push it or let if go, hmmm

[Zoe Girl]

So today was our meeting that happens every other week. It is typically loong, this one wasn't as bad (last one I was sick and got angry at the Will Smith motivational film). I decided that I would just excuse myself in the middle since we do not seem to every listen to my need to take a break in the middle just to run to the bathroom. I time it so there is more of a side conversation going and it seems okay.

So anyway my work hours are to be on-call 6 am to 6 pm basically. Within the week I work 40 hours and lately I actually worked 40 hours the last few weeks. I can flex my time but generally have to be at site between 2 and 6 every day. There are also additional trainings and meetings. These are often later, 6:30-8:30 since our staff is busy in the middle of the day with school or other activities. I know about these and plan for it.

Those extra meetings are pretty much on Wednesday so i set one of my professional goals (the goal process is required) to learn Spanish. I did not take the class available on Wednesday, instead the one on Monday. This Monday is a training. I did mention that I would miss Spanish class and it was pretty important to not miss it but my supervisor said she wants me to attend the training. At this rate, missing class Monday and last week because our electricity went out, I feel I won't be able to keep up (it is largely conversation) and I wonder if I should continue. I am not happy about, I can see her POV but I also am concerned that I need to work on a professional goal. When I have talked about attending classes during the middle of my day when we do not have programming she has been discouraging. We have meetings during the day often and it would be bad to miss any, more to her than to me.

So basically I feel that they 'own me' now 6 am to almost 9 pm. Last year I got out of one evening meeting for my son's concert and he only has 4 a year, and I got a bad vibe every time it came up. I am not totally comfortable with this, I want some say in how after hours meetings are required but I feel I really don't have it.

[fidgiegirl]

Keep looking, ZG. Keep looking. Not a good situation to be in - you need work/life balance and I wish for you to have a boss who can appreciate you go the extra mile every day and that you don't need to be micromanaged. You can't change her, you can only change you or change the situation. You are working on both . . . keep it up.

[Zoe Girl]

Thanks, I know that teachers do extras, but their weekly meeting is scheduled for the year, teacher conferences are known ahead of time, and still my sister (a teacher) had to have my mom come from Iowa to watch the boys since her hubby is out of town. argh

[Tammy]

Be aware that those goals can be continued into your next years goal, with a polite mention in the paperwork that you didn't complete it due to work requirements on the same evening. bosses know this, and don't even mind. Don't take this all on yourself. Learn how to flow with the gray areas in a political way. You take too much of this onto yourself. You can lightly and calmly blame the system (not yourself and not your boss) when these conflicts in schedule come up. And just breeze on to whatever they want you to do now, even though it conflicts with prior direction.

Also, ignore those attitudes about going to your sons stuff instead of meetings. You got permission and you are with your son. Who cares what others think about it.

Remember, people who care a lot less than you are still employed there.

[iris lily]

Tammy that is swell practical advice!

[Tammy]

Learned thru the experience of caring too much! ;)

[Zoe Girl]

Thank you Tammy, I have reflected on it a bit. The thing is that I having been trying to get this goal of learning Spanish going for quite awhile. Last year they wouldn't count it and I had to go out of my way to fnd free Spanish classes for me and coworkers. Another school in our system of afterschool programs offers spanish so i just kept going to people and asking until the right person said yes. Then almost 6 of us started taking the classes for free. I have worked very hard to get to take this class, next semester I would like to take a daytime Spanish class but if this is the way it is going I don't know if I can. There is always some meeting or training that pops up, frustrating. I am burned out on getting shuffled around with others needs (not just work issue).

I also understand the training is important, 4H people are offering it for free. It just looks bad I am not there even though I could pretty much teach any of these trainings I go to (like taking a lesson planning training class after a masters in education and 5 years/3 districts of substitute teaching, I have seen almost any lesson plan avalaible). I have total faith in the staff I am sending and their ability to bring it back to our program.

I can see this is a year of 'push it back' frankly. In our meeting yesterday I said we had to do one thing a certain way because of our licensing visit feedback, it is not the way my supervisor wants it. So she told me to not worry about licensing and do what she wants. Um no. I am not going out of my way to tell her but I am not continuing to do something we were written up for.

Argh sorry for the stress,

[BayouGirl]

I understand completely how exhausting it can get when you have to deal with taking classes after work. I had to deal with that as a teacher and even as a daycare director. Sometimes they would even schedule a class for the weekend. In my case, many of them were pretty useless classes but were required so you had to do it. I wish they could just let you take a lot of the courses online. I would have loved that.

I can see where learning Spanish would come in handy and would be something very useful to learn. If you can't complete the class till next year, couldn't you still (on your own, at your pace) see if there is a Spanish program such as Rosetta Stone and listen to some of the tapes and such so that you would be more proficient by the time you do take the class. If it were me, I would check online for a free program or see if the library has any you can check out.