I work as a preschool teacher and have given it my all this summer working full-time, before I go back to college this fall. I schedule & create and facilitate most of our daily activities, while my coworker has taken vacation on and off for 1/3 of the summer, and on the days she is here she needs to take 10-20 minute breaks every two hours to breastfeed with no coverage for her (not faulting her for that obv, more so our admin).
I'm there for 10hr days, open to close, 4 days a week with one weekday off for various doctors appointments related to my chronic health issues. We are in the midst of a staffing crisis, and a lot of the times my room has no extra support teacher. I have also been called in and had to work on my weekday off because of these shortages, having to cancel my doctors appointments, PT, therapy, etc. because of it.
I had to get my wisdom teeth removed a week ago and I took 5 days off to recover- the only time off I have taken this summer. During my time off, my coworker told my boss that I focus “too much on the negative” when I'm talking to parents at pick-up, that I talk too much in general, and that I'm '”too sarcastic” with the kids I work with and I'm just purposely confusing them. I was called into a meeting my first day back, where my boss told me all this. When I had a follow-up with another member of our admin team about it, she told me that she corroborated my coworker's story and observed that I seemed “burnt out.”
Fuck. That. Shit. I have worked there for THREE YEARS and no parent/coworker/child has ever given me any shit for that. My “sarcasm” towards the kids? I joke with them, and if they don't get it, I explain the joke. Most of the time though? They just laugh, because THEY ARE 5, and I am making a harmless JOKE. My “negativity“? Talking to parents about issues a child had during the day. They forgot to mention ALL THE OTHER SHIT I TALK TO THEM ABOUT, like how they were very interested in a project we were doing or a nice thing they did for a classmate. But, no, I just talk too much to parents. My boss suggested I email them instead of talking too much about negative stuff in person– really? EMAILING EVERY PARENT who I have something to say to??? They're not gonna pay me for that fucking overtime!! Also, what fucking parent would want everything via email when they are RIGHT THERE AT PICK-UP! AND FUCK THAT COWORKER TOO, she's not even there at pick-up OR THE END OF THE DAY!! And, quite frankly, the kids like me more because I'm not stuck-up and I don't talk down to them.
Anyways. I emailed my two weeks notice last night. Don't work a job that doesn't respect you.