After lunch Danny, Jill, Herby, myself and Luyin's sister were sitting in the office talking. Luyin- as you know- is my boss, but he has returned to the United States for the birth of his second child. So- for right now his sister Lisa is watching over the business. We were slacking off. I will admit that 100%- but since the interim boss was sitting right there I did not feel too bad.
Out of no where another manager, Mary, came up and started YELLING at Herby and Herby alone. After having somebody else translate it for me- it turns out that she had called Herby lazy and couldn't believe that she wasn't working. Then accused that another Manager had already complained about her and that she was going to dock 10 yuan from her pay check. Also inferred that she should watch out because she's already been in trouble once. She then turned and left the room. Poor Herby!
All of us FELT awful! We were all slacking off and it shouldn't have been just Herby is trouble. We were completely being a bad example and even more so- the boss was with us! Danny decided that he should go home then- since we had already got once person in trouble. We all grabbed our stuff and went to the gym and got back to work.
Right before the day was over Michelle, another manager that speak English, came and wanted to talk to Jill and myself. She came in and told us that she was there on Mary's behalf and wanted to profusely apologize. She did not mean to offend or upset us by yelling at Herby. Herby was not working hard enough and she had to be punished and not to take it as a reflection on Jill, Danny or Myself. Jill and I were SHOCKED. We immediately started to explain that it was US that should be apologizing. We were slacking off and we felt bad that our decision had gotten Herby in trouble. We were setting a bad example and as the senior teachers we should have been behaving better. Michelle just looked at us confused. So I had Herby translate. She just kept apologizing and kept saying "No, no, no you should not feel bad. It was Herby who was being bad." No matter how may times we told her that we are just as much at fault as Herby- if not more- she would make more excuses for us. "Oh no- your from a different culture- your work habits are different. Herby was bad." We BEGGED. And nothing.
Then this morning, our manager Claire comes to tell us that Mary is going to come and formally apologize for offending us. I tried to explain to Claire- who seemed to understand- but who knows. Just- very frustrating.
I hate sometimes that we get special treatment. We don't do anything special to deserve it. I mean- I begged them to think that I had done something wrong.
Yes- I begged my boss to punish me. I really must be on the other side of the world.
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