The Worst Employer Experience

I'm pretty sure many of us have encountered HORRIBLE employers. You know, the kind of employers who undervalue you, who undermine you, and who just simply take you for granted.

Well, here's my experience.

After leaving Canada when I was 4 months pregnant and moving back home to the Bahamas, I landed a job as a special needs teacher within a week of returning home (although my employer would disagree, but that story would come in a later post).

Now, during my interview, I did not mention that I was pregnant, fearing that it would lower my chances of getting the job and I was desperate to have some income coming in. Also, I wasn't yet showing, and so I was able to pull it off.

My employer who we'll call Mrs. Williams, was seemingly a nice person, but also she was desperate (which I learned of later). She really needed another teacher to help out in one of her classrooms. My cousin had set up an interview for me with Mrs. Williams who was looking for someone with a Bachelor's degree in Psychology or Special Needs Education.

Mrs. Williams asked me what I expected for a salary and I said anything from $250.00-$350.00 per week would be acceptable. She told me she wanted to be honest and that she couldn't afford to pay me $350.00 per week but she would pay me $250.00 per week.

Once I had accepted the job, Mrs. Williams told me that she would be deducting $50.00 from my pay each week in order to pay my National Insurance contribution. I was happy about this because it meant that by the time as January had come around I might be able to get maternity benefits, so I agreed.

Now, it is important to understand that special needs students are those that are not exactly "typically" developing. These children's "conditions" may range from learning disabilities to being visually impaired. So for these children, learning is much more difficult than it would be for their "typically" developing peers.

In my classroom I had a child that was partially deaf, and another student with ADHD; but, my other students were typically developing, and therefore had no learning disabilities.

My duty was to create individualized lesson plans for them, but also teach them general subjects such as Math, English, Science, Religious Studies, Phonics, and Social Studies.

I worked 40 hours per week.

I had terrible morning sickness during my pregnancy and so I found myself hiding in the bathroom a lot so that Mrs. Williams wouldn't discover my pregnancy. But, the school was only so big, and so eventually I had to come clean.

When I told Mrs. Williams I was pregnant, I could see that it bothered her, but she accepted it and I was able to keep my job.

Mrs. Williams decided to confide in me that she was having trouble receiving tuition payments from the parents of the students and so she found it difficult paying me. One week she would pay me $100 less and promise to pay it on the following week's paycheque. This happened often. And I still stayed because I knew she needed me.

The cook who made all the meals for the children ended up quitting her job because Mrs. Williams could no longer afford to pay her.

Things were getting worse and worse; yet, I stayed.

At one point I hadn't received a paycheque in FIVE weeks! And if you've read my previous blog, you'd understand why this was hard on me. This was the only income I had and to go five weeks without pay felt like an eternity! But again, I decided to stick with it because I did love the kids in my classroom and I did not want to abandon them so early on in my position.

Another thing that made this the worst employer experience was that I was not properly trained. I mean, sure I have a psychology degree but I would've felt much more competent in my role, and actually would've been able to make a difference in those children's lives, had Mrs. Williams taken the appropriate steps to have me prepared.

I remember one day I was so desperate to leave early, I just was not feeling well and I was exhausted. I asked my friends Randi and Destiny to call my job and tell Mrs. Williams I had an emergency and needed to leave. Those two decided to call and say the emergency was regarding my sister!

The problem here was that my sister was also working at the school as my aid! As I'm typing this all I can do is laugh at how this plan was an EPIC FAIL and I'm thinking to myself that I need smarter friends.

Mrs. Williams came into my classroom with a look of confusion on her face and said that she received what she believed to be a prank call....I had to play like I knew nothing about it.

But, I can surely say I did the best I could in the months I was there.

Here's the kicker though. After giving birth to Sapphyre, I went to National Insurance to see if I could possibly get maternity benefits. The lady looked over my file and said that nothing had been paid to my National Insurance contributions the entire time I worked for Mrs. Williams.

WOW!

But you see, I resigned from my job when the school had closed for the holidays at the end of 2012. And although I should've taken some kind of legal action against her, I left it in God's hands. And you know what happened? Shortly after I left, Mrs. Williams was forced to closed down the school.

All I want to say here again is sometimes we must choose our battles. Some times it is worth it to put your best foot forward in even the word scenarios because eventually your good deeds will catch up to you. But, also remember not to be anyone's foot stool. Until this day I strongly believe that Mrs. Williams took advantage of me, and I blame myself for letting her.