Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They are on the front lines dealing with moms, many of whom probably haven't treated them with very much respect and call them "secretaries". Really? Using "secretary" in 2021 is like using the word "stewardess" instead of "flight attendant" these days. You should refer to the front office school employee as the administrative assistant, not a secretary. Start by updating your vernacular, OP. It isn't 1982 anymore.

+1

It's because of people like you, OP. Truly. Because you look down on them and they know it.

Doesn’t excuse everything, but this is most definitely part of it.

The ones at my daughters’ 2 dcps schools have been very nice. But I had a chilling experience talking to one at a FCPS one time. My cousin died of a heart attack a week before school while on vacation in a foreign county and his 14 year old son who was with him would not be coming to school — he was starting high school — for a couple of weeks. I was asked to call the school to inform them. She was cold as ice and could not be bothered about it. No condolences, nothing. Some people are just terrible humans.

Anonymous wrote:They are on the front lines dealing with moms, many of whom probably haven't treated them with very much respect and call them "secretaries". Really? Using "secretary" in 2021 is like using the word "stewardess" instead of "flight attendant" these days. You should refer to the front office school employee as the administrative assistant, not a secretary. Start by updating your vernacular, OP. It isn't 1982 anymore.

+1

It's because of people like you, OP. Truly. Because you look down on them and they know it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a teacher nearing retirement age. Yes I've seen an awful lot of grumpy secretaries over the years. But those women have to deal with so much crap and make a very low wage. I've seen parents swear at them, ignore them, threaten them and generally be disrespectful. On a daily basis. I can't really blame them.

They are usually paid at least 60k a year!

And what kind of life does that buy you around here??

These people are not your servants.

I'm a waiter and I make $24k. You don't see me treat people the way front desk secretary has treated me. I rarely even go into the office, and rarely meet teachers as my kid doesn't need hand holding.
One time I sat in the office for 30 minutes waiting the secretary to call DC out of class so I could go to an appointment (reminded her 3 times that I was still waiting); one time she questioned me living IB to NW school (I bought the condo and we lived in it), and one time she told me my kid needed to get tested for English as it must not be his first language (I'm an immigrant). Luckily DC's former teacher heard it and said that there was zero reason to get the kid tested. He has been in school several years by then and English was the only language he spoke. I don't know is she tries to be the eyes and ears of the school, but if DC needed English remediation, this would have come out years ago.

As a teacher I went to a workshop on relationships with parents who are "Karens". (It was titled something different).

They said that the person at the front desk is often the face of the school and the gatekeeper protecting the admin's time.

They suggested that some bad situations could deescalate if that "face" were kinder but that could mean hiring a spare person.

Our school had a volunteer requirement for parents, but the parents often volunteered to do something like design a program, and then ask the school staff to copy those and fold them and hand them out.
This is a small example, but this 100 times a year.

Also, as a teacher, they ask for things from staff like leave slips and fingerprints and schedules and they have to nag them because teachers get pulled in every direction too.

Then a kid throws up, scrapes a knee, punches his buddy, and winds up "in the office" which means in front of them.

Every time there is a new initiative, like fundraising event, a grant, or even a rained out soccer game, they get the brunt of the work.

Also, people who want to yell at someone else, yell at her/him first.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is it a title 1 school by any chance

Nope.

Thanks for replying, I asked because our title one school one was horrible and our regular school ones were always nice.

I literally was terrified of my daughter's secretary in ES. She never smiled, is rude, and barks orders, and never looks at you. You feel like you are inconveniencing her. I call her the guard dog. My DD's MS secretary is amazing! So, it is not ALL but enough. I already am trembling because the youngest is starting at the ES and I have to deal with the guard dog again.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't know why FCPS ESes need five office people. They mostly seem to just be sitting around.

That's what they are doing exactly. Some of them are so bored that they look forward to a parent coming in, and then will milk it for all it's worth by making as much trouble for the parent as possible and extending what should have been a short interaction into a 15 minute ordeal that leaves someone in tears. Anyway, there is at least one at my school like that. There used to be 2, but one was promoted.

FCPS may have too many staff, but many school districts around the region and nation do not have that issue with having too many staff. In the majority of cases, you have 1-3 front office staff that have simple tasks that have to be completed for many, often hundreds of students/families. And they have to do so with hundreds of interruptions every day from students coming in or leaving at many different times throughout the day, parents and deliveries coming in, frequent phone calls, and so on. While the tasks they do are not difficult, it can be tedious and requires attention to make sure that when you do something for the 400th time for the 320th different family that you enter the right information for the right family and student. The chance of entering the name of the student who just interrupted you or the student who will be leaving school because the mother has walked in to take her daughter to a dentist appointment instead of the student whose record you need to update, is likely to happen. And then the snippy mother whose child's name was mispelled calls and yells at you for the spelling her daughter's awkwardly You-Neek name wrong. Yes, it's easy to be snippy and rude yourself.

As I said upthread, I've found that setting a good first impression is important and I always treat the front office personnel courteously and politely when I approach them. I haven't had a problem with front office staff in the various schools my children have attended.

Anonymous wrote:I don't know why FCPS ESes need five office people. They mostly seem to just be sitting around.

That's what they are doing exactly. Some of them are so bored that they look forward to a parent coming in, and then will milk it for all it's worth by making as much trouble for the parent as possible and extending what should have been a short interaction into a 15 minute ordeal that leaves someone in tears. Anyway, there is at least one at my school like that. There used to be 2, but one was promoted.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I am excessively nice to our front office staff because I often need things from them whether it's related to my kid or the PTA, but we've had some true bears up there. The grumpiest left last year thank goodness. What I try to remember is that they are CONSTANTLY interrupted while doing their jobs and if you're a person who doesn't easily swing between tasks that would be a real struggle.

I can assure you that they have almost nothing to do other than help parents and teachers. FCPS has paid private consultants a lot of money to tell them that they have too many warm bodies in the front office and they don't need them all. In the school where I worked, there was one woman who literally did nothing at all, ever, except torment the other secretaries.

Well, this is simply not true.

The results of the highly paid consultants were written up and publicly available. Sorry if it doesn't agree with your personal perspective, but it is definitely true.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:It's a job that requires a lot of hyper focus on details while also bring interrupted 28,000 times a day.

hahahahahahaha. Probably the funniest thing I have ever read on DCUM

I think this nails it-- thanks for the explanation. I was just complaining about the rude front office secretary at my DS's school-- now I get it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a teacher nearing retirement age. Yes I've seen an awful lot of grumpy secretaries over the years. But those women have to deal with so much crap and make a very low wage. I've seen parents swear at them, ignore them, threaten them and generally be disrespectful. On a daily basis. I can't really blame them.

They are usually paid at least 60k a year!

Source? Ours are on the same pay scale as support staff. The one who has been there the longest (10+ years) makes like $38k.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I'm a teacher nearing retirement age. Yes I've seen an awful lot of grumpy secretaries over the years. But those women have to deal with so much crap and make a very low wage. I've seen parents swear at them, ignore them, threaten them and generally be disrespectful. On a daily basis. I can't really blame them.

They are usually paid at least 60k a year!

And what kind of life does that buy you around here??

These people are not your servants.

Anonymous wrote:I'm a teacher nearing retirement age. Yes I've seen an awful lot of grumpy secretaries over the years. But those women have to deal with so much crap and make a very low wage. I've seen parents swear at them, ignore them, threaten them and generally be disrespectful. On a daily basis. I can't really blame them.

They are usually paid at least 60k a year!

Anonymous wrote:I’ve been around many FCPS schools as a parent and as a substitute and I’ve come to accept a rude front office staff as the standard and am pleasantly surprised when I encounter someone moderately pleasant and friendly. Typically this is a new hire and either won’t last long or will soon become embittered!

Again, stinks for the rest of us who are kind and normal.