This is a true story.
The Teacher Recruitment Center was a strange environment for me. On one level, it was the best job I ever had. The people I worked directly with and the work environment we created were un-imaginably great. On the other hand, the people we worked for were some of the worst I have ever experienced. It was a grant funded program, so our operating expenses were covered by the state, however, the agency that volunteered to house our office wanted to use much of our funding for their own projects. During the first year and a half, we had to have the state intervene several times to remind our overseers that they could not use the grant money or our staff for their purposes, and that they could not refuse to let us spend the funds as we saw fit.
As one might imagine, this didn’t do down well, and it created an environment of deceit, and distrust. It was not a rare occasion that they reminded us that they could replace us with “more cooperative” people. As it turned out, they couldn’t; we worked for the state. So, they frequently searched our offices and computers after hours for reasons to terminate us and send the program to another agency. There was nothing to find and their actions and antics showed them to be petty and unprofessional. Their conduct and the problems they caused are the reason the program was terminated.
It was in this environment that the following events occurred.
I had an office. At first it was a private office, but they decided that I needed to share it with two other staff members. If they had known how well we got along and how well we worked together they would have changed their tiny little minds, so we complained a lot. In this office I had several personal effects, books, art, a radio and a small fountain.
This fountain held about a pint of water and was made of slate painted to look like jade. It was cheap but it made a soothing noise…most of the time. Sometimes it could create a great deal of noise, and get very loud. It took some time, but we eventually noticed that when the fountain got noisy, something bad was about to happen or someone was near by working or plotting against us. It never failed. On one occasion, I was being reprimanded by my boss when the fountain made so much noise that he turned and looked at it. He then asked if it was broken. I told him no and we continued the conversation. When we had both calmed down, the fountain became quiet. He never came back into my office again.
Towards the end of the project, I could tell when one of the overseers was coming over just by the sound of the fountain. One person, working in the office but not part of the team, would walk by my office and the fountain would get loud as she approached and quieter as she passed by; the Doppler Effect. On several occasions she would try to sneak up on us and see if we were working or not, and when she got near the door she either found us looking at her or one of us would speak to her before she got to the door, she never came in either.
