This might be a US thing. I have worked in — what I consider — pretty unfulfilling jobs, but they usually still insist I take my vacation time and remind me to take breaks. Maybe it secretly came back in my performance review in obscure ways so I might also be an idiot.
What is the exclusion zone for campaign signs around a voting place in the US? The article makes it sound like they are right at the site? Or he carried the sign from somewhere else to destroy it on site?