RANT: Bad day at work - I hate hate hate frickin teachers and

[AmandaRuth]

ESPECIALLY LIBRARIANS! I work for a company that provides a service for schools, and I am here to tell you teachers and librarians are the meanest rudest most demanding group i have ever worked with, Yeah its all different now, you all liked me when I jumping up and down on the street corner waving a vote for schools sign and when I walked door to door in this very republican anti school area trying to get a new high school built. NEVER AGAIN. Now that I am working "for" you, you treat me like I am less than human, you have absolutely no comprehensive of what I go thru to service you and more important you couldn't care less. Yeah I'm pissed. All this for a job that pays less than McDonalds wages. And no, I know that freepers lurk here, I won't tell you the name of the company.

OK DU teachers - talk me down from my rage.

[JVS]

1. I'd be a fucking maniac too if I had to work with damned kids all day

[AmandaRuth]

2. i feel better already

just spewing relaxes me. I need a beer. :beer: :beer: OK i don.t "need" a beer, but one sure sounds good right about now.

[Kajsa]

17. ROLF! JVS, You have just zapped

all the tension I had in my spine- You see,

I'm a substitute teacher at the high school level.

THANK YOU !!!!!!

:rofl:

btw; I really like working with students- but some days
are tougher than others.

Thanks for the comic relief.

[JVS]

34. My mom subs at a HS too

[Kajsa]

37. So you know how

some days are for us.:-)

[Metta]

3. This works for me.

Here's something which I find very effective for dealing with my emotions especially in situations where there is no changing the content.

Raise all of that anger over your head and slam it down into the earth. That'll ground it. Tell yourself you're anchoring it there. Your intention will make it work. Then, see yourself in a circle of light. The circle is on the floor. Light it up brightly. Again. Tell yourself that you anchor it there. Lastly, see yourself surrounded by an egg of gentle golden flame. Hang out with it and breathe normally. Stay with it for awhile, however long you want that to be.

If you try this, you'll transmute your anger and come away with tons of personal power. This works in all emotional situations.

[bbernardini]

4. It's just THOSE teachers.

As a teacher, I assure you, every teacher I've ever worked with has been among the most kind and polite people I've ever known. Especially where I'm teaching now.

[AmandaRuth]

6. i wish it were so

try being on the other end for awhile. If i could only tape those phone conversations.

But, I do believe teachers are on the front lines and doing hero's work, as cliche as that sounds. I couldn't work where I do if I didn't believe that. Thanks for reminding me why I do what I do.

[HarukaTheTrophyWife]

5. In my HS, the librarians were assholes & the teachers were awesome.

God I hated the school librarians...

[huskerlaw]

7. I'm a librarian

and I'm only an asshole once in a while.

If you hate your job so much and could make more at McDonald's perhaps you should quit and go work there? :shrug:

[AmandaRuth]

9. Night and weekends, mabey

So do you call book warehouses and demand to shop anytime anywhere after business hours (its not like I have child care issues or anything) so you can have your books for the battle of the books - And get defensive when it it suggested that you would be limited to 2 copies of new product, just so you have enough to service all the other schools. And get angry because although you are a production warehouse you aren't set up like a retail store,with carts and cash registers? And get angry because you aren't entitled to take say $1,000 worth of product without like, I don't know a purchase order from a school district or some other form of payment. Good, because I can give the names and number of librarians that do get angry over all this stuff.

[huskerlaw]

12. No, I don't, actually

and the generalizations are a little annoying. I'm sorry you work with assholes, but to generalize it to all librarians is immature. Perhaps they treat you like that because you react to them all in a negative fashion, as you do here?

BTW, librarians are, as an occupation, some of the most liberal people in the country.

[AmandaRuth]

15. I am not generalizing, most and i do mean most are pretty

demanding. We joke down at work that they are a "tough crowd".

I would find your last sentence a generalization, one that I truly believed in, until I started working where I do. I deal with teachers and librarians all day, and the percentage of right wingers and bush lovers is far higher than I ever imagined. But then, I deal with public and private schools. I wish it weren't so, but it is .

[huskerlaw]

16. You know,

it's interesting, because I work with librarians all the time. I go to conferences with librarians from all over the country, and I just don't see what you're talking about. They're some of the nicest people, as a group (of course there are exceptions) that I've ever met.

And I have found nearly all of them to be liberals, even in very red states.

[Broken_Hero]

24. Hmm

I use to work for Wm. B. Meyer, a moving company, which also moved full libraries. I worked over 14 different universities, and every single job, we had "irritibable" librarian's, faculty, and administrators jumping on our ass, for no reasons. In my experience, Librarians, are pretty "strict" about the little things they want. In one case, i had a librarian jump some of my workers, because a book, was about 1/5th of an inch, hanging over the shelf...yes, that was at University of California Riverside. The librarian rode my worker, yelling at them, for making a mistake, and I had to go stop her from making the scene worse. And then she cut into me.

After the librarian left, I told my whole crew, to pull out every single book 1/5th of an inch over the shelf, every book, just to piss her off. She got more mad, and tried getting me fired, but alas, in our contract, it mentioned nothing about having books hanging over the shelf by 1/5th of an inch...so the prude, had to deal with it.

I am currently a sub-teacher in SW Missouri. 75% of the teachers dont' even talk to me, and the 25% that they, look down on me. Thats just my experience, i'm not saying all "librarians, or teachers" or assholes. BUt in my experience, most of them are complete prudes.

On Edit: Spelling now=no, damn another mistake, Libraries=Librarian

[Southsideirish]

14. Me, too, but only an "adjunct'". You know, we do all the work with the

students while the tenured folk hide in their offices.

[Book Lover]

8. Then perhaps you should work for McDonald's if you hate your current job so

I work with teachers and librarians quite often, although at the college level FWIW, and I simply cannot agree that this is the worst group to work with. I understand the need to vent after a shitty day, but perhaps you should think about how shitty their wages and work environment are as well.

[AmandaRuth]

10. i keep telling myself that

over and over and over -

Like I said, I took this job because I wanted to work with teachers. And Librarians. All I am asking is that there is some give and take.

[Book Lover]

11. So, from your post above, I'm inferring

you work in the book warehouse or depository? Actually, scratch that - you don;'to say and no worries there.

:hug: to you for your crappy day. Sometimes when you're near the bottom of the totem pole, you dump on the folks even lower than you to reassure yourself that you're above someone else. I know I'm guilty of that myself...

[AmandaRuth]

13. thanks I needed that

I do like my job - getting books into the hands of children, its just some days I like it more than others

[salin]

18. I am an educator, and worked with educators

and yes, educators can be difficult and demanding. Not towards each other, but towards others in other positions. Many recognized it and laughed about it in terms of - yea, we can be as bad as the kids (sitting in the back of a meeting room first, not paying attention to presentations, etc.) I chalk it up to a situation where folks are in a reverse situation (compared to the classroom) and escaping from the stresses of multi-tasking (teaching - dealing with individual student problems and trying to adjust the teaching - all day) - among other things. The 'difficult' behavior seems to be reserved for 'outsiders' to the field that are serving the field (e.g. in most social situations the dynamic isn't present, nor is it in peer to peer relationships.)

I think that sometimes it is a projection of the stress that builds in working in an isolated environment, and having to multi-task for hours on end (teaching x or y subject, and adjust the teaching for each student per their needs.) While I understand the dynamic, it doesn't necessarily make it easier.

Just wanted to let you know that your observation/experience is not isolated and particular to you and your job. And to stress that empathy for the "why" and a bit of humour can defuse the dynamic. I love my fellow educators, even while I recognize that at times we can be a difficult lot.

[AmandaRuth]

20. thanks

just thanks -

[Broken_Hero]

25. I agree, great post... n/t :)

[hfojvt]

31. librarians have a sh*tty work environment?

They work in libraries!!

On 2nd thought, if these are school librarians, then I can see a problem. The kids can turn you that way. I saw one sub come into my junior high school and she was such a sweet old lady and I saw some of the thuggish kids razzing her and I noticed that a couple months later all of the sweetness was gone, replaced by surliness, and it was kinda heartbreaking to watch.

When I had a bookstore a store opened up a couple years later that sold supplies for teachers two doors down from mine. So that brought teachers to my store too, and they were great customers, and enthusiastic about my store. In my experience, teachers were the only customers who would spend $60 on half a dozen books without batting an eyelash. At first I thought it was because they made good money, which I still think is true, but the better explanation is that they love books.

[Road Scholar]

19. Oh yeah that's smart. Bite the hand that feeds you. Have you

ever thought about working on your coping skills???? ROFLMAO
:shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :shrug: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[AmandaRuth]

22. hey you want to know what I cope with

I cope with working 10 hour days a week and than 8 hours on saturday during "the season", which lasts the school year. I cope with having to beg my husband to come home early to take the kid to piano so i can stay late at work and help a teacher get her books. I cope with having to tell a single mother that I couldn't approve payroll in time for her check because 5 teachers came unannounced at 3 and had to "shop the warehouse". I cope with my daughter telling me Christmas sucked this year because i was working so much. I cope with stopping by xxx elementary school on the way home to drop off books that they have to have for family night. I cope with maybe maybe maybe eating lunch once or twice a week (on a good week). I cope with a lot at this job buddy because I believed in the mission statement of a book in the hands of every child. I think you need to work on your compassion skills and maybe next time if the first word in the thread title is RANT, don't click.

[Road Scholar]

35. It sure sounds like you have a miserable life. I wonder whose

fault that is. I've found that people are about as happy as they want to be.But then, there are a few who always seem to be victims. good luck

[Zomby Woof]

21. I used to be a teacher

And I came to hate them too, for many of the reasons you cited. The sheer stupidity of their breakroom chitchat outdoes anything I have ever heard in my private sector jobs. The parents were even worse. And don't get me started on the administrators.

In fact, after teaching and working in retail during the summers, my misanthropy was sealed for life. :nuke:

I encourage your righterous rage. :thumbsup:

[AmandaRuth]

23. no wonder my kid likes you so much.

[Broken_Hero]

26. You

mentioned Battle of the Books, are you in Alaska? I was in BAttle of the books as a youngster. I thought, that program was for Alaska, or do more school districts use them?

[AmandaRuth]

27. my company is nation wide

and I believe every state has some form of a battle of the books program.

[Broken_Hero]

28. Oh, okay

I have never seen it anywhere else but Alaska. I have been involved with two school systems in the lower 48, and neither of them, even heard of Battle of the Books...

On Edit: You wouldn't, by any chance, be able to pull up Battle of the Books lists, from say, 1988-1991, could you? For, some boring reason, a few months ago, i was compiling a list of all the books I have read, and i know i read all the battle of hte books from 1988-1991, but can't remember all the titles, i remember stories, and events, but a lot of the titles, elude me. I have tried numerous seaches on line, for those book lists, for those years....

[AmandaRuth]

29. I don't know if our records go back that far

but i will find out tomorrow

[Broken_Hero]

30. Thanks

for even giving it a thought. Its just a pain, trying to remember the names. During my 6-9th grade years, I participated, and read every single book on the list. The only time, i did good was in the 6th grade, we were the 2nd best team, in our school system, number one, went further in the state competition....the rest of the time, i had other teammates, who were...well, pot heads, and just doing it for extra credit, and its hard to rememberr 28 some books, when quite a few of them share simliar themes/characters...:) I was usually a one man show.

[marzipanni]

33. Yeah... I'm always sputtering to myself, "people are so stupid"

too bad I am one ;)

[marzipanni]

32. My son has been in the Battle of the Books for two years

Thanks for helping to get the books to the schools! The kids had fun and are developing an appreciation of the wriitten word. Having a competition makes it a bit more cool; my son and his team called themselves "The Computer Nerds"... ;)

[Left_Winger]

36. I can understand your feelings, however...

not all of us are that way. Here is a paragraph from an e-mail sent to me this week by a former student who graduated several years ago:

"I don't know if you know this, but I decided to take German b/c I enjoyed having you so much in World History and I figured a really good teacher only comes along so often. So thanks, I really enjoyed being your student. Email me back man, its been way too long :)"