Thursday, April 9, 2009

bad boss bad

i met with my boss this morning. we met to discuss my news students for next week. as usual she got my knickers into a knot.

she doesn't treat me with respect or like i have a brain. maybe i'm extra sensitive to this because i was treated with the utmost respect from my last two managers.

she says things like, "don't ever talk about abortion with your students", to which I reply "of course not, i would never talk about it in the states, even with friends". without hearing me she continues to say "you don't know how they would react...." and on and on. want to say "that's obvious!!", but i didn't ......

next i ask her to be paid for the month of march (we're already 9 days into april). she says "next time we meet". i tell her i need to pay rent. she says "next time". i say my dueno is asking for it. again, with no apology she says "next time". she didn't even have a simpethetic face.

throughout the meeting she continued to drill it into me that i need to do conference call simulations with my students. i asked her for the material. she said she would get it to me next time (she said the same thing when we met last month).

she asked me what i was doing with students. i told her about the articles i found with accompanying audio and some easy podcasts. she asked for the websites and i gave them to her, then she asked me to send her all the articles i found so that she can give them to the other teachers to use. i told her no, that i wanted to use the articles for all my students. second, she isn't paying me extra for my research, that she will pass off as her own. third she didn't even acknowledge the extra time i spent finding articles for my students.

then she asked me if she could have all my english magazines so that she can make copies of them for the other teachers. this won't happen. if she can't pay me on time, i don't think she will care about returning my resources. second, if she makes copies, than what will i discuss with all the students?

showing me no respect and giving me no encouragement that i'm doing a good job she asks me to make her look good. next week i'll be meeting with a student who doesn't like her. it's the student's first class with a native english speaker. she told me i have to make a really good impression. the only thing she wants him to say is "that he feels like an ass for treating her badly" (she said this). i won't be going out of my way to make her look good, but i also won't be doing anything to make her look bad. I'm planning our first topic of conversion to be abortion.
(joking)

i'm keeping in mind that i'm happy with my students. i enjoy meeting with them each week. i'm happy that as an english teacher in b.a. i don't have to travel like other teachers do. ( i just go into two offices which are walkable from one another) i don't teach grammar and i'm paid well compared to other schools or the other offers i received. if the only thing that gets under my skin is my boss, who i rarely see, i can deal.

4 comments:

Conor said...

In Ireland we would call your boss a wagon. I think she thinks she can get away with it because you are not an official resident etc and can just throw beaurocracy at you if necessary and she sounds like she has had experience with malleable and meek foreigners. Hold your ground. Constantly ring her up and dont give any chance to pin you down again. She is being very unprofessional (but dont say that to her!). Always mention being paid. Gentle harassment. If she asks to meet again say something like you cant because you dont even have the cash for the subte!

yillabean said...

Thanks for you comment. I know that she has experience with malleable foreigners....I stood up to her a couple months ago and things got better, but I think she needs to be reminded again.

Conor said...

Never let up. You should be respected and she should be reminded of that at everytime. Go get her!

yillabean said...

Ha! I love your comment! Thank you.

Will do. Will do!