints for a good ethical system--there are many more. Some of these are more serious than others and the best standard in officiating is this:
1. Don't deliberately misrepresent yourself and/or violate the rules.
2. Don't hire people that have a bad ethical system in their lives. Eventually they will bring heartache and trouble into your life.
We all know officials who are violating many of these ethical principles and its time to take an ethical stand... Bring it to light when its being done and don't hire them if they are doing it.
6 comments:
I fear that the integrity and fun has run out! There was once a "glad to help" feeling you got from officials - now it is - where is my lunch, I want more money, why am I having to do line 6, these shirts suck, I don't like certain officials, what’s in it for ME!?!? - WAKE UP – we do this is for the GAME OF TENNIS.... do your job with integrity and the love of tennis - or DON'T DO IT!
Great first post RM - hard to follow that one!
Wow Eeyore surely will notice that his favorite official from down south has a hard time complying with #1, #2, #5, #6 and #8 on your list.
The worst kind of officials, certified of course, are the retired housewives and retired military 3.0 level players,
totally authoritiarian anal compulsives, really define the
officious odious official determined to infect the match and destroy the competition.
And they are mostly the ones always complaining about the fees and assignments--such important people so hindered by employers seeking team players.
But worse are the USTA careerists, using every opportunity to advance the blind end career of linesperson chair delusion.
When will tennis be free?
"The worst kind of officials, certified of course, are the retired housewives and retired military 3.0 level players,
totally authoritiarian anal compulsives, really define the
officious odious official determined to infect the match and destroy the competition.
And they are mostly the ones always complaining about the fees and assignments--such important people so hindered by employers seeking team players.
But worse are the USTA careerists, using every opportunity to advance the blind end career of linesperson chair delusion.
When will tennis be free?"
Did you pass High School English?
Meaning I'm sure you have some point to be made but the inarticulation derailed any conveyance of thought or purpose.
BTW why didn't you post my comment about the inarticualtion of another's comment, when you posted such a muddled comment in the first place? Was it too harsh? if so I'm sorry, but through the disjointed comment I could assertain that the author of the comment was mearly bandwagon jumping, rather than having a thought out point of view.
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