A little peace

So, for the past year, I've been involved in a community of artists who opened up a store.  I won't go into more details, only that when I first got involved the group all appeared to want to pull in the same direction, and had like-minded goals.  No politics were involved.

What I didn't know when I got involved was that one of the people was a drunk who was drinking himself into senility (or he may have Alzheimer's, but the constant state of inebriation made it hard to tell) and another person was one of the most manipulative, malicious people I have ever met.

So for months on end, I dreaded going to these meetings, because I knew I was going to be verbally attacked, or I would have to deal with the nasty person's manipulations, and it got to be a hassle.  But we have finally gotten rid of the problem children, and last night we had our first meeting without them.  It was peaceful.  It was productive.  It took less time than any other meeting did, and we got more done.  It proved to me once again that one or two bad apples can completely tear apart a group, and that in order to have an effective working team you MUST remove the problem people.  Pretending otherwise only causes you grief and stress.

Stop allowing the bad apples in your life.  Get rid of them.  You'll be much happier.