6-year-veteran teacher adapts lesson plans for their students' benefit, quits when a supervisor reprimands them for it in front of the entire 60-student class: 'My boss then starts berating me and saying the students aren't appreciative of what we do'

This can present problems in the workplace when you know that your approach is better and that your boss's directives are heading things in the wrong direction. Yet, they stubbornly refuse to listen to feedback and actively put down your attempts to improve processes and steer the company in the right direction.

And, every success you have against their direct instruction, your boss feels like it is a direct slight against them. That's where this teacher found themself, which led to an inappropriate public confrontation that led to them handing in their resignation. 

See the discussion on this trending topic below as we all look at this toxic workplace cultural issue.

This teacher worked as an adult educator under their supervisor for a year. They became increasingly frustrated with their supervisor's repeated criticism of their attempts to improve lesson plans. This improvement included migrating the teaching materials to a new platform. But their supervisor insisted on using the outdated platform. 
The supervisor continued to take issue with this, despite the teacher having approval to migrate the lesson plans. Everything they were doing was for the students' benefit, as the students struggled with how the lesson plan was set up.

They shared this account of alleged events with this online community, appealing to readers for their advice on a complex toxic workplace and organizational cultural issue.

AITAH Quit My Job Due to Getting Yelled at During an Exam in Front of my Students

I teach adults (it's quite specific and I don't want this coming back to me IRL so we'll keep it at that) on a basis that is considered casual work. I come in, teach for an hour, go home. Like everyone, I have a boss, I've been working under him for nearly a year at this point.

I've been adapting his work (wording and all) to a new platform with his permission, though he keeps complaining about it even though students are really benefiting from it. 

My boss was subbing for the class next door to mine and kept having issues which were to do with the wording of his questions and he was panicking when students who got the answers nearly correct got strange results (results that he made). He kept rushing to me rather than investigating what's going wrong (which is what I did when I went to his class), and it turns out the questions were very ambiguous and needed to be more specific in terms of wording.

He was looking after my class while I was running to and fro between classes and instead of picking up where I left off, he was literally sitting on his phone, complaining that he couldn't do anything cause he didn't have his glasses.

I come to him after the class and tell him we need to fix the wording of the questions, and he yelled at me, telling me that they've been the same for four years, that it's cause of my migration to a new platform that they don't understand the question and they should get the answers right away prior to attempting the question.

I told him that pedagogy is wrong and will demotivate students from actually trying. They shouldn't be reverse-engineering questions because the wording was too vague. He told me not to argue with him so I left after class ended (the argument happened after class).

I was visibly shaking afterwards and went to one of my co-workers who is a friend of mine (happens to be my boss' boss) to explain what happened. He said that I need to look after my sphere of influence and take care of myself which is totally fair.

I taught the following week and my boss combined my class and his class, then left the room. So I was looking after a group of 60 students the week before their exams (which is totally cool, I do that in my stride). He let me know that for the exam, they are going to use an old way of answering the questions and will upload a video on that, and I was like cool, that should cover our bases for next week.

God I was wrong. So very, very wrong.

Their supervisor's attitude about the whole thing wasn't the only problem. The supervisor's was a teacher themself. They taught another class, often adjacent to the teacher's own class. The supervisor's teaching was also a major issue. They didn't explain things clearly. Their instructions and explanations often left students confused. This was true for verbal lessons but also written exam questions.

This left the teacher in a hard place... They wanted to make things better for the students. Plus, the students clearly benefited when they adjusted their supervisor's original work. Yet, the supervisor hated when they did so.

So what were they supposed to do?

This format is so old that not even I know how to use it properly and he taught it briefly in a video no one watched. So I walk up to the exam and do my thing, set up papers, the timer, etc. and student's start raising their hands cause they don't know how to use the old software, even though I explained it the first week of class, explained it just before the exam AND there was a video online explaining how to use it. Totally fine, I get it, exam stress and whatnot.

I go around helping and my boss gets a student to say to the entire class "I feel like (my name) hasn't prepared us to use the software." All good, I went up to her an reassured her and she finished the test early with full marks. My boss then starts berating me and saying the student's aren't appreciative of what we do (in front of the students) and that it will create more paperwork for him as people will want to do the test again.

All they wanted was for things to be better for the students. But everything came to a head when their boss took it as a slight.

I said to him that I legitimately do not care as they deserve to be able to learn on a platform, in a manner that makes sense to them and it's his fault for not using the new software that he asked me to migrate the work to. (Like why are we using the old method if you want me to give them the new one). Then he said that students will have to be reassessed during my own time, really loudly in the exam room. I'm cool with that too, if that's what needs to happen, that's what needs to happen. Then he said he's going to get OUR boss involved cause he's not happy with how the exam is going and it's my fault. I told him that our boss already knows and that I quit.

He said he'll set up a meeting to find out what I said and that I was saying stuff behind his back. I called his exam format antiquated and it's no wonder students are having issues. I left it at that and kept supervising the exam.

After the exam, I spoke to the person who I covered their class for and asked him to take care of my next group of students as they needed someone "calmer" for the test.

I then proceeded to leave and have a panic attack in the […] bathroom for two hours and I have been teaching for six years and this is the first time I've stood up for myself and my students in this manner.

I've gotten a couple of emails since then regarding the whole issue and they are taking my side which is nice. A lot of them in person said he shouldn't speak to me that way. I agreed and said there's nothing I can really do about it.

My boss wants to have a meeting with our boss, together and there isn't a way in high h**l I am doing that. Instead I will speak to him separately tomorrow cause I can't handle this guy AT ALL. I am planning on handing in my resignation for that role after said meeting effective immediately as I am casual staff.

And now they are planning to resign immeidately. 

Did I do something wrong? Is this my fault? I have no idea. I'm just sick of him talking at me rather than to me, making me feel like utter garbage, micromanaging me and making changes HE WANTED IN THE FIRST PLACE!!