Maybe I am the one who is difficult. Charlie bugs me. Crazy Sue bugged me. And now Non-Crazy Jennifer is bugging me.
She isn't crazy. She isn't mean or rude or making personal attacks like Crazy Sue did. She's just too... comfortable. As the brand new person on the job, working only part time, she just seems too comfortable. Too assuming.
The other day she showed up to watch my play during the free preview and I told her (because she is new and I thought she might not know) that there was a staff meeting and that I had special permission to miss it. She said, Yeah I'll tell [the boss] why I missed it later. Comfortable.
And today I realised she had taken some of my teaching resources and implemented them with junior kids, meaning I can no longer use this resource with the seniors I had intended it for because it will mean they repeat the same material. It isn't that she is mean or vindictive or bad. She is just inexplicably comfortable.
Having learned the error of my (avoidant) ways, I am speaking up when she treads on my toes. And kind of hoping her contract ends in February and we get someone else who is a little slower to feel right at home.
Or maybe I need to relax and surrender.
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2 comments:
I think sometimes people seem 'comfortable' when it is the last thing they feel; when they feel threatened or unsure or insecure. And when (following post) their colleague is much prettier than they are. That sort of thing. People go either way, I think. She probably, deep down, wants to roll into a ball and hide under a desk. It'd be comfortable there.
I think you're right about that, and yet I have trouble relating to it because when I am the new person on staff I always hang back a little. I wait to learn the culture of a place, observe the people, and figure out who they are how they fit together before I start to insert myself in places I may or may not belong.
So it strikes me as odd (and sort of unpleasant) when people appear too comfortable, even if it is a defense mechanism on their part.
And yet, I feel sure there are certain people who just ARE comfortable. Even when they are new, even when they know nothing. Just because that's how they are. And I think those are the people that kind of bug me. I suspect Non-Crazy Jennifer of being one of those always-comfortable people. I should be watching her for tips to learn how to become one of them instead of wasting time being irritated by it.
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