Let’s go off-piste for a spell, dear readers. Instead of revealing the secrets of my own experiences, I’ll be recounting a story from one of the few people to know my true identity: my wife.

Mrs Staffer, in stark contrast to her moderately employable factotum husband, has a proper job. She is a teacher. And today’s story comes from the halls of education in which she plies her trade.

Our story begins with a change of administration at Mrs Staffer’s workplace. The new headteacher is the latest in a long line of what seems like a revolving door of people charged with heading up the troubled school. She may well prove to be long term, but she does not have the same idea for the staff. Of the 30 or so teachers who work at the school – some have served for as long as 20 years – New Head told all but five that their services will not be required next year. Naturally, this was not good for morale.

This is not that surprising in itself. But her actions have created tensions with those staff who are staying.

Of the fantastic five who stayed, most were offered jobs that were different to the ones they previously held. Take one of Mrs Staffer’s good friends. After asking if she could continue teaching the age group she was most comfortable with (and taught well, hence why she was retained), she was told her old job was not for her.

The bizarre twist in the tale was that there was indeed a vacancy for the age group she already taught. So, in a last-ditch bid to keep her preferred age group, she applied for her old job through official channels and was – perhaps somewhat oddly – given an interview. Needless to say she was not offered the position. Our protagonist had already accepted and agreed to teach her less-preferred age group, but asked one more time if she could take her old position back. She was duly called into a meeting with HR and told that she had no job for next year at all: verbal contract revoked.

The worst piece of this management fiasco is not the teachers’ realisation that their verbal contracts, to use the old cliché, “aren’t worth the paper they’re (not) written on”, it’s that the remaining quartet – let’s now call them the Fearful Four (Mrs Staffer included, naturally) – are now working with the wax crayon of Damocles over their heads. They are scared to ask any questions of New Head lest she give them detention or, worse, expulsion.

This means that New Head, who now needs the support of her staff, has anything but. School, like any workplace, needs teamwork, and New Head is now captaining the ship solo… facing a mutiny of faith.

What’s YOUR story?

Have YOU ever encountered a boss who goes back on their word? Let us know what happened in the comments below, or email our editor