Saturday, November 26, 2011

Office Drama!

My school has 5 English teachers. According to our contract, we should work with 3 co-teachers. I had three for the first week. A week later, they added one more. There's one English teacher I don't work with.

I have asked my co-teachers why I only work with the ones I do, they told me that was an instruction from the department. Fair enough. L, the new addition to my co-teachers, asked me why I don't work with N. I don't her what the other teachers told me. That the dept picked my co-teachers themselves. She told me that's not true. When she saw that she was left out, she talked to the other teachers and they squeezed her into my schedule. Simple as that. She asked if I'd have a problem working with N. I told her, I'll work with anybody, they should figure it out. I showed her my schedule. That I have 8 classes per week with Y, 5 with S, 3 with I and 3 with her. I don't know if they don't want to reduce my classes with Y, maybe take 3 classes out and give them to N. Also, for one of the classes, I'm there every single English lesson per week, they could take one of those out, and give it to N etc. L said, that's 5A right? I agreed. She told me how she doesn't like that class. It's the most unruly class out of the entire school. Blah blah blah. I just smiled.

After the class with L, I had 5 my minutes break, and had to go to my last class of the day with Y. Now, Y is the pregnant co-teacher that made the example, "I am Big and Miss Brook is --- BIGGER!". She's the one that sent her neighbour/relative to my English club who doesn't go to my school without my consent whom I had to let go because the club's strictly for my school. Since then, she hasn't talked to me. She's ignored me in class and taught the English classes entirely in Russian. I dare you to figure THAT out! During my sick leave, which came during the silent treatment, she texted me over and over again, about 3 times a day, wanting to know how I was doing and whether I'd be back the next day. EVERY DAY! I ignored all the messages because I felt that she wasn't concerned about my health, she felt guilty of how she treated me and thought that she could be in trouble.
This was my first or 2nd day back from Sick leave. When I walked into one of her classes that morning she told me how happy she was to have me back. I didn't buy it.

5minutes after my break, I walked in to class expecting to be ignored. Y said, 'I have one question for you!'
Me: Yes?
She: I believe you've been complaining that you have too many classes with...
Me: who told you that?
She: (yelling) It doesn't matter who it was! The bottom line is you were complaining about my classes and that you don't like class 5A. You said they are stupid and loud and and and...
(A week before, Y, who has 5A, L has 5B, asked me to compare her 5A class with L's 5B. I told her that 5A is unruly, one of the pupils said F*#k you in class when I was teaching alone, one of the days. Y knows about that. I said there's no comparison, because the other class is well behaved. She wanted to know which class is smarter, adding that she thought hers was smarter. Again, feeling uncomfortable that they always want me to compare classes, especially she and L. I told her that whether or not her class is smarter, which it isn't, because I've marked their tests, the other one still wins because they pay attention and are well behaved and want to learn. That's more important to me. The other class is easier to work with. She translated all this to the pupils. Telling them that I said they're rude and stupid, things I didn't say.)
I felt like I was being confronted for the above conversation than what L had told her during the 5minute break. Which was impressively quick by the way!
Me: so you guys talked about me behind my back, and all of a sudden you don't want to mention names?
She: (yelling) if you don't want to work with me, I'm fine with it. I am pregnant! In 2weeks, I'll go on maternity leave. I don't care what happens here thereafter.
Me: So you've already made you mind up that you believe what the other person told you about me and you don't care what the truth is? I thought you were better than that, obviously I was wrong. I don't want to talk about this anymore. This is a waste of both our time, I don't know about you, but my time is very valuable.
She: I want to know the truth! That's why I'm bringing this up to you.
Me: no you don't. Your mind's made up. You're yelling at me. You and I have spent so much time together. I'm disappointed that you think I'd tall about you or anybody behind their backs. If I'd an issue, I'd discuss it with you before I did with other people.
She: Me too. (Lies. She obviously had plenty of issues with me. She wasn't talking to me for days.)
Me: What do you think L stood to gain from this?
She: I don't know and I don't care. This is her problem, not mine. If you still want to reduce your classes with me, we can do that.
Me: you recently added more of your classes on my schedule, clearly you want more time with me, it's not true that you don't care. And I'm going to talk to L about this. I'm shocked that she twisted my words in such a short space of time!
She: Please don't do that! I don't want drama! Let's just leave it.
Me: you should've thought about that before you confronted me. You should've had L in the room as well, when you confronted me. But you because you believed her, all that didn't matter.

I couldn't wait to see L again. We had a class together the next day. I looked at her and felt sorry for her like I do all Georgians. It would've been a waste of my time to confront her. It's good to know who I'm dealing with though. She had a huge smile on her face when she saw me. She complimented me on my pink gum boots. I fake smiled back and we moved on.

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