14 May 2010

Seniority: Blessings or Dressings?

Note: The content may be sensitive, but it does not apply to all.

Seniority
is a big thing in work, be it in a private or government sector. While it is good to have seniors in our workplace, there are some who bound to seek for respect from new staff and think that they have gained immunity from disciplinary actions.

The big question that I would like to raise is that, "does seniority brings more problems than blessings to an organisation?" Throughout my 4-month observation in school, I discovered that it is difficult to work along with some senior teachers because they are always against or think negatively on the changes in the way we do things, new policies and new ideas. The worst thing is that, some of them refused to cooperate with the junior teachers and abandoned the work without proper explanation and sometimes leave the work to new staff to handle. How irresponsible and selfish can they be? It really makes me wonder that ten years or twenty years of working experience may just be only a dressing to their resume.

We have to remember that things change over time. Our experience before may not be useful in today's situation or probably we lack of experience since we have been doing the same thing over and over again. Once a motivational speaker said to me "me might have gained the number of years teaching and not the quantity or quality experience". Oh well it simply means, doing the same thing all over again might only represent one experience and not a lot of experience, although we have worked for many years.

The seniors probably need an attitude change: be willing to accept changes and be willing to perform their duties wholeheartedly and try not to be "Mr Know it All. I am always right, because I work longer than you". Humility to learn is a virtue that we all must have. However, having said these, I do believe that all teachers, regardless of whether they are seniors or juniors should be appreciated during the upcoming teachers' day.
(My students, preparing Teachers' Day cards for their teachers)
Photos taken using Olympus Sp560uz

Being a teacher means I have a heavy responsibility on my shoulder to educate the young ones. Instead of having one child, I now have hundreds of them. It is sad to hear that some students curse, criticize, and ignore the teachers. Some of them see the teachers as low life beings. But we, the teachers, still give our best to them to ensure their success in life.

To make sure that teachers are appreciated of their hard work, I asked my students to create cards for their teachers. The cards will be distributed to teachers on Monday.
(Happy Teachers' Day to all teachers)

31 Messages:

Alice Law said...

Hello teacher! Dropping by again to wish you a happy weekend!

Reading your post reminds me of something my MIL used to say... "I eat salt more than you eat rice~!(a chinese saying)I have brought up 3 children, what do you know about BRINGING UP kids?!!" =x="

Icy BC said...

Willie,

I agree with your observation, as I myself have observed while volunteering in my child's school too. Senior teachers here are cranky, and tired out. They stick to what they know in the past and very hard headed when it comes to change.

Great thought to ponder!

RoseBelle said...

I think people who have seniority have a sense of entitlement. They feel they know it all and the newcomers are inexperience troublemakers. This kind of behavior is prevalent in both private and public sectors. I would say, senior government employees are more difficult to work because they know it is very hard to fire them since criteria for lay-offs depend on seniority and not job performance.

manglish said...

seniors mean they have settled into a pattern and can be obnoxious sometimes hahahahaah....just bear with it, i think malaysians are still ok, u shud come to japan, respecting seniors is a cult....

Norris Thomas said...

biasa la bro...orang2 senior tok suka belagak sida dah pandey..pengalaman...tapi sida sik sedar sida kebelakang dan tidak memandang jauh..kira lawa lah ya...sik semua la kan...
kdangkala normal kot EGO manusia...rasa diri dah senior tek alu angkat dada....fikirkan...

suituapui said...

I am totally against anything based on seniority - the number of years a person has served.

But if we consider merit instead, there's always this hanky-panky, apple-polishing...and the deserving ones get left on the shelf. It's really a very difficult situation - life is never fair, that I can tell you is very very true.

Boy, am I glad I'm out of all that madness!!!

suituapui said...

Re. your earlier comment:
"Senior teachers here are cranky, and tired out. They stick to what they know in the past and very hard headed when it comes to change"
and others along this same line, we should not generalise like that. It all boils down to the individual. Some seniors are a lot more positively inclined than the young ones.

There are of course some washed-out ones, dead wood...but if you probe further, they may have been like that ever since they were a lot younger!

Anonymous said...

Seniority does not necessarily equate to more experience, expertise or being wiser. One thing to remember is respect has to be earned and not demanded.

Ms Tikot said...

Cutenya,siapa ada butterfly gik di lukis oleh student u ;-)

BB' L@uRa said...

yep...some refuse to cooperate and open up to new ideas without realising they r actuali dah ktinggaln zaman..

anyway...cool eh meda bala students nuan..:)

Anonymous said...

Selamat Hari Guru hehe..

Willie a.k.a Reptoz said...

Alice LAw :Hi. tHANKs. YEah...that salt thingy..ppl always use it.

IcyBicy :Oh yeas. Some are hard headed. I think young people are good in work too although they are new.

Rosebelle :Yes I agree with you.

Willie a.k.a Reptoz said...

Manglish :Yes...the become hard like a stone.

Norris :Hahaha ya la tu bro. Tapi tak semua la.

Situapui :Hemmm..yes bro.

MeiTeng True. They need to earned respect.

MisTikot Hahaha...kiut kan?

BBlaura :Students nuan ngaga apa for Teachers' Day?

Krisno :Thanks!

rainfield61 said...

There are so many seniors in every organisation.

Oh! Seniors.

Joanne Olivieri said...

I think Seniors may become set in their ways and not positive about changes. In a work environment and especially as a teacher it should be about enlightening the students and change is a big part of that.

Willie a.k.a Reptoz said...

Rainfield :Especially in public sector.

PoetiCShutterbug :Oh yeah. They should adapt with changes.

betchai said...

the world changes fast, and especially the way we bring information and communicate, it is hard to imagine teachers stay the same way in communicating information to their students, I am new in high school teaching ( moved from college), but am so glad where the school I teach at, the senior teachers are open to change and they are actually very helpful to me, especially on facing difficulties, teaching teen-agers is very difficult, like what you said, some of them don't show respect at all, but we as teachers still have to give our best to bring out the best in these kids. i may have so many things to learn from you.

SJB aka SUELYN J-B. said...

Happy teacher's day :D. Hmmm not sure bila teacher's day di sini heheh.

Willie a.k.a Reptoz said...

BEtchai :I am new too. Like you, i just moved from teaching in a college to high school. Let's face the kids together. Hahaha

SJB :Didn't you ask the locals? Hahaha

Azlina Abdul said...

Willie...I agree with you 100%...this is something that my Mom used to talk about with me when she was serving as a secondary school teacher years ago. It was hell for her to deal with those so called seniors...but this kinda thing does not just exist in schools...it's exists in all government sectors...I guess that's why I decided to work on my own...hehehe....to avoid all that...

MODERN ROBINSON CRUSOE said...

Hey willie

Happy teacher's day - Indeed a noble profession -pendidik generasi akan datang :-)

cassie said...

happy teacher's day willie!!

and regarding your post.i guess it happens everywhere.not only teachers but nurses also like that.

sometimes its like 'ibu ketam meengajar anaknya berjalan lurus' jer..

Willie a.k.a Reptoz said...

Azlina :You work on your own now? Cool...

Casper :Nurses too? Geee...

Robs :Thanks buddy!

Anonymous said...

Selamat Hari Guru...cikgu Willie!

mrs shaifull said...

bro, happy teachers day! may god bless u! :)

Anonymous said...

happy belated teachers' day.. lol.. havent been celebrating that ever since I'm outta school..

CathJ said...

Happy Teachers day ya.... ^_^

mNhL said...

It is the EGO in them? Seniors will normally think that they have more experience than the jr. It is sometimes difficult to cooperate, ya. Btw, Happy Teacher's Day to you.

Willie a.k.a Reptoz said...

Fonsusz, MrsShaiful, Shirleen, CathJ, MnHL :Thanks for your teachers' day wishes.

Rodz Nocturne said...

I think seniority does not really reflect experience in some people in some profession as the world have change and things done in 30 years time before might not be relevant nowadays, that's why young blood and newcomers exist. The attitude of "know it all" shouldn't be practice, life is about sharing and they (seniors) should work together with young people and share their knowledge with them. We should accept the fact that nothing last forever but new things will always come :)

Rodz Nocturne said...

Oh by the way happy belated Teacher's day :)