One of my biggest frustrations in my career as a Chick-fil-A manager was a phenomenon I like to call back talking. Not back talking as in people talking back to me. But, back talking as in people talking in the back (part of the store) and behind other people's backs. There wasn't a day that went by that I didn't hear employees talking bad about other employees, managers talking bad about other managers, employees talking bad about managers, or managers talking bad about employees. I tried never to take part in those conversations. Yet, sometimes I found myself in situations where I was almost forced to take part.
Well, today I experienced the middle school equivalent. I guess there were some important people visiting the school today. And, apparently, some teachers got told that they weren't doing certain things correctly and needed to make changes. The timing of events must have been off. The teachers felt like the only reason anything was said to them was because of the visitors and that the administrators just wanted to act like they were doing everything right. So, I was sitting-in on an unofficial team meeting, essentially forced to listen to some teachers bad-mouthing a particular administrator for some things he/she said. All I kept thinking was the same thing I used to think at my former job..."Do you have to say that HERE?" I mean, of course people are going to get on other people's nerves. And of course, sometimes you just need to vent. But, do you really think it's appropriate to vent in the workplace? Where the people you are bad-mouthing might be just right outside the door?
I hope I never fall into this whole mess. Whatever happened to the old saying..."If you don't have anything nice to say, don't say anything at all."
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