Campaigning for the Student Union Elections has begun.

These pictures were taken before I entered the EleHouse on Saturday.

The five established staff of the Student Union (Thom Palser included) are re-running for their posts, and they are collectively known as the “Herts Heroes”. I’m not surprised, considering they’ve been there for about a year. Possibly more. Regardless of how long they’ve been there, we can reasonably assume that they’ve been established in doing whatever their posts require of them, given the time they’ve spent.

There’s no one to handle St Albans… And what’s more, considering my activity in CathSoc, my law studies, my role under UHSU Soapbox and my forgetfulness, I doubt I’d be fit for the post. Is no one willing to stand up for the post ? Or…

And St Albans isn’t the only department which is understaffed. Quite a few departments are. Some of the boards were in the EleHouse, and many of the boards in the EleHouse had no posters on them. I can only draw two conclusions : 1) Either no one’s running for these posts, or 2) There are indeed people running for these posts, but no evident form of promotion is up yet, and we’ll have to check back in a few days’ time.

The Herts Heroes are facing competition from a few people.

 

Given my experience with student representatives and elections, the thing about the University of Hertfordshire Student Union, as is with a number of student unions in the UK, is that when students actually occupy the posts, they at least do something. Throughout my years in high school and sixth form college, I’ve been through many situations where the president of a society is dormant, and the underlings seem to be doing the most work for a society. Or, in the case of a student representative, when elected, [s]he doesn’t do a thing.

Anything left to politics is bound to have its risks. When one makes a manifesto — a list of promises to the people — he must be sure that the promises are all feasible. There are many promises I’ve seen over the years which are theoretically possible, but because of either the lack of funds or the lack of people, some of these promises never actually get put into practice. The reality of student elections is that we have to make students satisfied, and we are a difficult bunch to satisfy, because oftentimes we represent the younger version of British (or perhaps even global) demographic graphs — we practically come from all walks of life.

This having been said, I would personally count on those who have already been there, done that, and know what it is that they are handling. If I were to get at least two weeks of hands-on experience in the UHSU headquarters, I’d be able to perhaps run in an election on the basis of my merits, and I’d be able to know what it is that I’m talking about because I know how taxing it’s gonna be. Because in many elections, we’ve seen people who want to bring about change, but can’t. I’d rather evade the disappointment — I know who to vote for in the Student Elections, and I shall not hint at anything.

Come next week, it’ll be our turn to vote. All of us determine the future of the UHSU, because technically, we are all part of it.

Exasperation over workforce

Yeah, fine, we all have to work one day. Do I look like I'm the least bit bothered ?

Well of course, that owes to the fact that I have several obligations to fulfill.

Yes, when we work, we apparently build up the country's economy. Very often, the emphasis is placed upon ethics, accountability and transparency, especially if you're working in a multinational company. As workers, we apparently make names for ourselves. Okay, to be honest, I'm kinda disillusioned on the whole subject of work. I'll explain why, as I go along.

The economic climate is bound to fluctuate. Booms and recessions are bound to happen ; we can't do anything about them. And it's bound to affect us at some point in time. I, for one, have been a bit of a spendthrift when the economy was down - simply because everything was cheaper. And not to mention the amount of lunches I had in McDonald's. But that's also the time some people are more hesitant to spend. After all, it's their hard-earned money. *rolls eyes*

Now here's the part where I'm really bound to explode.

Seriously, I don't get it when people say that one job is better than the other. Each person has a different set of strengths and weaknesses. So if anyone asks me what the three coolest and un-coolest jobs are, I'd probably yell at him until his hair stands on end. Seriously. What makes an engineer better or worse than an accountant ? What makes a recording artiste better or worse than a lawyer ? (The latter sentence applies to my current state of affairs, of course.) I'm all for jobs which allow me to have my own liberty to work, and to be myself. I'd rather not have an office job, and I'd rather not be stuck in a court of law, for fear that I'd turn out to be like this :

  

So much for boosting the country's economy.

It's for this reason that I AM EFFING FED UP when someone (especially someone close to home) says that this job is better than the other and expects me to take it up. NO.

And if we're true to ourselves, then ethics and moral work habits would come naturally. I'm pretty sure that is the case for most of us, though work environments ARE DAMN FRUSTRATING. So you can't expect people to be prim and proper all the time, though it's their ideal. All the same, you'd rather have someone who is passionate about his work and comes late, rather than someone who is punctual but does nothing in the office except flirt around with the girls. There are absolute values in the corporate world, like ethical obtention of resources (speaking of which *rolls eyes again*, I wonder how many local companies actually do that),  accountability to shareholders, transparency and whatnot, but some values are more important than others when it comes to choosing workers personally.

I mean, come on ! A person who has the DRIVE to even work in that damned office is no doubt passionate about his work. And how often do we find people with drive ? More often than not we're pressured to get into our respective jobs, and we'd obviously wish ourselves somewhere else ! I, for one, would wish myself to be in a recording studio more than anywhere else on the planet (well, except home, and church, and with my friends, and in front of the computer...) ! We're in a society where people's expectations override our very own expectations, and this trend IS KILLING ME, DAMN IT !

Seriously, guys, you don't usually see me writing in ALL CAPS or rolling eyes in blog posts, but I only do that when I'm really exasperated. And the state of affairs of our workforce is something that I'm truly exasperated over.

Alright. I need a moment to calm down.
À la prochaine – j’espère.