Random Encounter
Running around town again after being a hermit for about 2 years got me to run into old faces, big as this city is.
It has confirmed what I've known for some time that I am not the sociable kind but alas, being a teacher, you're not really allowed to be unsociable. The only good thing about all this is the fact that the students I had are great people, with whom random encounters mostly turn pleasant.
This particular one I met today got on the bus a stop after mine. She's a floor supervisor for the cosmetic department; I am ashamed to say I could not remember her name. I remember her though, the way she was in class, how she performed. She informed me (now that she was stationed at mall X instead of the old Y) she was currently working under Mr M, who had been a student too; dominant, energetic, a complete type A. I asked her, just to kind of confirm, and got a kick out of her asserting that M was still the way he had been.
She confided in me how these youngsters she supervised today "...are nothing like they used to be." It reads like a cliche but I felt for her, more because I know she was not exactly the stern kind. I could see her old charges at Y being the obedient type they were because "...this is how things are run here." That she couldn't assert herself in this new environment at X worried her and I wish I could do something about that.
I asked who was in charge of HR at X and rolled my eyes when she told me. The worst HR manager I had ever encountered, and that's saying something as this was not a small company, at all. Sexist, inconsistent, the do as I say not as I do type of manager. I cackled to myself later though, when I realized that while other supervisors we talked about had mostly been promoted due to expansion, this POS was still a mere HR manager at a branch.
She got off with a request that I drop by at the store and I told her she should really teach me how to put on some make up already!
It's funny. I always used to think I wouldn't want to work with people and I'm still not completely convinced I should but I can't imagine not teaching, not having these people with whom to interact, to challenge -- and when they are no longer students -- to randomly meet, to catch up. I love listening to details of their lives they are willing to share, these resilient people who don't realize how hard they work.
x-posted to Cranky Teacher
It has confirmed what I've known for some time that I am not the sociable kind but alas, being a teacher, you're not really allowed to be unsociable. The only good thing about all this is the fact that the students I had are great people, with whom random encounters mostly turn pleasant.
This particular one I met today got on the bus a stop after mine. She's a floor supervisor for the cosmetic department; I am ashamed to say I could not remember her name. I remember her though, the way she was in class, how she performed. She informed me (now that she was stationed at mall X instead of the old Y) she was currently working under Mr M, who had been a student too; dominant, energetic, a complete type A. I asked her, just to kind of confirm, and got a kick out of her asserting that M was still the way he had been.
She confided in me how these youngsters she supervised today "...are nothing like they used to be." It reads like a cliche but I felt for her, more because I know she was not exactly the stern kind. I could see her old charges at Y being the obedient type they were because "...this is how things are run here." That she couldn't assert herself in this new environment at X worried her and I wish I could do something about that.
I asked who was in charge of HR at X and rolled my eyes when she told me. The worst HR manager I had ever encountered, and that's saying something as this was not a small company, at all. Sexist, inconsistent, the do as I say not as I do type of manager. I cackled to myself later though, when I realized that while other supervisors we talked about had mostly been promoted due to expansion, this POS was still a mere HR manager at a branch.
She got off with a request that I drop by at the store and I told her she should really teach me how to put on some make up already!
It's funny. I always used to think I wouldn't want to work with people and I'm still not completely convinced I should but I can't imagine not teaching, not having these people with whom to interact, to challenge -- and when they are no longer students -- to randomly meet, to catch up. I love listening to details of their lives they are willing to share, these resilient people who don't realize how hard they work.
x-posted to Cranky Teacher