I must admit I have struggled pondering whether or not to write this piece. My intentions are genuinely always good, never malicious. Unfortunately, the weight and stress I knew my friend of two decades had been bearing for some time might be alleviated somewhat by sharing his story anonymously and in its entirety, I have listened to his plight and story now for well over a year now, I have decided to tell all the disturbing facts and what a truly cancerous, hostile and toxic working environment looks like, The simple truths of what he had to endure which were not only demoralizing but downright discriminatory and illegal are as follows below.
He adamantly told me over and over again he should have known better, and resigned immediately after a former boss of his, in his first week on the job, upon introducing all the colleagues with whom he would be supervising and working with, supporting and coaching over the next few years, three-fourths of them behind their backs were characterized as "idiots". He felt guilty thinking he had failed to stand up to not only these unprofessional characterizations but offensive behavior both public and private.
He reiterated and pleaded to me for no reason whatsoever for understanding after a long tenure and association with all his colleagues and students, and wanted every one of them to know how dear they were to him personally and professionally. He told me confidently he had nothing but great admiration and respect for all of them individually and collectively, and always would regardless of their opinion of him. All the kids are just that, kids he reminded me often during our long conversations. They are all awesome!
Sadly, to his growing dismay and disgust, his bosses or leaders if you so choose to refer, spent considerable time over the years invariably referring to our troubled youth and those carrying enormous burden and struggle as "turds". They did this not only behind closed doors but in front of the entire staff on more than one occasion! Again, he felt as though he had failed by not standing up to these daily unprofessional characterizations but offensive behavior both public and private. Time and time again, publicly and privately, directed at those they were there to serve, educate, nurture and protect.
Often coming back to a point that his work and efforts in building a quality and caring community in which mutual respect, care, and compassion would be afforded to all, the bosses or leaders if you so choose to refer, continued to do what they did best. Arguably, one of the worse experiences he told me he had to be a part of was during a "team" meeting of administrators and school leaders. A beginning first-year teacher reached out to a department supervisor in a morning email about the daily struggles she was having, her ability to continue on, her self-doubt and ultimately pleading for support before potentially resigning. Her boss or leader, if you choose to refer, commented if she wouldn't be "such a bitch" she wouldn't be having such issues. Again, my buddy felt he had failed to stand up to these daily unprofessional characterizations but offensive behavior both in public and private.
In another such setting in which came to mind, among the select few who sat by and did nothing as did he, his boss, his leader, the Principal, prior to announcing a huge strategy and change in protocol in which he could not even recollect to our entire staff, claimed it would be similar to the Jews not knowing the onset of the Holocaust was imminent, right? Again, he felt sick to his stomach thinking he had failed to stand up daily to these unprofessional characterizations but equally offensive behavior both public and private.
Time and time again he told me with much distress in which could not go unnoticed, he grew more and more wearisome, disturbed and demotivated, as his boss or leader, however, you so choose to refer, constantly kept telling our students and children either "sorry" or "I can't help you" or "I can't do anything for you"... Again, his feelings of having failed to stand up to this daily unprofessional mentality but equally as disturbing the lackadaisical lack of compassion and commitment to being a servant leader to our constituents as was their charge! Simply, having no professionalism in making decisions in the very best interests of their students as professional educational administrators are schooled and licensed to abide by.
As part of my buddy's responsibilities, he was over transportation and busing. Upon realizing there was an employee who had been abusing their timesheet and bringing it to the Principal's attention he essentially ignored it when the documentation and evidence clearly supported this. My friend, being a first-year administrator, told me many colleagues had told him personally how this employee constantly and for several years past had been doing the same yet it was being ignored by management and condoned. After repeated and documented warnings to the employee, presented to school building leadership on two more occasions, and even brought to Human Resources attention as well as the Head of Transportation, they simply didn't deny all of this was, in fact, the case but referred him back to the Principal. In April of 2015, it was brought to his attention by a bus driver that he would not be back next year. My friend immediately brought this to his bosses attention who then informed him he didn't know or have any idea what she was talking about. Within two weeks later he had his first and sole letter of performance deficiency sitting on his chair the morning after the Board of Education voted on probationary hires which he was one. His so-called evaluations to this point were essentially never conducted according to NC Public School Law other than "good first year". He was called into HR and offered an additional two-year contract due to this violation and neglect of due process according to the statute in his understanding of NC public law.
Having known his spouse for years as well, I found it incredulous as to the flippant, derogatory, and discriminatory innuendos and passive aggressive comments made to him again and again in his presence regarding his wife's ethnic origins, her reasoning for wanting to visit her native home over the summers, my buddy's desires to travel with her to visit in-laws and their ability to maintain and sustain their marriage and relationship with her being away for extended periods of time and the like. He persisted toward me upon his failure to make and take a stance as to the blatant inappropriateness, inflammatory, discriminatory and unprofessionalism displayed by his two supervisors.
Over the next two academic years, he stated the working conditions continued to deteriorate adding more and more duties to the only administrator working the lessor of two other administrator contracts. He had been a ten month contracted employee while prior to leaving the Principals in charge if you so choose to refer, hired not one but two more administrators both less credentialed, less experienced and less qualified granting them 11 and 12-month contracts respectively? They argued naively and simply stupidly that all of our duties were of an equitable nature and responsibility. This was simply not the case in which every one of the nearly 100 employees on staff clearly saw and will attest to base on my buddy essentially working 160 and 320 hours less respectively...
In three years service, he told me he was supposed to have a total of nine formal meetings/evaluations if not more to included PDP's through the NCDPI NCEES portal and protocol yet during this entire time he had only ONE? This one, according to him was the one in which he received this past summer before leaving for vacation. When I asked him about the other eight he said simply that his bosses did not do their jobs and simply ignored the system required by the state, yet constantly ragged him for not getting his evaluations on certified staff done in a timely matter. Even more preposterous was that there was never one discussion of staff, individually or collectively, in which he was involved as part of the school's supposed leadership team regarding performance, effectiveness and or action plan/disciplinary measures for underperforming staff members....
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