I was a full time teacher in Oxford, MI. Some of my kids have had a rough time, so have the public teachers.
I left teaching for obvious reasons for something more stable in IT. Almost fifty kids I feel like I gave up on. I hired in at a place right across from where I was teaching. The slogan there was ‘no one ever gets fired from _____’. Except for me. I had over an hour drive in the morning, almost 1.5 hrs in the evening. I was a supervisor, and I was passionate about doing the job and doing it well. I was taking over the responsibilities of an older tech, close to 60, who hated millennial workers. He was open about this with me and other techs. I crashed my car because of the upsetting things happening in that town, and missed two days of work. (Who has time to grieve in the office?) Said 60 year old tech called me the next morning after I told him I wrecked my car and asked that I quit because this doesn’t seem like something I can do. He was angry I didn’t expressly tell him I wasn’t coming in due to not having a car, and only told the owner. He asked me to quit two more times in less than two months. When I didn’t, he took it a step further. He took me into his office 6
Times in 6 days and berated me. He swore, he turned red in the face, pointed his finger and shook with anger, all because I took a swollen laptop battery out of a laptop when the entire office was out with Covid. He was angry I did his job and he wasn’t there.
Late January, I was fired. No clear reason, either. He took me upstairs and told me ‘this just wasn’t working out’. Somehow he got the owner on board. My age was mentioned by this older tech several times. I think that’s all it really was.
I’m not eligible for unemployment, and I can’t take my kids back. They are with other teachers. I’m losing my house, my car, and my animals all because I wanted a stable safer career.
Idk. Nothing is safe anymore. Thanks for letting me vent.