Every year, politics reaches its lowest energy level in August, when politicians and political operatives take a break before getting back to the everyday experience of intrigue, stress and voters.
And while getting a summer break is necessary, especially less than one year before the EP elections, politicians and political operatives can never really turn off – thats just comes with the chosen profession. Actually, I believe that the people that need to be in politics are the ones who cannot completely turn off on their holiday. Just like a surgeon can be called in for emergencies anytime, political operatives need to be ready to jump back into the world of political scandals if needed.
So if you are reading this while waiting for your plane to take off to some fancy place with a sea nearby, keep these 5 things in mind:
- You (hopefully) chose politics as your profession to bring about some change in your country or in the world, not to entertain yourself. Act accordingly.
- Its much better to jump back into work while a political scandal is happening, than trying to clean up the mess afterwards. In some cases, your party could lose actual percentages while you are ignoring the scandal. Your choice.
- The more important you are in your party, the more responsibility you have to handle anything serious that comes up during the summer break period. In times of crisis, show your importance to party leaders, colleagues and activists.
- This works the other way around, too: if you are committed to help your party anytime, your influence will grow within the party. Summer-break-scandals might be the easiest time to climb the influence ladder within the party.
- In some sense, you as a political operative have a much easier time than the politicians you work for. Apart from the fact that people don’t ask for selfies on your vacations (or yell at you), in a serious emergency, politicians may even need to cut short their honeymoons. Show some solidarity, and assist them when you can, even if you have to do it while sipping mojito (or something trendier).
But also, try to enjoy yourself on your holiday while you can. And by that, I mean to read at least two books about campaigns and write a summary to your colleagues afterwards.