Administraor/dictator

[tamara]

Our program has wonderful supervisors; however, one is a dictator and the other supervisors have excellent leardship skills, but then again the excellent ones have degrees in early childhood ,administration and leadership. My question- How do you handle a supervisor that dictates rather than provides leadership- she will embarrass and humiliate you in private and loves to do it in public, if you "bite back" she will make life miserable. I want to "bite back" but I want to be the professional one.

[Chef Dave]

Are the other administrators aware that their colleague is behaving this way? If not, could you express your concerns to one of these other administrators?

[tamara]

Dave,this has been an issue for many years. I do not intimidate children nor do I belittle children, therefore, I am will not tolerate being done the same by any adult. So, if she approaches me in public- I'll say- "This is not the appropriate time or place to discuss this nor will I tolerate your tone".
I am very committed to my job. It's little things- even her emails are negative. In a way it's not her fault- she lacks the educaton of being a trained leader.

[smithmt]

is Georgia right to work, or unionized? If there is a union, I would go to them and ask what to do. you would get a much better idea of your options. If you are on your own, you could start off addressing them quietly in her office... "this is what you are doing and this is how it is coming off." she may not mean to be so bossy. or if she is, you could always go to your other administrators and make them aware of the situation. The sooner they are aware of the situation and how it makes you feel, the sooner they can get it fixed. you may not be the only person who is feeling this way about them, so you speaking up, could bring more people forward who are afraid of repercussions.

[Chef Dave]

How then can this be rectified?

I think it's wonderful that you have such a professional attitude and that you also seem to have a thick skin. Unfortunately administrators like this are very bad for faculty morale.

This is my 18th year teaching and I have quite a bit of diversified experience. I've taught in inner city, rural, and suburban public schools as well as private corporate schools and private proprietary schools. I have yet to teach in a one room school house and knock on wood, will never have to. I have also not taught at a reservation school or a church school.

During my career, I have also worked with many types of administrators. My favorite administrators were the ones who took a hands off approach to classroom instruction. They were always out and about, seeing what everyone was doing, but as long as you demonstrated competence, they pretty much left you alone. If you needed help, they'd support you. If you had a reasonable need for textbooks or equipment, they'd do their level best to get it for you.

I've also worked with administrators like the one you described. My first administrator threw a stapler at my head. I also knew an administrator who publicly berated a teacher in front of her students. When she went to his office to protest, he slammed his fist onto a conference table and shoved the table into the teacher. The teacher was several months pregnant at the time. She later suffered a miscarriage - though not as a direct result of the physical assault.

The administrator who assaulted the teacher had his contract terminated for cause at the end of the year. There were simply too many complaints against him.

I am pleased to say that I played a part in getting the administrator fired.

The building administrator had given me a below average observation ... despite the fact that the evaluations from my 7 previous years of teaching had all been satisfactory or exemplary.

I had to submit weekly lesson plans and was told that I would be given one more chance to redeem myself. At some point, the building administrator would again observe me and I was expected to measure up otherwise I'd be fired.

I was never observed.

The building administrator forgot I existed. On the last day of school he handed me an evaluation that was full of glowing praise for a lesson that I had never taught.

I was expected to endorse this lie by signing the evaluation form. Instead of doing this, I took the form to the superintendent and complained that I had been asked to falsify a state document.

The building administrator lost his job ... and I wound up leaving the district having found a much better teaching position overseas.

[tamara]

Thanks for the responses; she has always been like this. Hopefully, the new director will resolve this issue. I

[Pirate]

I would firmly, but professionall tell your administrator that you will not meet with her/him without another administrator present. This is your right.

You might also try this. Take a legal pad into the meeting and write notes. Do not talk, just document like crazy. Answer yes or no if questioned. If is is not a yeas or no question, explain that you need time to think of an appropriate response and will reply in writing. Carefully phrase your reply and send a CC to her supervisor. This will get her off your back. She will avoid you if she can!!

[tamara]

Like your response Pirate- the shoe will be on the other foot - she may feel intimidate.

[TookieWilliam]

I had a jerk of a boss. People try to use the 'jerk factor' as a way to forget about the message being delivered. Did you mess up? Quit being so fragile with your feelings and fix the problem.

You know how many times this "jerk" boss called me into the office to 'discuss' problems??? 1 time - that's all I needed. I was pissed that he cussed, ranted and raved, but the bottom line was I had screwed up and was being told about it and what I needed to do (in no uncertain terms) to fix the problem.

let me shed a tear for you, you got yelled at. Were you emotionally scarred? Probably not. Fix your problems, move on. The less you mess up, the less you get yelled at. Kinda novel, huh?

[silvana]

wow tookie don't take prisoners =)
In my opinion there is nothing that can be gained from shouting and abusing a person, I respond to criticism but I refuse to respond to someone screeching at me.
Tell me whats wrong and I will fix it ...the end ...no drama...

[TookieWilliam]

What I see is sometimes, people are so upset that they are being told they are wrong, they imagine it as the bossman yelling at them.\

I did have a jerk for a boss. I'm not there anymore, but there are still, legendary meltdown stories coming from my old school. I pride myself that I can see past the messenger and hear the message of anyone.

[Aziz]

I have to disagree with you, TookieWilliam. Messing up isn't an excuse to abuse a position of power. If someone makes a mistake, not only is being honest but nice about it going to increase the chances of the other person listening, but it also preserves your image as a concerned leader and not a fear-inducing one. I know that I personally shut off all ability to interpret speech when people's voices pass a certain volume. I don't do it consciously to make a statement; my brain is incapable of processing information (even music) if it's above a certain volume. I also know that I am not alone. I do see your point that sometimes you have to get directly to the message, but if an administrator is berating you, is that the message s/he wants to be sending? And does that say more about you as a teacher or about the administrator?

I think it's best to send a message in the format most comfortable for the listener, in the same way we speak to other people in a language they understand.

-Aziz

[TookieWilliam]

that's what I'm saying, how much is it "the boss yelled at me and he doesn't have that right to be a jerk" when it really was "I didn't like the fact that I got called on the carpet about whatever, so I'll just say he was a jerk, then maybe people will forget about the fact that I screwed up"

A lot of "jerk" bosses are nothing more than regular bosses who corrected their employee.

[Chef Dave]

wow tookie don't take prisoners =)
In my opinion there is nothing that can be gained from shouting and abusing a person, I respond to criticism but I refuse to respond to someone screeching at me.



Hear! Hear!

Screaming is a juvenile way to get attention.

[Seabear]

I have also worked for many different types of people (restaurant/retail manager for over 30 years).
No one should be reprimanded in public or belittled, especially in front of students (employees) or other supervisors. At the very least this is unprofessional, but it is also just plain wrong.
I suggest you start a paper trail (if you haven't already), documenting every meeting, outburst, etc. and be sure to print out emails.
Request a meeting with the next level supervisor and explain what is going on.
My good friend who teaches Kindergarten had this same kind of abuse (and it is abuse and harassment), going on, and the Supervisor was the subject of an investigation and terminated (only worked there for about three months!).
Hang in there! Do your best and keep your work professional and top notch, leave no doubt that you are not the problem!

[tamara]

Tookie- No I did not screw up- I am too mature for that in more ways than one- I have known this person for years out of work and in work. When you give certain kind of people authority they take it to extremes!

[tamara]

Searbear,
Love your mature and professional advice- that is exactly what another supervisor suggest for ALL of us to do upon returning in Aug.