| More of Tony's Adventures in Elementary School |
[Apr. 5th, 2009|08:10 pm]
Tony
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| [ | mood |
| |  irritated | ] |
| [ | music |
| | "Teenage Dirtbag" - Wheatus | ] |
I'm becoming way too invested in my current job. It's not like I plan to work as an elementary school aide for the rest of my life, so why should I care so much about what happens to me at work on a daily basis? Yet, here I am, doing it. Silly me.
First, there's Debbie, the cold woman who is our main office administrator. I mainly avoid her, which is pretty easy to do since she doesn't work out on the yard with us and doesn't hang out in the staff lounge with us. I only really see her when I sign in and out for my shift. So in the past several weeks I haven't had any Debbie-problems. That's good, at least.
The classified staff is very cliquey. If we were on Survivor, I'm pretty sure my alliance would consist of Sandy, Rebecca, Oscar, and myself.
Several weeks ago, everyone was terrified about the pink slips that were rumored to be going out (since LAUSD has to cut a certain amount from its budget), and during a mid-morning break, Sherry was panicking about losing her job. Paula, Francisco (aka "Mr. T."), and Donnia were trying to calm her down. They were talking about how their positions might not be eliminated, but they might be forced to take on more responsibilities for the same amount of pay.
Donnia makes a comment where she says something like, "Maybe they'll cut the yard supervisor positions? That would save money."
And I'm thinking..."HELLO! Yard supervisor [ME!] sitting five feet away from you!!!!"
Sherry and Mr. T. basically echoed that they'd be willing to do that. It's like none of them even gave a fuck that I was FUCKING SITTING RIGHT THERE!!!!!!
I realize they were all trying to make Sherry feel less scared about the likelihood of losing her job, but Donnia didn't need to make that comment -- especially not right in front of me.
Seriously, Donnia has been nothing but ambivalent and unfriendly toward me. I will never go out of my way to be nice to her again.
Also, during that same mid-morning Let's-Reassure-Sherry session, Paula was sitting with them talking about this-and-that regarding the LAUSD administrators, like she was on a first-name basis with them. A couple of weeks later, Ramona recalled this when she and myself and DiDi were talking about the budget cuts early in the morning (when Ramona and DiDi usually take their morning break). Ramona seemed hostile when she spoke of Paula, as though Paula had no right to be such a know-it-all.
This hostility was further exemplified this past week, when there was apparently a lot of unspoken tension between Ramona and Paula (none of which I witnessed firsthand, but that I heard secondhand from DiDi).
Paula also recently semi-chewed me out for pointing out how she'd yelled at Glen, one of the second-graders whose class I supervise during Lunch. Glen (who's a really sweet kid, and not at all a troublemaker) was being teased by Rachel, but Paula caught Glen yelling at Rachel and proceeded to yell at Glen in front of his classmates. Glen was then extremely embarrassed about what had happened, and was in tears for the rest of Lunch (I took him aside while everyone was out on the yard, and Glen described the entire situation to me). Of course, Paula constantly defends Donnia, and Mr. T. seems to have some sort of fatherly attachment toward Donnia also.
When I told Sandy how Paula had reacted when I spoke to her about Glen, Sandy said she *KNEW* Paula was going to react that way (I'd also filled Sandy in on the situation before I'd approached Paula), and commented that Paula acts like a drill sergeant (that's an understatement!) about the kids and comes off like a know-it-all.
Paula had told me: "I handled it. I've had 25 years of experience at this job." She added that if there were any other problems, I need to take it up with Carol. Since then, Glen seems to have forgotten about the incident, so I'm going to let it go unless Glen comes to me again about anything Paula-related.
I found out from Sandy that Kerry is separated from her husband, who's been unemployed for the past 6-8 months. She is barely able to make the payments on their house, and they fear they'll be evicted due to foreclosure.
Pam and I normally work well together...except last week when she lectured me in front of the kids because I hadn't made sure one of the first-graders was frozen when the bell rang. The kid was actually under my supervision, and we were walking across the yard to approach another kid who'd been involved with an earlier conflict; but Pam was like, "It doesn't matter! When the bell rings, they're frozen!"
I don't think Pam knows I'm angry with her. Although I'm angry with Paula and Donnia too. But I'm an angry person.
Taeo and Rebecca are completely chill, and it's always a nice breather being around either of them. Oscar, too (he's Mr. T.'s "nephew" and just graduated from high school last year) -- I can tell he genuinely cares about me as a coworker.
I've got at least two months left at this job, and my coworkers will be in for a very different Tony once our current Spring/Easter Break ends. |
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nervous
cheerful