I was about as excited for this farewell as probably they must have been themselves...I wanted to know what would happen today and how. A villain's downfall is particularly interesting, the worse it is, the better. One last crime I would accuse them of committing is corrupting my (and the other's out there in the staff, ) thoughts. I normally don't go about wishing people to hell and derive satisfaction and delight in watching people roll down the hill but in this case I did so and am still doing. The common maxim: if you live with bad people, you become one!
The first surprise I received was a big box of color pens in H's basket; no name or message, just the box. I shoved the box into another basket. It must have been from My. and I had no mind to receive any gift from them!
The hall had been prepared for the party already with tables and chairs laid out. The children were led out and seated at the proper places. I saw My, looking quite beautiful in her long skirt, a waist jacket and her matching scarf. I said hello to her and she made a move as though she wanted to come over and give me a hug but I got busy with the children and avoided that. I saw Mz and greeted her politely. She too wanted to come over and hug me but I avoided that. The party began as usual.
Stfn and Mks introduced the party in German and English respectively. Then the gift was handed out. There was a deep silence as My received her gift. Everyone was watching her intently knowing she was going to get a rude shock. Her gift was a haphazard collection of A4 pages colored by little children punched together in a yellow cover and a packet of chocolate, the cheapest one! None of this even gift wrapped as if the school had decided they didn't deserve even a gift wrap paper! My was thrown off her guard. She was expecting a decent gift. She flicked through the papers muttering loudly, "Oh, das ist so schone" whilst striving hard to not to show her insult and indignation. She looked like she will break into tears any moment. If I hadn't known her, I would have ascribed this forceful stifling of tears as a mark of grief and emotion one naturally feels on one's rightful farewell.
Next was Mz's turn. She too received the same fate, just a little better as she got a tiny plant and a small box of chocolates. The plant pot was foil wrapped just to stop her from committing suicide or maybe murder someone an hour later! Her group children had brought the same A4 paper drawings and coloring for her which they handed to her now and she accepted to throw in a trash bin later.
There was an uncomfortable silence! Everyone knew what was going on in their minds and nobody cared!
Moving the party forward, Stfn invited My and Mz to say something.
"Something what?" Asked My still recovering from the rude shock.
"It's your farewell. Maybe you want to say something to the children"
"Something like what?"
"Well, tschuss maybe?" Suggested Stfn.
"Okay, Tschuss. Bye bye." Mz replied without any emotion.
They wanted a farewell only to get a gift. No gift, no farewell.
Next was Mk's birthday. In stark contrast to the insipid, worse than lukewarm affair of Mz and My, Mk's birthday was celebrated with quite a noise, cheer and zest! We sang birthday song for him, clapped for him, thumped the tables deafeningly for him and presented him a nicely wrapped gift of movie tickets. He was visibly happy and Mz and My were visibly mortified. I should feel bad for them now but I didn't. Nobody did.
We were going to start handing out the cakes now but Mz and My halted us.
"We have gifts to give to our colleagues." They announced and with that started giving each one of us a small glass tea light-candle, foil wrapped quite nicely. Attached with this was a beautiful postcard with picture of beautiful flowers and handwritten " Everything that seems like an end can also be a new beginning" Signed Mz and My.
We all accepted the gift coolly just saying a polite 'Thank you' and nothing else. No use throwing a gift on us now; we know you for what you are and are not liking you anymore.
The children were busy eating and drinking lots of goody goody stuff; chips, wafer biscuits, gummibears, 3-4 different variety of cakes etc. I believe they had been brought by them. Not surprisingly, all the teachers refrained from partaking any of their stuff.
Mz came up to me. Her very last complain:
"You know, we deposited money for everyone every month but we haven't got any gift. This is so bad. We should have got a farewell gift since we worked hard here for three years but..." She laughed uncomfortably.
"Now that we don't belong to this place anymore, people have changed towards us. Mcl is angry with me. He is not even looking at me or talking to me. I tried to say hello to him but he looked away and ignored me. How sad!"
They left an hour later saying bye to everyone personally. My came and hugged me and Mz requested me to stay in touch. She jotted down her mobile number on a piece of paper for me and then that was the last of them. At least in person. The whole day everyone kept talking about how bad they had been to everyone and how glad we all were to see the last of them.
Jrn, whom I had previously accused of being shamefully servile, docile and unmanly in his demeanour and attitude, found his tongue at last. I heard him speak for the first time and couldn't help admiring his repressed vehemence in everything he spoke.
"That Mz? I have done several type of jobs in my life but never had I seen a worse person or a worse manager. The two females abused their position of authority to a mad scale. They were least bothered about anyone else. They have incurred a great loss to the school by serving all these three years. They did nothing in class. I know this because I was with Mz for four months. It was a proper hell working with her. She was always shouting, fighting, complaining, throwing tantrums, doing nothing and walking out banging the doors on her back. You could not talk two minutes with her without leading to an ugly argument. Discussion or reason of any sort was plainly impossible with her. To speak honestly, I hated both of them."
It is just a great tragedy that they left when many others have already left or plan to leave soon which was abetted by their bad behavior. If I begin counting since the time of my joining, more than fifteen teachers have had to quit their job directly or indirectly because of Mz and My. In the last two months alone more than five teachers have resigned or planning to quit soon. Mk is three years old and is the oldest one in the school followed by me who is two years old in the school.
Good teachers are costly but bad teachers cost much more. Can anyone still dare disagree?
The first surprise I received was a big box of color pens in H's basket; no name or message, just the box. I shoved the box into another basket. It must have been from My. and I had no mind to receive any gift from them!
The hall had been prepared for the party already with tables and chairs laid out. The children were led out and seated at the proper places. I saw My, looking quite beautiful in her long skirt, a waist jacket and her matching scarf. I said hello to her and she made a move as though she wanted to come over and give me a hug but I got busy with the children and avoided that. I saw Mz and greeted her politely. She too wanted to come over and hug me but I avoided that. The party began as usual.
Stfn and Mks introduced the party in German and English respectively. Then the gift was handed out. There was a deep silence as My received her gift. Everyone was watching her intently knowing she was going to get a rude shock. Her gift was a haphazard collection of A4 pages colored by little children punched together in a yellow cover and a packet of chocolate, the cheapest one! None of this even gift wrapped as if the school had decided they didn't deserve even a gift wrap paper! My was thrown off her guard. She was expecting a decent gift. She flicked through the papers muttering loudly, "Oh, das ist so schone" whilst striving hard to not to show her insult and indignation. She looked like she will break into tears any moment. If I hadn't known her, I would have ascribed this forceful stifling of tears as a mark of grief and emotion one naturally feels on one's rightful farewell.
Next was Mz's turn. She too received the same fate, just a little better as she got a tiny plant and a small box of chocolates. The plant pot was foil wrapped just to stop her from committing suicide or maybe murder someone an hour later! Her group children had brought the same A4 paper drawings and coloring for her which they handed to her now and she accepted to throw in a trash bin later.
There was an uncomfortable silence! Everyone knew what was going on in their minds and nobody cared!
Moving the party forward, Stfn invited My and Mz to say something.
"Something what?" Asked My still recovering from the rude shock.
"It's your farewell. Maybe you want to say something to the children"
"Something like what?"
"Well, tschuss maybe?" Suggested Stfn.
"Okay, Tschuss. Bye bye." Mz replied without any emotion.
They wanted a farewell only to get a gift. No gift, no farewell.
Next was Mk's birthday. In stark contrast to the insipid, worse than lukewarm affair of Mz and My, Mk's birthday was celebrated with quite a noise, cheer and zest! We sang birthday song for him, clapped for him, thumped the tables deafeningly for him and presented him a nicely wrapped gift of movie tickets. He was visibly happy and Mz and My were visibly mortified. I should feel bad for them now but I didn't. Nobody did.
We were going to start handing out the cakes now but Mz and My halted us.
"We have gifts to give to our colleagues." They announced and with that started giving each one of us a small glass tea light-candle, foil wrapped quite nicely. Attached with this was a beautiful postcard with picture of beautiful flowers and handwritten " Everything that seems like an end can also be a new beginning" Signed Mz and My.
We all accepted the gift coolly just saying a polite 'Thank you' and nothing else. No use throwing a gift on us now; we know you for what you are and are not liking you anymore.
The children were busy eating and drinking lots of goody goody stuff; chips, wafer biscuits, gummibears, 3-4 different variety of cakes etc. I believe they had been brought by them. Not surprisingly, all the teachers refrained from partaking any of their stuff.
Mz came up to me. Her very last complain:
"You know, we deposited money for everyone every month but we haven't got any gift. This is so bad. We should have got a farewell gift since we worked hard here for three years but..." She laughed uncomfortably.
"Now that we don't belong to this place anymore, people have changed towards us. Mcl is angry with me. He is not even looking at me or talking to me. I tried to say hello to him but he looked away and ignored me. How sad!"
They left an hour later saying bye to everyone personally. My came and hugged me and Mz requested me to stay in touch. She jotted down her mobile number on a piece of paper for me and then that was the last of them. At least in person. The whole day everyone kept talking about how bad they had been to everyone and how glad we all were to see the last of them.
Jrn, whom I had previously accused of being shamefully servile, docile and unmanly in his demeanour and attitude, found his tongue at last. I heard him speak for the first time and couldn't help admiring his repressed vehemence in everything he spoke.
"That Mz? I have done several type of jobs in my life but never had I seen a worse person or a worse manager. The two females abused their position of authority to a mad scale. They were least bothered about anyone else. They have incurred a great loss to the school by serving all these three years. They did nothing in class. I know this because I was with Mz for four months. It was a proper hell working with her. She was always shouting, fighting, complaining, throwing tantrums, doing nothing and walking out banging the doors on her back. You could not talk two minutes with her without leading to an ugly argument. Discussion or reason of any sort was plainly impossible with her. To speak honestly, I hated both of them."
It is just a great tragedy that they left when many others have already left or plan to leave soon which was abetted by their bad behavior. If I begin counting since the time of my joining, more than fifteen teachers have had to quit their job directly or indirectly because of Mz and My. In the last two months alone more than five teachers have resigned or planning to quit soon. Mk is three years old and is the oldest one in the school followed by me who is two years old in the school.
Good teachers are costly but bad teachers cost much more. Can anyone still dare disagree?
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