Election Job 2k14, a nightmare in words

Where to even start with this election business? I could genuinely write a book. The times of "Sina, you have no work experience, you know nothing about politics in practice and you have never worked hard outside of uni" are definitely over. So over it almost cost me my sanity. In fact, it cost my boss, his two assistants and various other people their sanity. Of 24 employees at the postal vote department four decided to return for the runoff election, the boss is close to burnout and most people have cried at this point, including grown men! IT WAS A NIGHTMARE! Don't get me wrong, it was fantastic experience but it was very tough. Someone rightly said the other day "If we can do this job, we can do anything!"

Everything started out so smooth. I was at the job for three weeks before the real work hit. Quickly it became obvious that the postal vote department would be screwed for numerous reasons: A. The ballots came out of print about a week late, B. There were 7 different ballots instead of the usual ONE, and C. half the employees were useless. Additionally, only two people from last year returned and the useless new staff failed to recognize the importance of their work as half of them disappeared at 4pm sharp although tons of work was left. The unlucky few that attempted to leave the office last were left with everybody's work because it simply had to be done. I wasn't even at the postal vote department but after I heard that one of my co-workers had to stay until 11pm one night to finish everybody else's work me and a few others stayed longer to help out as well. In the last week that meant that the earliest I was home was 10pm, back at 7am the next morning.

Desperate times call for desperate measures...

You can skip a night's sleep or go with little sleep for a week maybe but once you also work weekends, and don't get to sleep even then, your body simply stops working. I loved this job but I was just exhausted. Sunday, on Election Day, I came to work at 7am and finished at 2am the next morning. While we were waiting for the counted ballots to be returned to us more and more disasters hit and we finally thought "All the hard work we put into making this election work is finally NOT paying off, this is going to fail, we need a reelection!" Throughout the entire week things got worse and worse. We thought we had hit rock bottom about ten times, and then things just got more complicated, less things worked out and my boss went more insane. That poor man! I have no idea who came up with it but the person who decided to have three elections on one day needs a Human Resources crash course. That election needed about 100 employees, we were 40.

So altogether this is an introduction to what I'm going to be talking about for the next year or so. This election was genuinely the craziest work experience ever. My first post with massive responsibility and a schedule that makes you want to vomit. I regret nothing though, I feel like I could manage running for President of the Comission or mayor myself now. Also, going crazy together makes people bond quite nicely. I saw these people every day and every night for two months even when I was sleeping because obviously I dreamed of ballots, politicians and these freaking co-workers like every night. I can't believe two months ago the majority of these posts used to be about boredom. Boredom? What exactly is that again? The next few posts will be about the complete opposite of boredom: my job at the Council 2014! For now, I need to get my well-deserved sleep. I'm aiming for a full 7 hours tonight... booomb!