Quentin Crisp once said that "The English think that incompetence is the same thing as sincerity" Well, here's one example. Other examples will be posted in the future weeks of my diary!
Two weeks have passed and I have heard nothing from Philip, the Headteacher about the incident reported to him. I went to see him and asked him for feedback. He responded that he had been busy with work commitments and as a result, had done nothing about the incident. He went on to say that it was too late to see Michael. I was dumbfounded, felt that I had been badly let down and responded that while I understood the pressures he was under, I was shocked that he did not consider the incident serious enough to warrant prompt action - I had been physically threatened!. Whilst I was angry about this and feeling physically sick, I did not pursue the matter because I too was under significant pressure from work at the time and, importantly, did not want to take any action that threatened the positive relationship that I felt I had with Philip at that time (a terrible mistake!) I therefore agreed (foolishly) that it was perhaps too late to see Michael about the incident.
The next day, I received an email from Philip saying that he "... might have cocked up ..." He had misunderstood and thought I had just told him because I was angry about the incident but he would "log it just in case".
Lessons learned/What I could have done differently
- Insisted that Philip deal with the incident appropriately
- Reported the matter to my professional association and sought their involvement
- Asked Philip to show me the log of the incident (he would later claim no knowledge of the incident, the email or the log)
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