Resign O’ The Times

Today was a good day to resign. My Director Of Studies, Duncan, had already guessed as much after I had requested the meeting a few days earlier.

We sat down in an empty office, and I laid it out as I saw it. Namely, that Shane is a company that has delusions of competency: missing teaching materials, poorly photocopied maps, contradictory instructions, inadequate training. Furthermore, I added that though each incident seemed rather petty in isolation, each teacher experiences 50 such incidents a day.

I suggested had there been a map of all the Shane schools with a pin marking-up every daily cock-up, if you zoomed out you’d see a billion pins all making a big mosaic of Shane’s face.

Duncan was great. He even laughed at that joke. Really, he’s a decent bloke working for a shit company. He was very complimentary about my teaching, saying that feedback from parents and students alike had been very good and took no exception to my lambasting of Shane.

“I think you have high-standards” he said which, it occurred to me, by implication, suggested Shane had low-standards.

Additionally, he claimed I had joined at a bad time and that this was the worst shortage they’d had in two years. I accepted that this may be true but, really, it was too late. I was ill because I was tired and I was tired because I was ill.

I also found out that Lee, the tosser from yesterday, had been called in for a “special meeting” about his conduct. Good.

We agreed a final date: 18th November.

And that, I thought, was that.

But when I got home that night things changed again. I phoned The Midlands to let the folks know I was coming home but on speaking to my Dad, found out that my Grandpa was not only in hospital but also was very ill.

This was another reason for me to get home as soon as I could. My plans needed to change.