Workplace cynicism

[BlackCat]

One of the worst problems I have seen is someone quitting suddenly, and the company hiring someone not very good, only because they were in a hurry to replace the person who left the company.

That is why you don't have only one person that has special knowledge.

[Elok]

@ post #5 : Why don't an employee or low level leader say something's wrong ? That should be the normal procedure.

Any number of reasons. Because it would offend the more powerful person who made the original decision. Because stopping the original project entails change, which puts everyone's comfortable groove at risk. Because people who mention unpleasant news tend to be associated not with stopping bad behavior, but with the idea of unpleasant news and reminders of failure. Because the amount of differing views in any given environment are likely to drown out any single voice. Because in making a firm stand on an issue, you render yourself vulnerable to attack by workplace rivals or enemies. Because, while you may be commended or chastised for speaking up, you can't be hurt directly for failing to notice the same as everyone else, and it's safer to swim with a group.

[BlackCat]

Any number of reasons. Because it would offend the more powerful person who made the original decision. Because stopping the original project entails change, which puts everyone's comfortable groove at risk. Because people who mention unpleasant news tend to be associated not with stopping bad behavior, but with the idea of unpleasant news and reminders of failure. Because the amount of differing views in any given environment are likely to drown out any single voice. Because in making a firm stand on an issue, you render yourself vulnerable to attack by workplace rivals or enemies. Because, while you may be commended or chastised for speaking up, you can't be hurt directly for failing to notice the same as everyone else, and it's safer to swim with a group.

I seriously hope you are joking.

Between what you probably call high school and military service, I worked at a toy factory. I of course listened to what my leader he said, but I also had some heated arguments on several specifics. That was no problem ie I didn't get fired and actually got it the way I wanted.

In my current job I'm in bigger danger of being fired if I don't say what I mean whether it's for or against the decisions made by upper eschelons.

There are probably a company or two here where it's like you describe, but they usually die due to too many losses.

[SlowwHand]

You worked at a toy factory? You didn't quit, did you? A toy factory would be cool.

[KrazyHorse]

And now he's a librarian who occasionally pretends to know something about computers

[SlowwHand]

Another librarian?? I didn't know the field was so crowded. Mr Fun, walrus, now him? Any others out there?

[BlackCat]

You worked at a toy factory? You didn't quit, did you? A toy factory would be cool.

As I said, I had a period between HS and mili (nine months) and yeah I quit - can't both learn to handle a 105 howitzer and packaging doll houses

[BlackCat]

Another librarian?? I didn't know the field was so crowded. Mr Fun, walrus, now him? Any others out there?

As usual, KH is wrong - I'm an electronical engineer that has ended up in working with library systems and I probably know way more about computers than KH ever will

[Elok]

Joking? Not exactly. I'm generalizing very broadly and making projections based on my experience with the combination of apathy and self-interest that has filled most of my coworkers to date. I imagine the actual pattern of dysfunction will vary. In the schools I teach at, though? Holy crap, I've never met more cynical and grumpy people than the teachers I talk to. Not substitutes, actual teachers who've dedicated their lives to helping our youth and blah blah blah. They're about half Mrs. Krabappel from The Simpsons: bitter that the whole thing seems rigged to fail. The other half simply aren't bitter about it.

I'm new enough that I can't tell exactly why it's all that way (and I don't have the experiences of a real teacher who knows better) but a nice-sized chunk of the problem seems to be that they can't afford to give students properly individualized treatment. Even with Honors classes, kids of decidedly mixed abilities get stuck in the same classes together, where of course they have to progress as a group. The least skilled children get frustrated by the pace, and act up to let off steam. The most skilled, at best, do the work by rote and then read quietly, and have merely been held back. At worst, they get bored and act up like the least skilled, only more destructively because they're clever and their classmates often look up to them. And, in such an environment, the "average" child, if such a thing exists, often gets lost in the middle. Or so it seems to me. Then again, it's not like I see the average school day.

Big XPost.

[SlowwHand]

What about class size? NOT THE ROOM! How many students per class?

[BlackCat]

Big XPost.

No problem.

What you say is certainly not encouraging and something also heard here. We have the same problem, though not with teachers as far out as you describe. The worst thing is that the school teachers union, thinks that it's reasonable to have a "what not all can learn, none shall learn" attitude. Fortunatedly, they are not to descide - that is the government. How is it "over there" ? If I get it right, it's down to municipal control.

[BlackCat]

What about class size? NOT THE ROOM! How many students per class?

Classroom size is a matter, but not as much as teaching policy and teacher attitude.

[DanS]

I put the second one. All of my colleagues are competent in the extreme and by necessity work at a very high level. Incompetence can be identified in an instant and we would pick at the incompetent one until they broke. However, it has a few faults common to all workplaces in my experience.

[Elok]

I imagine smaller class sizes would alleviate that problem significantly, assuming you had them properly sorted by actual ability. There would still be some problems with totally individual difficulties like ESL or special ed (of course special ed kids should be mainstreamed as much as possible, to maximize their development--but they're also going to cause some amount of disruption). But, again, that's just one problem I've observed, because I'm in a position to actually observe it: some kids breeze through the work in ten minutes, hand it in and read or chat quietly, some struggle valiantly with it and hand it in at the end, some throw it aside and immediately start looking for a way to be total dickburgers. I'm not sure if they do that because the work frustrates them, if they have personal issues such as a troubled home life, or if they're simply total dickburgers by nature.

Oh, and the troubled home life, that comes into the classroom too. Even if the child is a good student in spite of it, there's nothing quite like walking past a girl as she frankly tells her classmates about Dad punching a hole in the bathroom door because Mom locked herself in again. That'll pimp-smack the idealism right out of you. Basically, the problem is just that a large, standardized system can't hope to meet everyone's needs equally, and one student's difficulties can affect others.

Another Xpost. I really should simply quote if I'm going to type out these monsters.

[Elok]

No problem.

What you say is certainly not encouraging and something also heard here. We have the same problem, though not with teachers as far out as you describe. The worst thing is that the school teachers union, thinks that it's reasonable to have a "what not all can learn, none shall learn" attitude. Fortunatedly, they are not to descide - that is the government. How is it "over there" ? If I get it right, it's down to municipal control.

I mainly see it from the inside, and of course they don't have a problem with teachers' unions (which are at least made out to be all-powerful where education is concerned; I don't know the truth, I'm a disposable teacher). The talk in the teachers' lounge is sometimes rather defensive, embattled even--"Oh, I get another conference with Mrs. So-and-so to explain that her darling can't skip half his classes and still pass the class." As I understand things, significant decisions are made at the county level, though No Child Left Behind imposed goals to be met at a nationwide level. Enough children do poorly on the assessment, the school has a certain amount of time to bring those scores up to scratch or it loses funding.

I have only met teachers in the one county I work in, so maybe the bitterness is a local problem. And to be fair, I may be reading a little extra bitterness in, at least on bad days when I'm teaching particularly bad high schoolers. I love subbing for middle schools. The kids are young enough that you can be friends with them, but old enough to pay attention. And I get to actually teach sometimes!