tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29571009.post2902753449197061486..comments2022-03-02T17:47:57.151-08:00Comments on Edmonds School District Weblog: It's all about making the District a better place.ESD15.orghttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13226260553219032275noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29571009.post-15017649801187585002007-12-23T12:58:00.000-08:002007-12-23T12:58:00.000-08:00I was listening to NPR the other day and heard a b...I was listening to NPR the other day and heard a book review of a new book, "The Whisperers: Private Life in Stalin's Russia" by Orlando Figes. It is apparently a compliation of interviews describing first-hand what Stalin did to the 'average Joe-Russian' family. I was struck by the description of the fear and intimidation injected into daily (communal) life; government informers seemed to be everywhere, people disappeared without word and people literally lowered their voices to a whisper even in their own living quarters. <BR/><BR/>Sounded to me like what my work life was like in the District. It was not a workplace where people worked together dispite the hyped "collaboration" that was the professed banner under which we were working. There can be no "collaboration" when decisions are made by one person no matter how much icing is on the cake to hide it. When educational decisions are made with no stated educational reason ("to ease your load" is not a reason when you haven't talked to me about how "the load" was CREATED by YOUR previous decisions, also made without my professional input) there has to be another reason for making them. I do not discount stupidity or incompetence in the equation, but it seems to me that when a series of these decisions tend to impact senior staff members more than junior staff members and when this is pointed out to upper administration, it is ignored or dismissed ("I talked to Mr. X and he says that didn't happen"), there is something going on that is bigger and more complex than stupidity.<BR/><BR/>Please remember that management is usually disgraced when it is discovered that they tried to cover-up indiscrete or stupid actions rather than from the severity of the indescrete or stupid actions in the first place. Thus 18 minute gaps in tapes are worse than breaking into the office of your political enemy.<BR/><BR/>The District will not become a better place to work until the fear, intimidation and bullying of subordinates stops. Nor will it become a better place to work until people who don't know what they are doing have no power over those who do know what they are doing.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29571009.post-84832281111460576312007-12-21T17:58:00.000-08:002007-12-21T17:58:00.000-08:00I'd almost settle for the lofty goal of mediocrity...I'd almost settle for the lofty goal of mediocrity at this point.ESD15.orghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13226260553219032275noreply@blogger.com