Tuesday, May 1, 2012

Is This Seat Taken?

It was my first week at a new school.  Counting student teaching, this marked the fourth school I'd been at in six years so change and meeting new people wasn't a big deal for me.  One of the things I always do, particularly as an administrator, is get to work early in order to visit with staff.  This is a people business and building relationships takes focus.  However, this wasn't really work for me because I generally like shooting the breeze with others and, um, telling stories.

Making friends with the ladies in the office was of particular interest to me though.  These under appreciated individuals are so critical to success in every sense. I wanted to make sure they liked me.  Every morning I would go in and sit and talk with them for fifteen minutes or so.  There were two secretaries and a sort of jack-of-all-trades aide who also helped out in the office.  They were all nice ladies, but I also kind of felt that no matter what we were talking about, they were kind of laughing me.

The only thing worse than being laughed at, is being laughed at and not being in on what's funny.  The first thing I usually do in these instances is check my fly.  All good there.

After 4 or 5 days of feeling like the target of light giggles and withheld laughter on the part of these ladies, I confronted the situation.  "Ok, what is so damn funny?!  The three of you have looked like you are about ready to fall apart laughing every time I've been in here since I started. My ties aren't that bad are they?"

They all lost it.  They were laughing so hard none of them could respond.  Finally one of them gathered herself enough to talk.

"It's nothing you've said sir, it's just (pause, wipe eyes of tears, deep breath), when you come in you sit in the chair we put the kids in who have wet their pants."  That just refueled the laughter.  Not sure if any of them wound up needing the chair.  I'm happy to entertain.  :)

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