In some workplaces, scandals travel faster than emails.

So when one teacher was labeled “inconsistent” and quietly pushed out of her leadership role after a colleague convinced a new boss she wasn’t cutting it, that same colleague eagerly stepped into the position.

But when her replacement failed to handle the spreadsheets, parent calls, and endless follow-ups, it proved the job wasn’t as simple as it seemed.

You’ll want to read on for this one.

Colleague stole my position and now I get to watch her struggle worse than I did in it

I’m a teacher at a decently affluent public school.

For the most part, I love my job.

I’ve made genuine friends among staff members, and the students make the hard work worth it.

One day, she was approached about a leadership position at the school.

A few years back, I was recognized by my old boss as a potential leader in the building.

He stressed to me that I was very data-oriented and likable among my colleagues.

I know my way around Google Sheets and Excel when it comes to collecting and organizing student data and am really solid with parent communication.

I was hesitant, but eventually I agreed and became a “leader” for a group of teachers and students at the school, in charge of organizing meetings, overall student educational success, etc.

But not everything got off without a hitch.

That old boss who promoted me left, and I was stuck with a new boss who I didn’t know well.

Here’s where things get messy: I have sensory processing disorder and mild hearing loss.

This can lead to some pretty serious misunderstandings.

It’s hard to explain, but sometimes I genuinely do not hear things correctly.

Think if you said, “I’m going to pick up Stacy,” I might hear something like, “I’m gone just wait and see.”

This happens at least once a day and usually isn’t that big of a deal.

Unfortunately, it isn’t curable, but I manage.

The new boss had quite a few lofty ideas.

In meetings with my new boss, my new boss would push strategies that were based around focusing on students whose state test scores were almost passing.

The idea was that you would focus on all students but give extra attention to these guys.

These initiatives were never written down, and I would find out later that was because the legality of such a thing is iffy at best.

Her spotty hearing was beginning to tarnish her relationship with her new boss.

When these ideas were shared with me, I would constantly ask the boss after the meeting to repeat herself and then check my notes to make sure I heard her correctly.

I noticed at the time that she was passively frustrated that I would do this, even though I explained I had a hearing disorder.

Looking back, I wonder if she felt pressured knowing what we were doing wasn’t kosher and if I made a bad impression.

In comes an important side character.

Now to introduce the main character of the story, who I’ll call Tenny, since she’s the coach of the tennis team.

Tenny is well liked by staff members for her years of service toward our community in a particular area.

I also liked Tenny a lot and figured she’d be a great team member.

Tenny also grew increasingly more annoyed by her condition.

Tenny, however, like my boss, became repeatedly frustrated when I would miss things she would say to me, especially in crowded high school hallways.

Sometimes she would even shout something to me as she walked past me.

This led to many gaffes and mistakes.

I asked her repeatedly to pause and make sure I got what she was saying or just to email me.

Nothing changed.

This teacher begins to resent the lack of accommodation she’s received thus far.

There were at least five or six big moments that my hearing wasn’t accommodated for when a simple email could have solved the problem.

Just as one example, my new boss came into the hallway to let us know that an assembly location was being changed.

We were to take the students to a new area, not the old one.

Of course, I heard a change, but I didn’t hear the location.

Tenny had the opportunity to help, but chose not to.

Tenny was the only one nearby.

I tapped my ear (which I usually do to indicate I didn’t hear something) and asked where we were going.

Tenny quickly responded and walked away, and I, once again, didn’t understand.

This led the teacher to inadvertently lead her students astray.

Cue me and my students walking into the assembly five minutes late after walking them around the building in confusion.

My new boss asked what happened, and I told her simply that I didn’t hear her correctly.

Before long, her new position was now being called into question.

Weeks later, I was called into a meeting with my new boss, and she told me that I was going to lose my leader position due to inconsistency and “disrespect toward colleagues.”

I asked her which colleagues, and she told me that that was private.

I asked her how I was disrespectful, and she said that “sometimes you get frustrated when you say you can’t hear things and tap your ear.”

I said that that was the ASL sign for “hear,” as in, “I can’t hear you.”

Now the teacher is growing more and more irritated by the lack of accommodations.

She said that I should have communicated that.

I said that I’ve asked for written communication constantly.

She said I shouldn’t always expect it.

She was starting to see the school she once loved for what it really was.

I knew it was a losing game, and any explanation I would provide would just be shot down.

I loved the school and the community, and fighting the new boss was only going to lead to more problems.

But then came the biggest betrayal yet.

I shouldn’t have been surprised when a school-wide email went out that Tenny was getting the leader position.

Tenny was praised by colleagues in Reply Alls, and it was frustrating to say the least.

I know that she was the one who complained, and it was extremely bitter for me to see her rewarded for it.

Cue the next school year.

Tenny expected full cooperation from this teacher, which she was rightfully reluctant to give.

Tenny comes into my room and asks me for the student data sheets that I created with Google Sheets.

I told her, truthfully, that even if I did share them with her that there wasn’t anything she could do with them.

I brought her over to my computer and showed her the formulas I worked with and how I needed to adjust them every time a new student, section, etc. was added to the roster.

Tenny expected free labor, but this teacher made it clear that wasn’t going to happen.

She then asked me if I could just continue updating these sheets outside of my leader position.

I told her as professionally as possible that I would love to teach her how to do all of these things but would need a stipend to do so.

She asked if any of the other leaders were doing what I did.

I said they weren’t. I was the only one and always had been.

Tenny clearly thought this conversation would go a lot differently.

I’m a bit ashamed I didn’t take joy in seeing Tenny’s face go cold when she realized I wouldn’t fold and there was nothing she could do except cope with hours of data work per year or become proficient with Sheets/Excel, something I knew she wasn’t going to do.

And the real kicker: the parents.

Parents of students 99% of the time are a joy to work with. I really mean that.

It’s so fun to work with the parents of the people I care the most about.

But the bad parents, however…

But it’s the 1% that make your life a living awful.

I have overheard Tenny complaining about being on the phone with a 1% parent for 45 minutes, losing her entire grading time.

A call like that would have taken me about five minutes tops since I have the experience of knowing how to stop circular arguments and get the parent on my side for an issue.

Tenny struggled a lot more with this task.

What has taken me minutes is taking Tenny sometimes hours.

Yes, she’s getting my 1.5K stipend now, but I no longer have to deal with extra meetings, extra parent phone calls, miscommunication, etc.

She couldn’t help but take pleasure in watching Tenny struggle.

She’s getting all the pain I got and more.

I feel ashamed that I’m taking so much joy in this, but Tenny made my life hell in a place I otherwise love.

Have fun, Tenny!

Redditors are sure to get a kick out of this one.

It’s clear to this user that this teacher deserves a lot better.

Tenny seems to have forgotten that leadership positions are a lot of work.

This commenter suspects the higher-ups will come crawling back eventually.

It’s possible this school has broken the law.

Be careful what you wish for!

If you liked this post, check out this story about an employee who got revenge on a co-worker who kept grading their work suspiciously low.