ESPeeved

ESP Have a Unique Set of Pet Peeves

By Dave Arnold

My dictionary defines the word “peeved” as being "upset, annoyed, irritated, or irked."
If you are an Education Support Professional (ESP), I guarantee that you have been peeved about something during the course of performing your duties.

My pet peeve involves my work schedule and those who interfere with it. As head custodian, I devise the custodial crew’s schedule at Brownstown Elementary School in Illinois. I divide the workday into 15-minute increments with specific tasks for each 15-minute time slot. Sometimes I combine slots for certain jobs.

Disrupted Schedules

When students are at recess or physical education class then I might clean their classroom. When they are in class, I might clean the gym, hallways, or restrooms. I simply work around their class schedule. Teachers and administrators know the custodian crew’s schedule.

So, what’s annoying about that?   When a teacher decides to keep half the students in class for some misdeed, and doesn’t tell me about it, I get peeved. This drops a bomb on my schedule. Or, maybe the whole class will stay in and watch a movie that goes along with a lesson.

To enjoy a movie in class is fine by itself. I’m flexible. I might even make some popcorn if asked. But when the teacher is remiss in informing me about the surprise matinee movie, I get peeved. I’m not alone here. Several custodians have confided in me with the same pet peeve.

At an ESP conference recently, I talked shop with some cafeteria cooks. They related their pet peeves. Cooks often prepare meals ahead of time for students, and then sit down to eat their own meal before the herd arrives. Unfortunately, early-bird intruders often disrupt the cooks. These intruders often fly in from study halls where they say they “don’t have anything to do.” They arrive early at lunch to beat the rest of the pack, causing the cooks more than a little heartburn.

Tight Deadlines

In the case of secretaries the peeve involves disregarding their schedule. Quite often a secretary will be working away on a report trying to meet a deadline. All of sudden a little messenger sent by a teacher will appear. The note will say, for example, that teacher X requests four dozen copies of such and such document immediately. A secretary can anticipate a few phone interruptions, but photocopying takes time.
Some offices have set times when secretaries will run copies and do other errands for teachers. If more schools observed this, fewer pet peeves would exist among secretaries.

Bus drivers aren’t immune from contracting dreaded pet peeves. The most prevalent affliction with drivers seems to be that of students and parents who ignore bus schedules. A bus driver is not required to wait on a student who is not at the pick up point when the bus arrives.

Kind-hearted bus drivers usually wait, especially when a child can be seen emerging from the door. The pet peeve is this: as the kind-hearted driver sits with the engine running while watching a load of restless kids, the Johnny-come-lately strolls across his lawn as if pulling a sled of bricks. Instead of using some youthful energy to run for all he’s got, Johnny counts daisies on his way to the bus.

Only Human

I doubt that we will ever see the day when people will cease to have pet peeves. We’re only human. As ESP pet peeves go, things will improve as the National Education Association (NEA) brings its members closer together.

I wonder what pet peeves are committed by ESP in the eyes of teachers? Members of NEA, state Associations and locals are of the same family. While all families have their problems, the good ones try to work things out. Even if life were a rose garden we would still have weeds, thorns, pests and pet peeves.

(Dave Arnold, a member of the Illinois Education Association, is head custodian at Brownstown Elementary School in Southern Illinois.)

The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NEA or its affiliates.