having the polling centre at a school is already very good, as compared to a void deck. we have fans, proper toilets, and air conditioned staff lounge for us to take a break. void deck has nothing... literally nothing. hence i am thankful that i am doing elections duty at a school.
however it is really tiring to do the duty all the way until 8 pm, where the voting is closed. we still have to pack up, and return the school back to its original state, ie removing all the stickers and posters, moving all the tables and chairs away. and some of us (me included) still have to bring the ballot boxes and votes back to the counting centre. by the time i reach home is already 9 pm.
doing all these work, we are being paid 260 dollars, plus 12 dollars for meal claims, as well as one day off-in-lieu. let's not forget that we had a meeting on 8 sept from 4 pm to 530 pm, as well as setting up the polling centre on 10 sept from 2 pm to 530 pm. yes we are from the public civil service sector, yes this is part of our job scope, but honestly i think we deserve to be paid more, and we deserve 2 days off-in-lieu. although being able to clear the 2 days off-in-lieu is another issue. haha.
i like my elections team! we have a good ARO (Assistant Returning Officer, the OIC of our team), and everyone in the team is so on the ball and so efficient. at the end of the duty the ARO messaged in the whatsapp group that we are an A Team. :)
i didn't manage to have dinner and was pretty hungry when i reach home. so i jio-ed xuehong and nzj to supper at tim ho wan. coincidentally both of them also havent eat dinner and yes i am happy to end the tired day with a good meal and good company at tim ho wan. :)
happy to see three ex students who came to vote! can't imagine i am in the teaching service for that long to see my students being old enough to vote for this elections. hahahaha.
