Damned if you do and damned if you don’t

 Several years ago I attended an ops weekend and I want to concentrate on learning clerks jobs. I chose my layouts based on a layouts clerk job, and I made a big effort to make sure everyone attending could have the clerks job if they wanted it, or we could split it. I volunteered to forgo taking the clerks job if anyone else wanted it. What happened was at each layout no one else expressed a desire to have the clerks job. Great!


After the ops event it got back to me that a number of people complained that I got the clerk job at each layout, and that it was unfair that I had done this.

I had made a big effort to give anyone who wanted the clerks job the opportunity to take it. No one stepped up.

It appears that when I sincerely offered to pass on the clerk position, everyone assumed I had strong-armed my way in and they didn’t want to step up and be the person to take that position away from me.

My feelings were hurt, and I have never returned to this region for an ops event since.

I did make a sincere effort to share or pass on the position, but human nature being what it is, no one else stepped up, and quite a few took offense.

Damned if you do, and Damned if you don’t.

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