Future Educators of America

Educators are asshats. The fact that I considered reentering this profession makes me an asshat too. To back-peddle a bit, in June I interviewed for and was offered a 7th grade maternity leave position at a local school district. I turned the position down because I was not about to quit a job that paid more and is full-time for a 9-month job switch AND I was also asked by this district to interview for another full-time, probationary 6th grade position which I was more interested in. Prior to finding out anything about the 6th grade position’s interview timeslots I notified the English department administrator that I would be out of town from July 12-19 to which she responds “no worries, we just won’t schedule interviews for then.”

Fast forward to June 30 when I receive the following email from the department administrator: “If you are interested in interviewing for Socratic Forum, interviews will be taking place on July 17th. Please reply back to me and Ms. R*, the principal's secretary and send the District Office your letter of application.”

So I respond with: As I mentioned in a previous email, we will be out of town the week of July 12-19; we won't even be within driving distance of NY so I won't be able to interview on July 17. What would you like me to do? D (the department administrator) emails me back and cc’s the principal with the following email: Let me talk to the principal. May we can move you to the following week.

To which the Principal hits “reply-all” with: I think we should go ahead and interview the candidates we have and if we do not like two, we can schedule her for an interview the next week. I am not willing to wait on her as she turned us down before...

This is all happens by July 1. Now at this point I am pissed off because I think the Principal’s email is rude and unnecessary AND I think it’s uncouth to hit reply-all in such a manner. Not to mention that I am not just any candidate, I am a candidate that YOU called about these jobs (I didn’t ever apply) whom you had two week prior offered a job to. So screw it. I was over it. That was until today when I get the following email. Please note that on the final email sent on July 8, 2008, that all of the people who were cc’d are candidates for the position who are being asked as a group to interview at a new date and who were able to see each others’ emails and the emails below as well.

On Tue, 7/8/08, the principal wrote: 

Hello Are you available to interview candidates on July 17th in the morning? Diane and I briefly looked over the applicants, not so promising but we will stay optimistic. There are 4 candidates that I will ask my secretary to set up interviews for the morning of July 17th if that date works. Please let me know asap. Thanks Jill

an interviewer wrote:   

I am thinking we might want to look at some files from elementary applicants--I had a couple at job fair that would be really strong for this. 

an interviewer wrote:   

I will be available that morning but will need to leave by 11:45 for SEEC camp. Thanks, Katrina 

the principal wrote: 

Do you remember any of the names? I agree, this might be the next avenue. I will be in on the 8th and can speak with Michelle.

an interviewer wrote:   

I will dig in and see if I can find the folks who impressed me 

the English Department Chair wrote:  

I think we have 2 very strong candidates: Leah W* and Nicole R*. 

the principal wrote: 

[English Department Chair], do you have a phone number for Nicole R*? 

an interviewer wrote:   

Hi all, are you still going for the first date you set for the interviews? Anna 

the English Department Chair wrote: 

no the 31st.does that work for all of you? Diane

Okay so first of all I am told I am not worth waiting for, then the principal is looking for my phone number, after having said in a previous email that the candidates don’t look promising. And this poor Chris kid who is a candidate against me and this Leah girl, oh god do I feel bad for him – they say directly in an email that the two strong candidates are myself and Leah. Why would he even bother? Anyway, I am definitely NOT interviewing for this district again. I have half a mind to reply with nothing more than instructions for email etiquette and definitions of cc and reply-all. Asshats, all of them I tell you. And I was one of them.