Negative Nellies

I indeed respect these writers, pundits, commentators, managers, charlatans and everyone in between who feel compelled to write about how impactful the negative nellies are in their respective communities. You know the through line: keyboard warriors or nasty gadflies or outraged residents or council members that aren’t always nice - there’s a common denominator. And we (well not me, but some people in the profession of public administration) are sort of incessantly conversing on this subject as if its the only thing going. I get it, it makes people money — but get over it. Life in the public fish bowl isn’t perfect, it’s not always fun and yes, you have jerks. Just don't have your world revolve around talking about them all the time and how bad things are and how you and the staff have to overcome this non-stop. There are thousands of counterpoint experiences where life is swell, where challenges are addressed in a reasonable way and where government worklife is indeed more than manageable, it is — gasp — positively rewarding, fun and engaging. Negative experiences happen but one need not let their life be ruled by them.