Fuddland

On Monday morning my roommate and colleague for the last two months hung up his sunhat and headed home to Ireland, after a full year with my current employer and over thirty years of teaching abroad—not just in China, but several places in Africa, and in the Middle East—as well as educating the youngsters of his homeland. This left two full-time teachers at my school.

The same day, my remaining colleague told the boss that, for personal reasons [as well as the outrageously long hours he has been working since he joined the company five or so weeks ago], he must leave China at short notice: Thursday, to be exact. This left one full-time teacher at my school: me.

Erk.

There was a brief conversation between the boss and myself about how much extra work I would be willing to take on to cover this unforeseen situation, in which I stood my ground with an unwavering, “Not much at all.” I went home that day with thoughts about what would be best: to leave anytime soon knowing there is nobody to fill my shoes would seen particularly unfair—to the students—but at the same time, an extra pile of work isn’t really going to be a lot of fun, knowing that there are other teaching jobs with much more sociable hours readily available out there.

Luckily—perhaps the boss needs things to be completely dire before she actually does something constructive?—a new teacher was found, interviewed and employed during the following forty-eight hours, with another one lined up for an interview next week. Moreover, I used some strategic thinking to get myself off the three-month probationary period a month early, meaning I am now on full company pay—result!

I’ll still be keeping some other options in mind—it always pays to network and be nice to everyone you meet, but for now, I’m staying put.

#1

Jann | 2006 / 08 / 16 – 19:15

Crikey. Erm…every cloud, eh?

#2

susannah | 2006 / 08 / 17 – 02:23

You’re a real teacher now :)

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