November 2, 2012

• Red tape rant **update**

  If you didn’t know, I was “let go” from my job of 6 years because my boss thought I might get married and not come back.  So, instead of waiting for me to tell her if I was coming back or not (she said I had till the end of school)…at 3 weeks before the end of school she informed me she’d hired someone else to replace me.  “But maybe we’ll have overflow kids and you can teach them”.  Ahem…yeah.

  So…since then I’ve been poor.  I still have my wonderful private school job and my church job, but it’s not enough.  Not being able to afford groceries or to get my oil changed is no fun.  So, I started looking for another teaching job.  I found two…one at another school in the same district and one in a new district.  The one in the same district is a job I had a few years ago…teaching in a small, dark, closet-like room off the stage with the band practicing onstage constantly.  Not ideal, but it’s money.

  The new district has been like trying to join the FBI.  First I had to submit a bunch of paperwork, which is fine.  I had to go to a training meeting that they said wouldn’t happen again till November (this was back in Sept!).  And I had to get fingerprinted, even though they did a background check on me.  I guess I could be a rapist or something, but it seems a bit excessive.  But apparently all school districts make you get fingerprinted now.  Okay, whatever.  So I don’t schedule my appointment because I don’t feel like paying 42 dollars to give the government my fingerprints, which they probably already have anyway.  I’m not a huge fan of my private info going to the government (you know how I feel about the TSA).  So I didn’t schedule my appointment until the meeting happened, so I’d be sure I was actually going to have a job teaching there before I did it.  So…the meeting happened.  It was on the only day I teach, during my lessons, so I had to cancel and reschedule my lessons to drive out there for a meeting which lasted 15 minutes.  That was fine.  We were told we had to get our picture taken, but the person who takes them had already gone home so we had to come back another day.  OK. 

  So I schedule my fingerprint appointment.  The first available time is a week and a half out.  Whatever…I schedule it.  *Sit on butt and not work for a week and a half more*.  Okay…then the night before my appointment they call and leave a message that they have a “family emergency” and I need to call and reschedule because they’ll be closed.  Brilliant.  So I don’t call the next day because they are closed.  I call today and am on hold for 10 minutes then get another call, so have to hang up.  Call again…same thing.  Hang up and call the number the lady actually called from instead of public number… same thing.  On hold. I go to the website and try to schedule another appt. on there.  But since I had an appointment already they won’t let me…and say they sent an email to me to change it.  No such email in my inbox. 

  Pull.
  My.
  Hair.
  Out.

  I’ve already cried over this because I’m so frustrated.  Why such bureaucracy?  This as ceased to be about me teaching kids how to sing.  This is about paperwork, red tape, who has what badge and name tag and how much money the fingerprinting people can make.  And ultimately about how much power the government can wield.  I love kids, and I love singing.  I will teach them.  But I remember even more so how I detest public school when things like this happen. 

  I lost my job to bureaucracy, and now I’m having a heck of a time getting  new one for the same reason.  I fear the entire semester might be over by the time I’m done with all this . 

  ***UPDATE***

  Just sat on hold for 15 minutes.  At exactly 15 minutes the lady came on and gave me a “first available appointment” …on Thursday of NEXT week.  Soooooo another week not working!  I would hope they’d have some time/space for people whose appointments they canceled, but alas, no.

  • 12:55 pm
  • 12 Comments