Execs Behaving Badly

I just read this post by Erin Millar over at the Macleans Education section about RSU President-elect Nora Loreto's little freak-out on Bob Rae in the middle of an interview being conducted by Eyeopener editor Robyn Doolittle.

“She starts on about reducing tuition since it's expensive to live in Toronto,” Doolittle described in an email, “then goes off about the Millenium scholarship. Rae tries to answer briefly. She interupts him, talking louder and louder in typical [Canadian Federation of Students] scripted rants. [Rae and Loreto] speak overtop of each other for a bit and I finally bring it back. She interrupts again.”

Sounds strikingly familiar to two incidents with Chris Bentley earlier this year. Hmmm.

To be quite honest, I'm sick of people acting this way, screaming and yelling to try and get their way (and in the case of the SCSU, trying to destroy the entire sandbox since they broke the rules and can't play in it anymore). When did temper tantrums become effective means of communication for anyone over the age of two? Hell, at least in my family, they were never effective at that age, either. Interrupting interviews, press conferences, and meetings like this, in my opinion, only gets you limited results, such as the following:

1) A reputation as immature and unwilling to engage in meaningful dialogue. You know, like a civil discussion where you can present proposals and work with people to get something positive accomplished.
2) Your name on public figures' lists of People Not To Let Near Me, Ever. If anyone ever did that to me while I was trying to work, I'd consider it harassment, and at the very least blacklist that person, if I didn't press charges. Not being able to go near someone is something that tends to get in the way of that Meaningful Dialogue thing.
3) Reports like this telling everyone that you're a tantrum-throwing fool, thus exacerbating 1 and 2.

Seriously now. This is really just common courtesy, good manners, things like that, things we should've all learned in kindergarten, being thrown out the window by people who should damn well know better. Students are paying their representatives to advocate on behalf of their needs, and should expect these representatives to present themselves and behave in a professional manner. I hope they're angry when they read about this.

ETA: Here's the editorial from Doolittle discussing the incident, and another one with a U of T candidate.