If at first you do not succeed, try, try again.

That seems to be the lesson in today’s story but with a twist.

Let’s see how one school teacher ended up benefiting more than she ever knew she would by complaining to the right person.

Complain to everyone about your work if you must but your done working here equals ten years wages!

So every morning I walk my dog at the off lead dog park.

As it’s a small town all the dog walkers have become friendly. I ( mid 40s) made friends with June (75-80). June told me this lovely MC story from About 25 years or more ago.

June made a career change.

June was working as a school teacher and was retraining as a social worker.

She left teaching for two years working as a social worker when her previous school asked her to run a class for at risk children. The deal was she would teach children aged 12-18 ( grade 7-12) who come from backgrounds of emotional, physical and sexual abuse.

The job was causal , so she didn’t get paid for holidays, sick leave etc. She was supposed to teach six kids with an Aide but ending up with twenty kids and no teachers aide.

The job wasn’t easy.

As you can imagine, their behavior was terrible.

She believed she could help and she said she did make some real differences. The work was really stressful but she was passionate about it.

Eventually, June had enough.

After three years and multiple promises of making her a permanent staff member, getting an aide plus smaller classes, June was burnt out.

She demanded help from the principal who refused and told her since she has complained, it’s for the last time and sacked her.

He told her she is causal and she can go complain to everyone and everywhere but as a casual worker you have little rights.

June didn’t stay quiet.

So June did complain to everyone, school Inspector, the union, department of education (it was a state school) and even her local Member of parliament who told her she has had a tough deal but this is the life of a casual worker.

She finally complained to the state authority that deals with safe work practices.

It turns out that she finally complained to the right place.

They were interested as the school has breached state policy on class sizes for special needs kids, teacher aides, providing a safe environment etc.

They ordered the department of education to pay her worker’s compensation while they sorted it out. So now June was paid each fortnight including leave and all benefits. 52 weeks a years instead of 40.

It got even better for June.

The fallout was big after the investigation. Lots of people sacked or moved on.

What this did was leave June without a boss.

The safe work practice department closes the case as they believe it was now a dept of education matter to pay June out.

It took years before anyone remembered June.

Everyone has forgotten about June and she got lost in government paperwork.

They still paid her and she kept quiet. It took ten years before they found her in an employee audit. Then they paid her out.

June was ready to retire about then so it worked out beautifully.

I love it when a story ends happily.

Let’s see what Reddit had to say…

One reader is hung up on the word usage…

Another reader answered the questions in the comment above…

This person pointed out a bigger problem.

Another person shared a similar story.

This person now has a new goal!

Sometimes complaining to the right person can pay off more than you’d ever know!

If you liked this post, you might want to read this story about a teacher who taught the school’s administration a lesson after they made a sick kid take a final exam.