Thrown under the bus

[I_am_Karma]

Hope everyone is having a good start to your summer, wherever you might be.

I just want to share something that happened to me recently, and get your thoughts.

A few weeks ago, a teacher had an accident and had to go to the hospital to get a few stitches, so I had to cover for them. At our school we get paid per block of coverage for other teachers. I didn’t think twice about covering, and have actually helped this teacher out before when he asked me to cover one of his duties so her could leave early for a “golf weekend”.

When he came back from the doctor, we joked about how he’s going to have a badass scar etc. I facetiously said “I wonder if the school will give me coverage”. In retrospect, it was a dumb and insensitive to say, but I thought my sarcasm was obvious. He immediately said, well, I think that might be in bad taste but I can ask for you. I said, nooo, and laughed. He offered again, and I said, no of course not. I didn’t think anything of it after that. Until I heard from someone who I confide in…

Apparently, he went and told a bunch of other teachers that I asked to be paid for that coverage. It made me feel pretty bad because it was the last week of school, and a lot of people were pretty cold to me, and I couldn’t even defend myself.

I don’t think I deserved that, especially since I had always been collegial with this guy, and helped him a few times without question.

Has anyone else experience anything similar, and how did you handle it?

[popgirl]

Typical last week stuff. Don't worry about it - I'm sure it will be back to normal after the summer. People are feeling twitchy and sensitive at this time of year.

and next time - be a bit more circumspect about offering to cover his classes when he's off on his next golfing weekend.

[I_am_Karma]

popgirl wrote:
> Typical last week stuff. Don't worry about it - I'm sure it will be back to
> normal after the summer. People are feeling twitchy and sensitive at this
> time of year.
>
> and next time - be a bit more circumspect about offering to cover his
> classes when he's off on his next golfing weekend.

Yeah, it made me feel kinda bad, but you're right.
And I definitely will! haha
Thank you :-)

[cms989]

I'm confused. It seems like you should be paid for coverage. A shame you even have to ask much less be ostracized for it

[PsyGuy]

Forget first week drama, thats just drama, it could have happened at anytime. This IT is just manipulating your friendship. They probably dont want to lose the coin that rightfully should be going to you. You should absolutely be getting comp for the cover. Its not something your friendship should have to negotiate.

Ive covered for some ITs who wanted or needed to leave early on a Friday before a holiday or break, and couldnt get the coverage approved or didnt want to risk asking. Ive made it very clear though that my coverage as a favor to them is going to be limited to supervising the class, Im not going to teach or run a lesson plan for them. I wouldnt ask for coin for that, but its a favor they owe me.
For a hospital visit, even just stitches theres a policy and procedure in place and leadership would assign someone and they would get cover comp for it, and it wouldnt likely cost the IT with who took the hospital visit anything.

[I_am_Karma]

PsyGuy wrote:
> Forget first week drama, thats just drama, it could have happened at
> anytime. This IT is just manipulating your friendship. They probably dont
> want to lose the coin that rightfully should be going to you. You should
> absolutely be getting comp for the cover. Its not something your friendship
> should have to negotiate.
>
> Ive covered for some ITs who wanted or needed to leave early on a Friday
> before a holiday or break, and couldnt get the coverage approved or didnt
> want to risk asking. Ive made it very clear though that my coverage as a
> favor to them is going to be limited to supervising the class, Im not going
> to teach or run a lesson plan for them. I wouldnt ask for coin for that,
> but its a favor they owe me.
> For a hospital visit, even just stitches theres a policy and procedure in
> place and leadership would assign someone and they would get cover comp for
> it, and it wouldnt likely cost the IT with who took the hospital visit
> anything.

"Last week drama"actually. We aren't friends, per se. I know many of the teachers at our school insist on their cliques, and socializing predominantly with people from our school, but I don't. That's not to say that I don't like them, or don't behave professionally. But this is this precisely the thing that arises from working at a school, where our principal and director insist that we're a 'family'. I also didn't expect this teacher to behave like such a jerk behind my back.

Honestly, I didn't care about the coverage. It was a phys ed class, and I just took my kiddos outside to play together. I am more disappointed that my words would be so twisted and people would judge me so harshly based on something that isn't true, but that's life. It just sucks that it was the last week and many of the teachers were finishing their contracts and leaving the school behaving that way.

And, you're actually right about leadership. Unfortunately, our school has very shaky leadership and I didn't even hear from them until after the fact. That is definitely an issue too. Non-existant, beholden to parents, and extreme nepotism.

I guess that's what I get for working at a school in Egypt! lol

[I_am_Karma]

cms989 wrote:
> I'm confused. It seems like you should be paid for coverage. A shame you
> even have to ask much less be ostracized for it

Indeed, it's a shame that I didn't even ask but was made to seem like I did in order to make me look unempathetic in their eyes. I believe that's a form of gaslighting.

[PsyGuy]

First week, last week, it could have been any week drama.