the windmill's lament
Managing youth projects is intensive work. More than the technical-logistic side, it's a balance between the group's most extreme complainers on each side of any issue. Keeping people happy. No group is ever, up to the last participant, truly happy about how things are going. Then the only thing that is left is to play with various levels of satisfaction that are possible in a given situation.
This tranquil way of putting things is my civilised side. Apart from this there is also another one, the straightforward, no-flowers side that says: fuck this.
I've somehow landed myself in a nasty bit of an odd-job where I've got to manage youngsters way below my usual level (the usual level includes people who already have a mindset of a reasonable human being, that is mostly 17 and up), a set of curiously diverse groups (from highly motivated right up to but-I-was-hoping-for-Hawaii type), and, as a prize on top of all this, a bureau-hierarchic set of partners, group leaders, office workers and other such people who each have their own ideal of how 70 young people should be taken care of, of which only a few actually work with people on a regular basis. The bomb is set. I imagine the last day will see a lot of unlooked-for sincerity.
PS - my EVS finished and I almost didn't notice, because I was running the previous youth-Odyssey (see post below). That turned out quite well, but all in all I've thoroughly had it with non-profit, fighting-windmills sort of work where the missing salary is supposed to be made up by positive energy and such. At least in business the devil - the money - is out in the open and everyone knows it's the driving force for everything. In non-profit it's the same, but translates into reputation, relations, keeping a face, doing good and hoping someone will notice.
This tranquil way of putting things is my civilised side. Apart from this there is also another one, the straightforward, no-flowers side that says: fuck this.
I've somehow landed myself in a nasty bit of an odd-job where I've got to manage youngsters way below my usual level (the usual level includes people who already have a mindset of a reasonable human being, that is mostly 17 and up), a set of curiously diverse groups (from highly motivated right up to but-I-was-hoping-for-Hawaii type), and, as a prize on top of all this, a bureau-hierarchic set of partners, group leaders, office workers and other such people who each have their own ideal of how 70 young people should be taken care of, of which only a few actually work with people on a regular basis. The bomb is set. I imagine the last day will see a lot of unlooked-for sincerity.
PS - my EVS finished and I almost didn't notice, because I was running the previous youth-Odyssey (see post below). That turned out quite well, but all in all I've thoroughly had it with non-profit, fighting-windmills sort of work where the missing salary is supposed to be made up by positive energy and such. At least in business the devil - the money - is out in the open and everyone knows it's the driving force for everything. In non-profit it's the same, but translates into reputation, relations, keeping a face, doing good and hoping someone will notice.
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