My Job

I have used this blog to vent about my church

I have used this blog to vent about my in-laws

I have used this blog to vent about my kids

What I have never used this blog to vent about before is my job.

Or should I say one of my jobs. The one that generally causes me few problems that I have to think about once I walk out the door each evening. This is the job I have teaching piano at a local music store.

Before this I taught privately at my church.
Before that, I was a school music teacher.

I will not go into details about why I am no longer a school teacher and why I no longer teach out at my church. I will say that a year ago last September, I decided that rather than be a self employed teacher, I would become an "employee" again and let the store handle the business practices so I was free to teach.

The pay cut was quite significant, since they take 35 percent of what my students pay for lessons as their cut. But they were providing my students and it is SO much closer to home that I figured it was a pretty good trade off.

The nature of this business is becoming very shaky. I lose students at a much higher rate than I ever did before. And it isn't been due to my negligence as a teacher. It is usually because of money. People who are having trouble paying their regular bills cannot possibly justify the huge cost of private instrument lessons.

When I went in to teach on Monday, I had lost a student for that reason.

When I went in on Tuesday, I had lost another one because the winter sports schedule was becoming too busy to fit in piano lessons.

But tonight was the ICING ON THE CAKE. I lost yet another student.

Not because of money.
Not because of schedules.

Why did I lose this student?

Because the parent apparently called the store asking to have their child walked out to their car at night and the message was not delivered to me. This young lady is 17 years old and my last lesson of the night. I walked out of the building at the same time anyway. If the clerk in the store had simply mentioned to walk out with the student, I would have been happy to do that.

But no such message was given and I lose another chunk.

I can't AFFORD to lose students because of a store clerk's laziness. It would have been very simple for this clerk to put a little note in my mailbox with this simple request. But it doesn't matter to the clerk. He gets an hourly salary. What does it matter to him if each and every student I lose takes another chunk out of my ability to pay my mortgage? Apparently, he told the teacher of the student's sibling, who didn't even come on the same night. Was the message supposed to magically float through the air and reach me? Apparently the manager of the store called the mom to apologize for the clerk and ask for another chance to rectify and the mom was so outraged (I would be too) that she said no way.

I do understand the parent's point of view completely. When I first told my father I was making the switch, even he questioned the location of the store. But I am still upset that my direct income has now suffered because of another person's mishandling of a situation.



Okay, thanks for letting me have my rant.

In better news, Noah's conference went well today and I am thankful. I hope we can keep him on this good path as the year progresses. I am so proud of him.

Have a great weekend.