#surplussed

I love the word shit-canned. It's proof of my husband's influence on me. That's a word I never would have used before I met him.  I'm not even sure if it's hyphenated, but it's the perfect word to use today.

I didn't really get fired.  I didn't get surplussed.  I didn't get laid off.  I was terminated.  There were other people who got shit-canned today, too. But my situation is unique.  

Okay.  Here's how it's always been.  Teaching use to be a "safe" profession.  You got a job, you worked 35 years, you retired, you got a pension.  Not anymore.  Now, you are hired on a probationary basis for the first three years.  After that, you get a yearly contract.  You get a score based on lots of things, including your students' performance (subject for another blog).  That score determines your pay and whether or not you have a job from year to year.  Those old pensions are a thing of the past.

Teachers who were hired prior to two years ago are still living the charmed life.  Even the shittiest teachers have their guaranteed job and their guaranteed pension.  They are still getting paid on the ladder system, where they get a slight increase in pay every year.  They are on a permanent contract, so they know they have a job waiting for them at the end of every summer.  They can retire and live comfortably.  But they are the last of their kind.

Now, for the charmed-life teachers, there is still the possibility of being surplussed if enrollment goes down and less teachers are needed at their school.  If that's the case, they get to make a list of 10 schools where they would be willing to be transferred, and then they hope and pray that there is an opening at that school and that the powers that be from the district assign them there.  Teachers can also willingly volunteer to be transferred, and if there is an opening at one of their top schools, they are moved there first.

Now, I don't get to be surplussed.  I wasn't asked to make a list of schools I'd like to go.  I don't get to transfer.  I'm basically done, kaput, capooey, out of the system.  I can choose to remain in the system in substitute status.  The only benefit that offers me is is that I don't have to be re-fingerprinted again if someone does hire me.

Right now, all of the other schools are busy surplussing people, getting ready for transfers, looking at their enrollment numbers, seeing if anyone is retiring or quitting, and keeping busy.  They won't know if they have any openings until everyone is done with this process.  After all of the schools are done with this process, they will hopefully post openings and I can start to apply.  

In the meantime, I'm in total limbo.  I can apply for unemployment, and I can update my resume.  I can also try to figure out what the heck I'm doing this summer for money.  

I did some quick research on the colloquial term shit-canned, and I cannot find the history behind this term.  One blog I found said that it's use is relatively recent (like from the 70's) and using it to mean "fired" is less common than using it to mean "throw something away."