I just got some rather unsettling news at work which might affect me a great deal. The utterly capable and lovely woman whom I admire and respect and consider to be the best boss I’ve ever had, just announced that she’s resigning. This will be her last year as Head Mistress/principal of the school. She’s taken a job at an advertising and media company, which is apparently her field of expertise and what she studied in school. I’m not sure how she ended up becoming a school administrator but she’s been doing that job excellently for the last six years.

This is compounded by the fact that both of our assistant principals will soon be unavailable. One of them recently adopted a little girl and left for a year’s leave of absence a few months ago. The wife of the other one is having a baby in August, so he too will be taking some paternity leave. And we’re all left wondering who’s going to run the ship.

Once the initial shock wore off I began to realize that one of the people chosen to fill the gap will most likely be me. They’ve been grooming me for administrative work for the last three months. About a month before Maria left for her maternity leave I started working in the front office one day a week. It has since increased to three days a week and basically whenever I’m needed. It’s typical office work: answering the phone, taking messages, sending emails, helping students with administrative needs, signing for packages, etc. I’ve done this kind work before and I enjoy it, plus I’m very organized and have a great phone voice.

I don’t think they’d ask me to step in and become the Head Mistress/Principal (rektor in Swedish), but I have a feeling they’ll ask me to become an assistant principal. I’m good at organizing and running projects, but the possibility of becoming a school administrator has never occurred to me. I’ve always been a teacher and I’ve always for the most part hated school administrators and I’m not sure if I really want to become one.

This promotion would mean an increase in hours and responsibility, as well as a substantial raise. Would it be worth it, though? I really love being a teacher. Just a teacher. Both of our assistant principals are also teachers, though, so I know I’d still have lessons. This would also mean I would have to get really good at Swedish really fast.

Anyway, no one’s mentioned anything about who is taking over for whom yet, but there’s supposed to be a meeting about it tomorrow afternoon. I’ll sure be sorry to see my boss go. I think she just got sick of working under the dreaded Big Boss. Of course this means that if they try to kick me upstairs then I’ll be working under him, although I won’t see him everyday since he lives and works in Stockholm.

Maybe I shouldn’t be counting my chickens before they hatch, but during my recent employee evaluation the Big Boss said they wanted to give me a full time contract and increase my responsibility even more next year.

So that’s that.