Yesterday I had meeting in my room. As is usual with me and Cl, she always brings her home made cake while I bring Samosa and other Indian snacks especially for the meeting. Apart from that I also use table cloth,candles, tissue paper and other decorative items from my home. The school does pay us twenty Euros for this but till date I have always spent money from my pocket. Its too much of work claiming money back - I would much rather have my peace of mind.
So after the school was over I went to an Indian shop and bought samosas and other Indian snacks and papadums which nobody could pronounce without breaking into a giggly laughter. We laid the table with all the goodies and the scented candles and it looked really beautiful. They all gobbled up the samosa in one wink.
The meeting began just as usual amid idle gossip and chat. Mk since the moment he walked in looked upset and angry. I asked him what was wrong but he didn't tell me. Mz and Mk both were seated at the opposite ends of the table. I glimpsed Mk sneering at everything that was being discussed in the meeting. Finally when it was his turn to say something he said that he has started feeling that he is alone in the team and that nobody helps him even when he is in need.
At this Mz shouted back.
"What's your problem? Since the meeting began you have been making faces at me. I do everything to help everyone and you say nobody helps you! This is enough. I can't tolerate it any more. I am going." She got up pushing her chair with a loud thud, grabbed her bag with a big bang, and thundered out of the room slamming the door loud shut behind her.
We all looked at each other in mute amazement! None of us had expected this.
Just at that time I had to go out of the room too to attend S's call. When the call was over I glimpsed Mz crying in the office. I wanted to know what was on her mind. I went over and found her in tears with Nlgn (our accountant and a close close friend of Stf as well as a relative of our cleaning lady!) cossetting and consoling her patting her head and shoulders as if Mz were a little toddler who just couldn't get over the grief of breaking her toy or something.
I superficially mumbled, "C'mon, don't be so upset. I guess, Mk is in a bad mood today."
"So what? I am also upset. I am tired of him. He is always angry always making faces at me. I do everything to help him and this is what I get in return. I think he is jealous of my job. Let him take my job if he wants to. Maybe he can do it better than me."
It was total drama, like the ones you see enacted on stage or in typical drama films! the way she was shedding tears without emotions and the way she was wiping them and declaring her innocence and his hideousness. She knew Nlgn would report all this directly to Stf.
Back in the meeting room, the meeting resumed. A serious discussion ensued on whether we really are a team and concluded as usual without reaching any conclusion. What's the point of welcoming all the ideas, hearing them and appreciating them when you never want to implement them?
Mk, Ndn and I walked down together to the train station discussing this affair solemnly.
They opined that all our problems, all the problems of the school are just because of Mz faulty, incompetent leadership. Leave leadership, she isn't even a good teacher to begin with. She pockets her salary entirely for free. "The day she was absent and you were sent to her group, we all saw how the same children who are always rowdy and undisciplined and Mz always complains about them, how well they behaved and how happy they were when you took their charge. She just behaves like a spoilt brat and has so much of ego issues. Whoever injures her ego becomes her sworn enemy. She just seems to think that she is the leader and we all are followers. well, if she a leader, then shouldn't she have come back and talked the matter with him to solve whatever the problem was? How can you leave a solemn meeting in the middle of an argument, throw tantrum and go cry rivers in the arms of somebody behaving like a brat or a desperate housewife rather than a responsible manager of a responsible enough institution?"
"I think its time for me to start looking for job in some other school before I get fired from here, courtesy Mz."
Today morning when I went in everybody looked just the usual.
Cl asked Mz if she was ok to which she fiercely replied:
"Yes, I am okay now. I know why Mk is angry with me. He thinks that I am not a good manager and that he could do this job better than me. I want to tell him that I am the leader and not he and so he has to do what I tell him to. He has to follow me and not I him."
When we started our morning circle time Asy, Cl and I for a long time kept discussing these matters. I learnt with some surprise that Asy and Cl both were actually against Mk because they complained that he is also very stubborn. He gets angry rather too often and then he just makes grim, grumpy, sulky faces without telling anyone what's wrong. This makes functioning with him really tough. If he has any problem or needs something he should say it.
Today being Friday very few children had come, only six to be exact. So I finished off early. The last evening's affairs had been so much on my mind that I was constantly thinking about them until I started getting a headache. I wanted to go home early. I saw Mk and Stfn sitting together on my room's sofa deep in some serious conversation. Stfn glumly said:
"I and Ndn together need to talk to Stf, the boss but we can't leave the babies alone. I asked My to send somebody to our class just for 15 minutes but she said she can't as she doesn't have any teacher free. Can you imagine, she was the one who assured us that we are a tea and we can always look for help when ever we are in need?"
"I am free right now. maybe I can go to your class and look after the children till you do what you want to?"
I offered.
"Really?"
"But yes."
She was so happy. She quickly left me in her room with two babies fast asleep in their cribs and went to talk to Stf with Ndn.
15 minutes later Ndn came back looking disappointed.
"We discussed our matters with her. She is so horrible! She didn't listen to anything. She has finally decided that Asy stays with you in your group as she doesn't want to leave your group. I was supposed to come to your group from next week but now I shall do that two months later because a new full time teacher is coming into our group and I must stay to settle her with the children. I shan't be a full time teacher in your group but will keep rotating from one group to the other wherever I am needed."
Stf was particularly bad to Stfn. "You don't work for me - you work for money. You can leave any day you want to."
So after the school was over I went to an Indian shop and bought samosas and other Indian snacks and papadums which nobody could pronounce without breaking into a giggly laughter. We laid the table with all the goodies and the scented candles and it looked really beautiful. They all gobbled up the samosa in one wink.
The meeting began just as usual amid idle gossip and chat. Mk since the moment he walked in looked upset and angry. I asked him what was wrong but he didn't tell me. Mz and Mk both were seated at the opposite ends of the table. I glimpsed Mk sneering at everything that was being discussed in the meeting. Finally when it was his turn to say something he said that he has started feeling that he is alone in the team and that nobody helps him even when he is in need.
At this Mz shouted back.
"What's your problem? Since the meeting began you have been making faces at me. I do everything to help everyone and you say nobody helps you! This is enough. I can't tolerate it any more. I am going." She got up pushing her chair with a loud thud, grabbed her bag with a big bang, and thundered out of the room slamming the door loud shut behind her.
We all looked at each other in mute amazement! None of us had expected this.
Just at that time I had to go out of the room too to attend S's call. When the call was over I glimpsed Mz crying in the office. I wanted to know what was on her mind. I went over and found her in tears with Nlgn (our accountant and a close close friend of Stf as well as a relative of our cleaning lady!) cossetting and consoling her patting her head and shoulders as if Mz were a little toddler who just couldn't get over the grief of breaking her toy or something.
I superficially mumbled, "C'mon, don't be so upset. I guess, Mk is in a bad mood today."
"So what? I am also upset. I am tired of him. He is always angry always making faces at me. I do everything to help him and this is what I get in return. I think he is jealous of my job. Let him take my job if he wants to. Maybe he can do it better than me."
It was total drama, like the ones you see enacted on stage or in typical drama films! the way she was shedding tears without emotions and the way she was wiping them and declaring her innocence and his hideousness. She knew Nlgn would report all this directly to Stf.
Back in the meeting room, the meeting resumed. A serious discussion ensued on whether we really are a team and concluded as usual without reaching any conclusion. What's the point of welcoming all the ideas, hearing them and appreciating them when you never want to implement them?
Mk, Ndn and I walked down together to the train station discussing this affair solemnly.
They opined that all our problems, all the problems of the school are just because of Mz faulty, incompetent leadership. Leave leadership, she isn't even a good teacher to begin with. She pockets her salary entirely for free. "The day she was absent and you were sent to her group, we all saw how the same children who are always rowdy and undisciplined and Mz always complains about them, how well they behaved and how happy they were when you took their charge. She just behaves like a spoilt brat and has so much of ego issues. Whoever injures her ego becomes her sworn enemy. She just seems to think that she is the leader and we all are followers. well, if she a leader, then shouldn't she have come back and talked the matter with him to solve whatever the problem was? How can you leave a solemn meeting in the middle of an argument, throw tantrum and go cry rivers in the arms of somebody behaving like a brat or a desperate housewife rather than a responsible manager of a responsible enough institution?"
"I think its time for me to start looking for job in some other school before I get fired from here, courtesy Mz."
Today morning when I went in everybody looked just the usual.
Cl asked Mz if she was ok to which she fiercely replied:
"Yes, I am okay now. I know why Mk is angry with me. He thinks that I am not a good manager and that he could do this job better than me. I want to tell him that I am the leader and not he and so he has to do what I tell him to. He has to follow me and not I him."
When we started our morning circle time Asy, Cl and I for a long time kept discussing these matters. I learnt with some surprise that Asy and Cl both were actually against Mk because they complained that he is also very stubborn. He gets angry rather too often and then he just makes grim, grumpy, sulky faces without telling anyone what's wrong. This makes functioning with him really tough. If he has any problem or needs something he should say it.
Today being Friday very few children had come, only six to be exact. So I finished off early. The last evening's affairs had been so much on my mind that I was constantly thinking about them until I started getting a headache. I wanted to go home early. I saw Mk and Stfn sitting together on my room's sofa deep in some serious conversation. Stfn glumly said:
"I and Ndn together need to talk to Stf, the boss but we can't leave the babies alone. I asked My to send somebody to our class just for 15 minutes but she said she can't as she doesn't have any teacher free. Can you imagine, she was the one who assured us that we are a tea and we can always look for help when ever we are in need?"
"I am free right now. maybe I can go to your class and look after the children till you do what you want to?"
I offered.
"Really?"
"But yes."
She was so happy. She quickly left me in her room with two babies fast asleep in their cribs and went to talk to Stf with Ndn.
15 minutes later Ndn came back looking disappointed.
"We discussed our matters with her. She is so horrible! She didn't listen to anything. She has finally decided that Asy stays with you in your group as she doesn't want to leave your group. I was supposed to come to your group from next week but now I shall do that two months later because a new full time teacher is coming into our group and I must stay to settle her with the children. I shan't be a full time teacher in your group but will keep rotating from one group to the other wherever I am needed."
Stf was particularly bad to Stfn. "You don't work for me - you work for money. You can leave any day you want to."
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