(no subject)
Sometimes you get challenged to see if what you say really holds true. As cashier in the dining hall, I'm a bit of a cop, enforcing rules I didn't make, that sometimes make no sense to the students who have to obey them. I see all sorts of attitudes, from humility, ready compliance as soon as their told what the policy or new policy is, to reluctant acceptance even though they don't understand and think it's stupid, to vented frustration ranging from tone of voice to cursing, to blatant defiance - refusal to comply and then chewing me out for not "understanding that it's supposed to be much more than policy."
Then I find myself on the receiving end of a rule or a policy that I might not understand and think stupid - and I have to check my own attitude. I come out to find a ticket on my car - parked in "event parking" that hadn't been designated when I arrived at 6:15 in the morning - an event I was actually at, though catering instead of attending. And the indignation wells up. My situation is different, I should be an exception! Well, maybe. But how could they be expected to know that? That's why there's an appeals process.
The thing I've learned from enforcing the rules is that the important thing might not be the rule. But there are crucial life lessons that these students need to learn - it's not all about me, life does not have to revolve around my convenience or even my own circumstance.
Oh, there are ways to appeal, and I did. But even if that failed (and as far as I know it didn't - the person who everyone said "good luck on getting an appeal from her" was the one who said she'd put it in the system for me, since I couldn't access the online appeals process) - life has consequences. Sometimes they're reasonable and fair, sometimes they're unfair and arbitrary. But "attitude" only makes it worse. At the very very least it hurts your witness. You lose respect from the people you take it out on. And a lot of times it makes the people you're trying to push around be a lot less willing to be lenient if it's their call, and less likely to give you good service in the future. Winning the "battle" is not worth losing all that.
But the one who dishes it out needs to be prepared to take it. Otherwise - it's a power trip. Not sure I like that part. Oh well. Life has consequences.
Then I find myself on the receiving end of a rule or a policy that I might not understand and think stupid - and I have to check my own attitude. I come out to find a ticket on my car - parked in "event parking" that hadn't been designated when I arrived at 6:15 in the morning - an event I was actually at, though catering instead of attending. And the indignation wells up. My situation is different, I should be an exception! Well, maybe. But how could they be expected to know that? That's why there's an appeals process.
The thing I've learned from enforcing the rules is that the important thing might not be the rule. But there are crucial life lessons that these students need to learn - it's not all about me, life does not have to revolve around my convenience or even my own circumstance.
Oh, there are ways to appeal, and I did. But even if that failed (and as far as I know it didn't - the person who everyone said "good luck on getting an appeal from her" was the one who said she'd put it in the system for me, since I couldn't access the online appeals process) - life has consequences. Sometimes they're reasonable and fair, sometimes they're unfair and arbitrary. But "attitude" only makes it worse. At the very very least it hurts your witness. You lose respect from the people you take it out on. And a lot of times it makes the people you're trying to push around be a lot less willing to be lenient if it's their call, and less likely to give you good service in the future. Winning the "battle" is not worth losing all that.
But the one who dishes it out needs to be prepared to take it. Otherwise - it's a power trip. Not sure I like that part. Oh well. Life has consequences.