It is over, at least, and resolved, not that I was especially happy with the way the meeting went. A few hours later, the association rep who was there with me and who goes to these things from time to time, dropped by to ask how I was and she said "Wow, that meeting was so weird!" So that's your preview.The principl, clearly, was not interested in being the mediator of anyone's interpersonal problems, although he did so. (He has four daughters; maybe he's just sick of this kind of thing at home!) First, I addressed the issue of what the other guy said to me (which, for review, amounted to his telling me that he could do my job better than I can) and that I wanted an apology. Well, Asshole Bully was just so surprised! How could anyone think that he had meant any such thing! Well, he did apologize, but without taking responsibility for it. He said that he was very sorry and apologized if I felt that my feelings were hurt. Way to go, big man. I did say something about I'm sure he didn't mean that he could do all the library jobs and man the door, just that he could man the door effectively, but he said no, he could do the librarian's job and man the door, if that's what he set his mind to do. So he apologized, and then basically explained that exactly what he meant was that he could do my job better than I could. That was all I was getting out of him. He said he was sorry; there was nothing more to ask for there.
I said that I needed clarification on what he had told me to do because it was in conflict with what the principal had told me to do last month. The principal explained that there was no conflict because the two of them are in agreement on everything as part of the administrative team. The Asshole denied saying any of the things he said. They dismissed all of my concerns by agreeing, basically, that the Asshole hadn't really said what, in fact, he really said. You must understand that we all left on pleasant terms, which is a desirable thing, except that now I know for certain that neither of these men is in any way remotely trustworthy. No one accused me of lying or anything like that, and I knew better than to come out and say that he was. It was, literally, a he-said-she-said situation. It was bizarre. In a couple of cases, I quoted him exactly, and he said, no, he didn't say that.
The stupidest part of all this is that I didn't want to implement a sign-in system that couldn't be implemented properly and what they decided is that it's okay if it's not implemented properly as long as it's there. !!!!!!!! I don't have to stand by the door and make sure the kids sign in; if the list isn't 100%, that's okay. Now I ask, if the list isn't 100%, what's the point of having it?
On my way out of the principal's office, he turned abruptly back into a human being and said there's going to be a meeting next week about moving the library and he'll let me know when so I can be there. Yeah, uh, okay. Personally, I don't change gears that fast, but, whatever.
It was kind of like being on this week's Lost, when all of a sudden, the whole story has shifted and you see where you're really standing.
Three and half more years.
