Well, one more day of work with my horrible supervisor. She actually made me cry today - not with sadness, but out of sheer frustration and utter outrage. To make a long story short, she refused to allow me to do something to accommodate a recent, painful injury. The accommodation wouldn't have any effect on my work whatsoever. Worse still, the accommodation is something that her "pets" (AKA, my coworkers that she likes) already do regularly. And she did it in such a snide way. "In four years of working here I've never had a Staff member do that." Oh really?

Oh, what the hell. Here it is. I have a back injury. It's quite painful - and I got it at work, by the way. In spite of the pain, I have still come to work every single day since it happened. Today I decided that while watching the children ride their bikes in the parking lot, I'd sit down in a folding lounge chair that I'd bought. This was not "okay" with W. "I know you have back pain but I need you to not be in that chair because if there were an emergency you wouldn't be able to get up fast enough. In four years of working here I've never had a staff member do that." (Notice how she talks to me as if I were one of the children.) So instead, I had to stand. I can't sit on the ground; it's too painful.

Yeah. My sitting in a chair wasn't "okay," but it was perfectly "okay" for her "pets" to sit three in a row on beach towels, sunning themselves while watching these same children, earlier in the week. Give me a break.

So I stood, outside, in the blazing heat and in terrible pain. For three hours. At one point I was outside alone with 20 children (against the rules, it's supposed to be one staff to 13 kids) while W. sat inside at one of the tables with four other staff members and about ten kids (against the rules, staff are not supposed to "clump" together). When one of the kids wanted to ride bikes again, I told her we couldn't because there weren't enough staff. I said, "Why don't you go inside and ask W. why I'm out here alone and all the other teachers are in there with her?" She did but it was still quite some time before anyone else came out.

In mid-afternoon, W. packed up her laptop and crap and took off with one of her pets. Turns out this pet was scheduled to be working at that time, so we were left with three staff (another violation - we are supposed to have four at all times). But it was okay, as I later learned. The pet would be back in just a couple of hours. Where had they gone? To get manicures and pedicures. I am not kidding. My coworkers and I were incredulous.

While W. was gone, I had a conversation with her 10-year-old son. I jokingly said, "So your mom just left you here? You'll have to sleep here tonight!"

He said, "I wish she would. Being homeless would be more fun than being with her."

In spite of my feelings about her, I was a bit shocked. After all, her life seems dedicated to kids. "Why do you say that?" I asked.

"She never spends any time with me. She's always either working, going out, or on the phone."

"Have you talked to her about this?"

"All the time, but she always just says she'll work on it, and she never does."

I talked to coworker about this, one who knows the boy far better than I do. She says it has been an ongoing problem all year and that W. just doesn't "get it."

Understand that this person claims to care very much about "youth" and her child. I'll even quote her blog. I won't post a link to it - yet.

I have a son who is my world.

My son was sent home from his aftercare program (which I run) on Monday for being rude. He had to also take a day off yesterday. I sent him to his room when we got home (with a snack of course) and asked him to write. Write why you were rude, what you don’t like about aftercare and who if there is a “who”. His one question, “can I use swears when I am writing?” To which I thought well it is his expression, so I said yes. (Taking into consideration his swears were frigin and stupid.) Hee hee

When I received his one page (which is good for a 9 year old) response I noticed he was being bullied! Now this has been a problem all year and I have worked with my staff continuously on this but they just don’t get it! (another whole tangent in itself) And now my son is taking the brunt of it!

Note the jab at the staff of her own program. Incidentally, she doesn't "run" the program. She's assistant to the director, who is a person I like and respect quite a lot but who, unfortunately, consistently supports W. And also, her child is no angel. He's very rude, and I have seen him do plenty of bullying himself.

I don't think I can stand one more minute of being micromanaged by this person. I almost hope she pulls something on me tomorrow so I can quit in front of the entire staff and all of the children. My only regret is that I didn't tell her where to go today. The only reason I didn't was that I was so stunned by the stupidity of what she was asking me to do.

Only three people on the staff of about 20 are returning for the next school year. You would think they might start asking themselves why they have such a high turnover.