Payday
After a day like Thursday, I was all set to call in sick on Friday. Luckily, Friday was professional development day, which meant teachers got time to finish calculating their 10-week grades and enter them into the official computer record. There were also meetings.
After the Achievement Academy’s meeting, our new principal gave us all an orange 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper on which appeared in 24-point font: "You have worked so hard this week that you deserve an extra pay day. Please check your mailbox." And in 14-point font below that: "There is nothing that is done in the open or in secret that is not seen or known about . . . ." And below that, in 12 point: "Please know that all of your hard work does not go unnoticed."
Of course, I zeroed in on the pay day part right away. An extra payday? Since there was no way we were getting any kind of a bonus, maybe we were getting a free day off? Maybe in our mailboxes was a note saying “You’ve been working hard, so take a day off. Let me know what day you want to de-stress, and I won’t count it as a sick day.”
I’ve been having a lot of bad days lately, so I was thinking big.
My initial reaction to the Payday candy bar in my mailbox was one of disappointment. I felt like I had been teased and let down. But when I stripped all of the ambiguities of the message away, and looked at this gesture for what it was, a show of support and appreciation from our new principal, I was happy.
After all, we never got anything like this last year. And it’s the thought that counts.
After the Achievement Academy’s meeting, our new principal gave us all an orange 8.5 x 11 sheet of paper on which appeared in 24-point font: "You have worked so hard this week that you deserve an extra pay day. Please check your mailbox." And in 14-point font below that: "There is nothing that is done in the open or in secret that is not seen or known about . . . ." And below that, in 12 point: "Please know that all of your hard work does not go unnoticed."
Of course, I zeroed in on the pay day part right away. An extra payday? Since there was no way we were getting any kind of a bonus, maybe we were getting a free day off? Maybe in our mailboxes was a note saying “You’ve been working hard, so take a day off. Let me know what day you want to de-stress, and I won’t count it as a sick day.”
I’ve been having a lot of bad days lately, so I was thinking big.
My initial reaction to the Payday candy bar in my mailbox was one of disappointment. I felt like I had been teased and let down. But when I stripped all of the ambiguities of the message away, and looked at this gesture for what it was, a show of support and appreciation from our new principal, I was happy.
After all, we never got anything like this last year. And it’s the thought that counts.
posted by Christopher at
12:00 AM
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