Michael Kaczmarek

English 1106 Sec.09

Essay 3           

The Co-workers

            Throughout high school, I worked at an after-school program, Explorers Club.  When I first started working at Explorers I said to myself, “there is no job better than this.”  I loved the people I worked with and the kids were a lot of fun too.  As each year progressed, things changed little by little.  I came to notice that the people I worked with did not care as much about their jobs as they did before.  When working with kids, making sure they are safe and having a good time is what it is all about.  My colleagues seemed to forget about all of that.  When I look at the people I work with, or those who I used to work with, I see people in disguises.    

            The first disguise I noticed when working at Explorers was not a hard one to figure out.  My supervisor was a little sketchy when it came to responsibility.  She hid her real identity.  When we took the kids outside for exercise, all we had to do was make sure that they played safe and stayed on school grounds.  During this time, my supervisor would be on the opposite end of the playground, away from all of the kids.  On top of that she was always chatting away on her cell phone.  This was my supervisor do not forget; somebody I was supposed to be able to look up to and go to with problems, but she clearly did not have much interest in doing her job right.  I always caught myself being very apprehensive of the children’s safety when they were with her.  People, who did not really know who she was, usually saw her as a hard-working individual who did everything by the book due to her prominent status as a “supervisor.”  This clearly was not true about her.

            The second disguise I commonly came across at Explorers Club was that of the ass-kisser.  There were many colleagues of mine who fit this description and who did a poor job of hiding it.  Like the previous classification, the ass-kisser too, does not care much about the kids.  Instead they spend more time kissing up to the boss for a wide variety of reasons.  Many suck up in hopes that they will receive a raise in the near future, others in hopes that they will be granted a few days off when they come to ask for them.  These people may look and act like a good employee of Explorers, but upon further examination of their work ethics, you see that they are not.

            The third disguise is really not much of a disguise at all.  These employees have the children’s welfare in mind and are doing everything they can to make sure that Explorers is a wonderful experience for the children and other employees.  They are genuinely hard workers and are motivated to make a difference.  This is where I classified a few of my colleagues and myself.  We did not care about raises or getting time off.  Most of us were high school and college students who could have used more money, but cared more about the kids and the experience rather than the tactile outcome.  When working with children, it is especially important to put your heart and soul into every aspect of the job.  That is how I went about doing things in the work place and I could not imagine doing any less.  Showing that you are dedicated to the job makes you a better employee and person.

            These are classifications of three types of co-workers that are sometimes found in the childcare environment.  Paying attention to kids’ needs and showing them that you care, should be the basis for how employees working with children go about their business.  Employers should pay more attention to whom they hire.  Supervisors who do not care about their jobs and ass-kissers who are too busy brown-nosing are not the right type of people to be interacting with children, let alone working in any environment.