Tuesday, April 2, 2013


A recent conflict that I had at work is I drive a bus in the morning and I pulled in the front of the school to let the little girl walk into the building. When I opened the door I saw a teacher that worked for the school standing across the street shaking her head at me. Before this class I would get pretty heated, park the bus and maybe have some kind of conflict. Times have changed for me. I calmly asked the woman why she was shaking her head and she thought it was a bad idea where I parked to let the little girl out and I should pull up to an underpass ( that you could not fit a bus through) and then cut in front of cars on the way out. Soooo, I calmly asked, “Is this what you want me to do?” and she shrugged her shoulders. So I told her that I need directions from her or someone who has answers before coming to any kind of conclusion to this problem. Later in the day, there was a call from the school to my work that they worked out the situation and gave me an answer. The first thing I did was avoided internal violence, I was very calm when I was speaking to this woman and the second thing I learned was I did not take it personally that she shook her head at me, I simply wanted an answer. Does anyone have any advice they could give me on this situation?

3 comments:

Tarshia Cooke said...

Hi Jennifer,

I think you handled the lady just fine. As you said you did not have any kind of conflict with her. I also think you did right by asking her directly "is this what you wanted me to do?" My question/comment is, "what would be the safest solution for the children on your bus? To me that is all that matters. If it was a specific procedure for the drop off of the children then the school should have made sure that you were aware of it.

Unknown said...

I think that next time I will take your advice, I really like your answer.

Heidi Doughty said...

Jennifer,

I have to agree with Tarshia. My dad has worked in the transportation side of education for as long as I can remember both as a driver and now for the last several years as a supervisor over the drivers. The procedures that should be followed and in place are to insure all parites involve remain safe both during drop off and pick up. You handled the situation very well. Thanks for sharing.