I haven't worked under so many people. It's only one person I've worked under all my life and that was immediately after my secondary school education before I got admission into the university.
Working was the best option at that time because my mom was always skeptical about leaving me alone at home while everyone else goes about their daily duties. And also, it was also an opportunity to experience life outside from the shielded one I was used to.
At that time, the only available job option for such short span of time was as an assisting teacher at a school. I applied and I got to work in the kindergarten section. My duty was to assist the teacher there.
She was pregnant.
From all the stories I've heard about working with pregnant women and how hard they are to please, I dreaded my first day. I knew the basics in teaching such as how to mark, how to write a lesson note, how to fill in the topics for the term into a diary and things like that. My mom is actually a teacher and sometimes when she did that, I stayed around her or even helped. So, I knew I wasn't going to have a problem where those things were concerned. But in this situation, I was dealing with a pregnant woman.
Will she accept my handwriting? Will she be open to let me do things and accept it that it's not everything I will do that will appear the way it usually does when she does it?
The kids. These were kids of about 2 to 3 years. There were so many things they wouldn't be able to do on their own. And I have no experience with kids. I and my sibling were in the same age range so we literally grew together. Before starting, I had made up my mind that it wasn't going to be an easy job.
Well, I started the job and it was entirely different from what I had made myself believe. The kids, although they were a handful, weren't that hard to handle. They messed up things as expected of kids their age, they required assistance in writing letters and numbers like anybody their age would, they played on their seats like pupils in school at their age would. With time, I got used to dealing with them as most of their behaviours were quite predictable.
For the lady I worked under, as her assistant. She was the complete opposite of everything I had heard about women who were pregnant. She was very patient with me, taught me the little things I needed to know about the class and even, some days, entrusted the class into my care. As the teacher, she played her role where necessary and we both worked along well.
Her only flaw I noticed was that she talked a lot. This lady talked so much and me being the only one old enough to understand her and her only partner, made me her only listener. She talked about anything and everything. And I had no choice but to listen to her talk.
She told me about her friends, told me about her kids, her life before marriage. She even went as far as telling me the nitty-gritty details of her and her husband's sex life.
For someone that finds it hard to converse freely with adults other than my parents and extremely close relations, it was a dilemma I faced. I had to sit there, listening to her talk and talk while I probably fed a kid or wrote in their notes. At a point, I began to believe this lady purposely chose times when I was saddled with classroom responsibilities inside the class before starting her stories.
Soon enough, I developed my own coping mechanism. Before her stories become too intense and I've exhausted my 20 mmhs, 16 ehhhnnns, 50 wows, 10 reallys, 3 Awwns and 7 chuckles, I divert her attention and we talk about the behavior of one of the children in the class. A topic I'm more comfortable with.
She wasn't a bad boss. She was someone I enjoyed her company for the little while I was there but those nasty R18 details weren't things I was open to discussing. I can't really say if it was the pregnancy hormones that made her talk about the discreet details of her private life with me or she is just someone that naturally talks too much or I probably came off as someone to tell storied like that. All I can say is aside the whole conversation thing, she was a really nice person. Working with her as a boss wasn't as unbearable as I had pictured it afterall.
This is my entry into the hive naija weekly prompt. Do check it out here and you're very welcome to participate.
Image above was taken by me.
Thanks for reading.