Lydia White, one of the teachers with the most longevity here at Pemberton, is hopping mad. I’ve heard rumors and snippets of conversations, but it wasn’t until today that I pieced it all together. In the previous years, Pemberton paid its part-time teachers for their preparation work at the beginning of each school year. Most of the teachers who have been here for a few years, like Janie and Lydia, have it down to a science and don’t spend one minute more than necessary to get ready, but it still takes at least a full day to get everything in place for the new crop of preschool students each fall.
This year, however, the owners decided not to pay the teachers for prep time, but they didn’t bother to tell anyone. They just shorted everyone’s paycheck hoping, I guess, that no one would notice. It seems this was the last straw for Lydia. They had changed the time her class meets without consulting her. They subtracted more time in between her morning and afternoon classes from her paycheck, even though she was working during those times. Not paying her for her prep time and not having the guts to tell her they weren’t going to pay her for it, though, was the thing that sent her over the edge.
Although I believe she thought she was at first, Lydia was not being singled out. The Martins are treating everyone this way. They’re finding every way they can to cheat their employees out of their pay. With the full-time staffers, they’ve been having Linda mark “lunch hours” for employees on their time sheets even though the teachers didn’t take that time off. The upper administrators have told the directors that they aren’t going to pay the assistant teachers for “mandatory” meetings. With the salaried directors, the Martins take advantage every chance they get, because it doesn’t cost them a dime extra. They’ve been known to say, “Salaried people owe us at least 45 hours per week” (and no breaks…maybe that’s where they get the extra 5 hours?) I don’t treat people this way, and I am VERY uncomfortable with the idea that they are going to ask me to steal money from my employees like this when it’s my turn to direct a school on my own. I just can’t do it. It’s not right.
The result of their conniving is that Lydia has threatened to quit. That seems to be what has upper management in the biggest snit. They’re waiting to see if she actually follows through on her threat. They are not remorseful in any way. They don’t intend to right their wrong. They’re not going to pay her, even if she threatens to take legal action. They’re just planning their next move if she quits.
“Who can we get to take over Lydia’s classes when she quits?” Guess who. It’s almost as if they have a Magic 8 Ball with only one answer inside of it: my name. On whom can we dump extra work when we have it? Annie!