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Vindication
As some of you who have read this blog a long time would know, I "resigned" my position at the end last year. I use quotation marks because the "resignation" was forced - it was basically jump, or be pushed.
Today, I worked with a former colleague who worked at the same school with me in 2005. She was only a casual member of staff, but at the end of the year was offered a permanent, full-time position on staff. At this point, she went to another school that she was also working for and asked them if they had any upcoming work that would compete with this offer. All they could offer her was a block of casual work, five days a week, for the term.
She took the term's work in preference to a permanent, full-time job.
And why?
She saw my boss do the same thing to someone else as she did to me last year, and decided that she didn't want to work at a school where the executive could turn against her at any minute and make her life a professional hell.
She then proceeded to tell me about a counsellor who worked at the school in 2006 who, unbeknownst to me, was also a very good friend of hers. She resigned at the beginning of last year, apparently because some of the things that she was being asked to do were putting her professional reputation at risk. When she wouldn't do them, the executive turned against her too.
In turn, I was then able to share with her that I had discovered that one of the staff who had been hired to replace me had resigned after nine weeks employment.
Count them.
One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, NINE.
Therefore, that makes seven people in total that she has done this to. Two fought, and have survived as members of staff. Five have resigned, and I know of one other person who took leave in order to find employment BEFORE she resigned, because she was sick and tired of having to put up with watching my boss play games with people.
But wait ... there's more.
The school where my colleague is now working is one of the same schools that I went and did casual work at a couple of weeks ago. Although it wasn't enough to restore my enthusiasm for education as an industry, it was pleasant to work in an environment that was so much more relaxed than the school where I had been previously employed.
I hadn't received any feedback from any of the staff members since the time I worked. Term 1 is always shit for casual work - everyone's well-rested after the summer holidays, the kids haven't become the equivalent of germ cesspits due to the good weather, it's very rare for people to take long service leave, etc, etc. Therefore, I wasn't surprised when I wasn't asked to come back ... though there was still a lurking doubt in my mind about my ability as a teacher.
Well, today my colleague told me that they thought I was the bee's knees, and that I will definitely be asked to come back to her school next term.
I tell you, I'm loving it ... I finally feel like a little bit of vindication has come my way.
