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take a breath... a deep one....

Just got home from teaching my last training class for the upcoming election. It seems that half the classes will have at least one person that is either a) in disagreement with at least one policy and is excessively vocal about it, b) wants to throw out incredulous scenarios that have less than .001% chance of happening, or c) thinks they know everything so therefore don't need training but yet, are getting 50% of the exercises wrong.

Today was a great class until the very end when we encountered scenario "a".  Don't like a policy? I understand that. But we're not going to like everything that happens on election day either, but rules are rules. Ranting about how the board of elections should be changed, blah, blah, blah is not appropriate. If you want to change a rule, go through the process and get it changed. But to bad mouth your boss and hope to have him fired is not a good mindset nor a good appearance to project to your coworkers and the public. I'm still a bit riled up inside, and I've now been at home for almost half an hour.

This is one of the things that makes me appreciate the Board of Elections staff more and more. I only deal with this a few times a year. They deal with this day in and day out. It's their job. And yet, they are always kind, always helpful. Granted, they have their moments, too, but overall they are extremely helpful and considerate. I would like to think that if I had their job, I would behave in the same manner. But in all honesty, I'm not so sure. Kindness and long-suffering toward others are certainly areas where my character needs to grow. This sounds ugly, but I'm thankful that person is not in one of the precincts I have to supervise in the next two months.

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