That Wimbeldon ball boys/girls are exploited and treat like shit

[Inkanta]

I don't think they should be expected to pass towels to players after each point and when the player wipes the sweat off his face and walks around the court, have to face the player and walk backwards, waiting to be thrown the sweat soaked towel, sometimes viscously at their face. One ball girl was in tears yesterday after being yelled after by Novak-Djokovic. Can't be right surely.

Haven't yet seen any Royals or celebrities acting as ball boys!

Mission creep, happens in all jobs :)

Ajandji - er, read again, not what I meant. And perhaps proves my point.

The towels are part of the job. If the kids don't want to do it, they don't have to go through the selection process. It's not something they are told last minute and forced to do.

They aren't dragged there to do it. Therefore it's a choice and the use of slave is entirely inappropriate.

Margo because one HT maybe picked children in a bad way, does not make the selection process easy. That's only the first part. You obviously are annoyed by this , so why not ask the school how the kids were selected?

Towel slaves How ridiculous!

When I was at school some children got to go through but only thoses on the tennis team - to them it was amazing to just to get to go to Wimbledon let alone help a hero

Towels?! Won't somebody think of the children

Nromanoff - I'm not annoyed, it was a long time ago, I said IME, rather than that they all do it and the HT is now dead anyway. I didn't care enough at the time apart from shrugging my shoulders and saying 'yeah, it figures'. And the DC was doing tennis at the time. Anything else?

I still think shouting at children is not acceptable.

(I need to go and wake mine up. No shouting will be needed, surely.)

Towel slaves

I don't think being picked by the headteacher is the competitive bit - it's the bit afterwards. They have weeks of rigorous training and even then they don't know if they're going to get selected. It goes from something like 700 down to 250 kids and they have to check online to see if their number has been picked. And the number of kids in the process keeps dwindling until there's 250 left, and even then they only "know" if they've been selected once they've gotten their uniform.

I'm pretty sure these kids aren't forced into doing anything! It's probably a massive honour to be picked to be a ball boy/girl at Wimbledon, and if they didn't want to do it they could just say no!

Really margo? Your posts come across quite annoyed. If you are still bothered by it now, I am simply saying it may have been better to find out at the time. Then you may know and understand the situation isn't exactly how you thought.

Anything else?

Of course shouting at children is not acceptable but from what I could see he did it once, it was a stressful match and it wasn't the end of the world. He barked out 'towel' and has already said he'll apologise. Complete non-issue.

The news said that he will be spoken to about it too. That it's not acceptable behaviour, from the organisers point of view either

It's not the first time it's happened is it?
Think in such circumstances the apology should be promptly made and in public just as the shout was! They areno longer allowed to get away with throwing down their rackets in anger without immediate consequences are they.
People under pressure are always given understanding but if they are so good should be able to control their temper too.

If the ball boys don't deal with the towels, who do you suggest should do so, OP? Is it really a good idea to have more people on court?

But I do think they're underpaid - something like £125 for several months' training plus two weeks very hard work.

Margo no-one thinks it is acceptable the guy shouted, and then apologised... A bit like we all do...

Towel Slaves! HA! Wearing gloves to 'protect' themselves? HA!

Next you'll be demanding tennis players and all staff at Wimbledon have current DBS checks and the kids should be consulted on game decisions. Or that the players should ask very nicely for a ball each time they need one

Qq

Nromanoff - I reread my posts. I thought they were quite matter of fact. Apart from calling the shouters pricks.

Perhaps the OP should create an online petition to abolish towel slavery.

Use of the words exploited and slavery diminish and disrespect the situations worldwide where people's dignity is a real issue.

Well, I got the impression from the posts on here that it was ok to shout, or not that big a deal, as the kids didn't need to put themselves in that position if they didn't want to. I didn't watch it. I don't know if it was just barking 'towels' or a full dressing-down.

My nephew is doing it. He's thrilled at the opportunity

It is choice...not quite down the mines type of work

Margo no, you're wring. People are just saying you shouldn't perhaps compare a voluntary position, that might be a bit taxing at times, with actual SLAVERY!

that big Aussie guy managed to be polite about it

'If the ball boys don't deal with the towels, who do you suggest should do so, OP? Is it really a good idea to have more people on court?'

Well it's relatively a new part of the ball boy/girl job description. Around 15 years ago the players just waited till change over or picked up their own towel when they needed it. I don't think kids should have to do this.

Who has said that shouting is ok. Please feel free to point it out, because I can't see it