This has been a very hard year. It is funny because I have already spent time in my new position with my new duties and it would be assumed easily that I would have adjusted to all of the responsibilities and duties without difficulty, that I would be doing my job without the difficulties that seem to have occurred. However, I have found this year (2011) to be harder than anything I have had to deal with before. And the funny part is, as we are moving into a new year (2012), it is finally getting easier.
Since last semester I have been having a rough time. Even with my fantastic summer in the states and the tour of London over the summer, it was all in all one of the hardest years I have had to work with.
I am teaching again.
It seems some jerk weenie decided it would be a good idea to come to the UAE as a foreign teacher, spend a couple of months teaching and gathering as much money from the position as he could, use his experience to write a script, and then walk out of the job part way through the semester. At least this is what the rumor has exclaimed.
And rather than informing me, my boss simply let my new schedule speak for itself. Lucky for me none of the classes were at 8:00, because I didn't know about it until someone gave me a copy of the new schedule and someone else asked me if I needed anything to assist with the transition.
Everyone assumed that my boss had told me.
Oddly enough, she still hasn't.
So I have been teaching a class of students who feel abandoned because their teacher left the week of Midterm exams.
On top of that, a teacher made the severe error of making an off color remark about the UAE at exactly the wrong time. The students were preparing things for national day and they began to do things during class which the teacher found distracting. So he changed a word from love to hate and then popped the balloon that it was written on, (supposedly) although the Newspaper articles make it seem much more detrimental.
So now he is gone too. Which means more shuffling of schedules and more difficulties for teachers taking on new loads and extra work.
And this is my first experience as a supervisor over other staff. I find it difficult because I tend to view myself as part of a team. I like to head the team, but I expect everyone to pull their own weight. The problem is that I tend to be an over-achiever and pull more than my own weight. This leads others to not doing their jobs because they know that I will fix something if it is wrong or out of place. I do try to delegate and I am learning how to work with the more mulish and difficult personality types, but it is difficult. I also am learning how to accept that sometimes there will be errors, mistakes, and things I don't like. Because you can't always do it yourself.
I don't think that I will make a good administrator because I believe too much in the idea of a team effort. I believe in empowering the employees and supporting their personal efforts on improvement. And while my expectations of excellence do pull out some great efforts on their part, it does mean disappointment for me at times.
I have one employee who has not adjusted to the idea of being in my department. She was placed against her will and is being slowly demoted. It isn't a nice situation for anyone. Worse, because she doesn't want to be here she makes less of an effort. And oddly enough when I am not here she does nothing. Literally nothing. Enough that my other workers are annoyed and upset.
And I am not the only supervisor. I hold this position jointly with another person. But due to sex issues (male vs. female) I do all of the supervision. He doesn't feel that it is appropriate that he manage the girls, so I get all the dirty work.
And I really don't like being the baddy all the time.
It is kind of like being in a weird marriage, where one parent has to be the bad cop (discipline) and the other gets to give all the rewards. Thank goodness my own family isn't like that. It stinks to always be the one to discipline the girls while not always being the one to give the rewards.
And I have just heard that we have yet another teacher who won't be coming back. They have given that teacher the "no return" message. And we have several teachers who have already decided that this is their last contract. So there will be a mass exodus at the end of their contracts and we will be losing good teachers. And I can't blame them.
However, as I said it does seem to be turning around. And I am having fun again. For me that is the most important thing.
And I will miss those who leave, as I have missed those who have left before. There have been several that I have missed very much since they have left and it sorrows me to be working in a place with such a high turn over rate. But that is life abroad.
The kids are doing well, My hubby is doing well, and I am finally healthy again. And I am singing in the shower again. Which is always a sign of my better mood. I am also singing Christmas songs. Which got me thinking that it might be nice to have the kids do a Christmas caroling video for Grandma.
Have a great day.
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