About last week.....

Saturday Colleague and I split a four-hour Saturday morning course, alternating weekends (she's a stay at home mom and can only work weekends). Last Monday, I emailed Bossman to remind him that he had to find someone else to teach the course, because both of us would be out of town on 27 March (not together) - I first told him about that on 15 March.

On Wednesday, he told Incompetent Colleague that he needed to do it, which IC wasn't happy about. He had no plans for the weekend, he just didn't like the idea of working on a Saturday. He said, 'I don't like the idea of being here six days every week,' (even though would have been the second Saturday he had worked this year, and you can count the number of Saturdays he worked last year on one hand). Even though IC was unhappy about it, everything was fine.

IC told me that if more people stood up to BM and refused to work on Saturdays, BM wouldn't schedule Saturday classes, which I countered by reminding him that we're teachers and have to teach when needed, and that BM pays our salary. He didn't like that comment and snapped back at me about our low pay. I reminded him that if we wanted to make €90,000/year, we wouldn't be teaching. Conversation over.

I came into work on Wednesday to find out that the Saturday course was going to be cancelled. I asked Young Secretary why, and she said that it was because I had said that the Saturday students didn't like IC. I was shocked, and asked her what I meant. She told me that it was in the email I had sent BM, and showed me the email. In the email, I had recommended that Bossman ask Tall Colleague, as I knew that the Saturday students liked him. I didn't mention IC at all. However, YS assumed that that implied that the Saturday students didn't like IC, and told him so (before I got to work on Wednesday). IC then decided that he wasn't going to teach it, and no matter how much YS told him he had to, he refused.

Later, BM came in (he was at an offsite appointment most of the day) and found out that IC refused to teach the Saturday class. He, in so many words, strongly recommended that it's be good for IC to reconsider his most recent position on this. IC stood by his decision, but so did BM. BM finally won, and once again, was scheduled to teach the Saturday course.

Later that day, IC cornered me and accused me of sending 'viscous emails' to BM and said a lot of words that weren't very polite. So, I got the email and showed him that I hadn't mentioned him at all in it. However, he took it like YS did, as did TC, and the three of them did their best to be degrading, condescending and extremely rude to me for the rest of the day. I had never been so glad to get out of there as I was on Thursday.

I walked in on Friday to chaos again, about the same situation. BM had called and Old Secretary gave me a message to call him (he and YS were at a trade fair). I did, and found out that he'd be teaching the Saturday course, as IC had called him and was extremely insistent that BM cancels the course. Being at a trade fair and not having time to deal with IC, he told IC that he'd teach the course for him.

When I got to work, I found out that all this had happened and felt cheated. BM had finally backed down. I was so devastated that I almost cried. This probably means that IC, the whiney, lazy louse, will never have to work another Saturday in his life, while I, the loyal, hardworking, reliable teacher, will continue to have to (seniority means nothing here). Of course, when I walked into the teachers' room, TC and IC started in at me again, and kept on (between classes) until I left work. I had never been so exhausted before, but was glad to be away from that building.

We've reached new heights in stupidty this week, and I'm to (mentally) exhausted from dealing with it to blog about it right now. Look for it next week.

One day is too far in advance to know your schedule.

Two of our teachers are ill, so some of us are doing extra hours to make sure that the students get what they pay for. I don't mind working overtime, because we're coming up on exam season and there are a lot of things I can do with the students to better prepare them.

Last Thursday, I took two of Nice Spanish Teacher's classes as requested by Bossman. Before I left that day, I asked BM if he knew if NST was coming in on Friday, or if he'd need me to take one of his classes. BM told me that he didn't know, so I asked the secretaries, who also didn't know. I asked Bossman if he'd call NST and find out, and was told that the secretaries were supposed to do that (and of course they claimed that they had, but still couldn't tell me). Frustrated, I left (it was 19h).

At 19h30, Nice French Teacher called me at home and told me that she had just talked to NST and he was coming in on Friday, so I didn't have to. Friday came, NST taught one class and went home again (we didn't see each other that day).

Later that day, BM asked me if I'd teach NST's classes the first two classes on Monday (today) if he didn't come in. I asked BM how we'd know that, and told him that I wouldn't be very happy if I came in and saw NST there also (especially on a Monday morning). We went through the same routine as Thursday. BM then looked at me and told me to call NST at home on Sunday and find out if he was or wasn't coming in today, and come in if he didn't. That was the final straw. I told him to forget it, I don't do scheduling, not to schedule me cover NST's classes on Monday and left.

It turns out that NST did come in today, but Ignorant Secretary tried calling me at 9h22 to see if I could teach Correspondence Teacher's class at 10h05, because she was ill. What a shame that I had turned my mobile phone off before I went to bed.

Not!

Where do I start?

I'm bitchy

Incompetent Colleague asked me where a book that I had been using was, and I told him that it was on the shelf. He asked why I had put it there, so I told him that that's where it's supposed to go (he rarely ever puts shared things back...he just keeps them on his desk in case he needs them again, causing the rest of us to look everywhere for them).

Tall Colleague then chimed in that I was being bitchy. I told him that with all the stupidity that goes on around here, I have every right to be (and gave him a long list of stupid little irritating things that happen). He told me that he didn't let things like that bother him, and I responded by telling him that a teacher's job is hard enough without others making it even more difficult by not doing their jobs. He didn't say anything after that, but I'm pretty sure he agreed with me.

Arranging, rearranging and unarranging.

One of my colleagues called in sick yesterday and will be out for the rest of the week, so I agreed to take over his some of his classes yesterday and today. I arranged it with Bosswoman, and then went off to teach. After finishing my class, I went downstairs to the office and noticed that the schedule had been rearranged again. I asked BW why she had changed her mind and she said that she hadn't changed anything that we had arranged, so I asked Bossman. He said that nothing had been done to cover the classes, so he took it upon himself to find teachers to do it. I told him that BW and I had already arranged it and made the changes to the schedule, before he rearranged it (not even noticing that the changed had been made.....it's hard not to, as we use a colour coded schedule). He then unarranged (yes, I know that's not a word) his rearranging.

Good news! The photocopier is back and working. Hooray! It's sad when something this insignificant creates so much joy.