Ancient History part 1

A few years back, our amazing, man-she-is-really-the-total-package, manager packed up and left Oregon.

Georgia* was the person who hired me back in 2004.
She was the most supportive manager I've ever had. Out of all the jobs I've ever worked, all the states we've lived in and all the different types of managers she was absolutely the best.

When I needed something for my program, it was delivered, sometimes the same day. We knew what was expected, but she was open to discussion and other ideas. She knew that the people delivering the program to the kids had insight and ideas that she could not have, since she didn't usually work directly with the kids.
There were occasions that she did have to work with the kids, (we're not iron men, and sometimes we had to take time off) and they liked her. She was observant, noticing when kids were heading in a not-so-good direction, firm with acceptable/unacceptable behavior, but warm and friendly and approachable, too. They liked and trusted her.
Mostly what happened was that she counted on us to know how to run a program. There was never any hint of micromanaging. We know our families and kids best, and she encouraged planning to suit each individual program. All of us worked hard to come up with creative and interesting lesson plans for the kids.

Georgia knew we placed the kids at the top of our list of priorities, and she kept her nose and hands out of our programs. She was overwhelmingly positive about our efforts, and constantly built us up.

During summer, she trusted us to plan, to build the program, and to deliver the same quality as during the school year. She was with us while we set up, wearing jeans. She bought us lunch. She swept floors, hauled boxes and delivered paperwork. A paper file for each child is important. Computers don't always work, and we don't take them outdoors with us. The ability to look up emergency contact information by pulling out the paper is still the fastest way to do it.

She saw herself as our support staff. In return, we made her look really good for her bossy bosses. She listened and heard us.

A great all-around relationship.

If you ask me, which you did not... but if you had.

I could write a whole post about her, actually. She's missed still.

Her replacement was possibly the most abrasive, bossy, crabby person I've ever met. Ms. Caustic. She was the manager for a different district, and I didn't have to deal with her much. I knew some of her staff, though, and how crappy she made them feel on occasion.

While Georgia was on maternity leave, I had to go to the office to pick up our snacks for the month. Caustic was in her own office that day. She was our go-to person while Georgia was off. I don't remember what I needed, but it was something important enough to talk with a manager about. While I was talking to her she turned her back on me, opened up her laptop and started working. She completely dismissed me.

So I didn't ask her for anything else. Georgia came back and everything was back to normal for about two years until she left. ::sigh::

Caustic's first act as our new manager was to call a meeting. A MANDATORY meeting. It was presented to us that way via email.

Mandatory in all caps.

One of us had lost a brother in law and the funeral was that day. Caustic said to Erin*, "Well it looks like you need to make a choice. Show up for the meeting or look for other employment. You might need to find a more flexible employer."

Erin showed up for the meeting, walking out of the funeral for a FAMILY MEMBER halfway through.

Caustic made her choose between her job and her family.
Nice, huh? It's sad that so many employers do exactly that.
I've worked for more than one.

I'd like to tell you that our MANDATORY!!!! meeting was important/necessary/productive, but that would be dishonest. What it was turned out to be was the verbal equivalent of Caustic coming around to all our programs and peeing in the corners to establish her dominance.

It was an utter waste of everyone's time.

They made everyone a folder with their name on it. You were to sit where your folder had been placed.

When I sat down and started to open my folder, Caustic and her Flunky both said sharply, "NO!"
Then, to everyone, "Guys, we worked hard to put this together. We will go over it page by page with you. Don't look at your folders!!"

Apparently they figured since we were nothing but babysitters, we would be incapable of reading comprehension.

So page by excruciating page, we went through our folders. Problem with A? Call Flunky. Problem with B? Call Flunky. Please don't bother Caustic with your petty little issues, call Flunky. Flunky will decide if your concerns/issues/needs are important enough to pass on to your supreme ruler. You are not to contact Caustic directly, she's a busy person and doesn't have time for that.

They'd made a bunch of color copies. Pages of stuff. Would have been cheaper and just as easy to understand in black and white, but whatever. It's only money.

Caustic wasn't much on visiting programs after her first visit to each of us.

She walked into my program, looked around for maybe 30 seconds, said scornfully, "They're not learning anything. They're just playing. You need to fix that."

She stalked into my back room. Scanned what was on the shelves and said, "You have too much stuff here. We'll redistribute some of it in a few weeks when Flunky has time to come out here and do it. Some of my sites don't have enough things."

When I told her that most of the extras in my back room belonged to me personally, she sniffed. "I find that hard to believe. Can you provide receipts?"

I countered with, "Since the company keeps records of purchase orders and expenditures, I'm sure it will be easy enough to look it up. You'll find that a large majority of the things here belong to me." My tone of voice hid the fact that she was making me furious. I wanted to slap her.

I pointed out the Goodwill stickers on many of the items. On our book cart alone were over 100 books that belonged to me. She was skeptical until I started pulling books out and flipping them over to show her the stickers. I had scrawled my first name in the flyleaf of most of them with a very large black marker, too.

She backed down, but not in front of me.
She just never sent Flunky out to steal from me/my kids. I'm glad I didn't have to pitch a fit.

The tone of the emails she sent out to us was just nasty and snotty. Very demeaning and demanding. Morale sucked. During that time, many staff people were ready to quit. I considered it, but then I said no, she is not going to push me out of a job I love. Fuck that. I kept my head down, did my job and continued taking care of my kids.

And you thought I was just a babysitter, sitting around watching kids. An easy job. :)