Am I getting old and grumpy?

 Am I getting old and grumpy? Am I being unreasonable? Am I in danger of spoiling other people’s fun?

Or am I justified in being irritated by some of the things that go on in the staffroom?

Take the computers, for example. It’s incredible how often people will spend ages carefully typing up worksheets for their lessons, and then as soon as they’ve printed a copy out, just wander off without even closing the document, never mind saving it to disk. Why? Why would you do that? Is it really so tedious and time-consuming? Is it not possible you, or someone else, might want to use that worksheet again sometime? On Saturday the terminal I sat down at had about five separate, unsaved documents open on it, not to mention Firefox open on the Live Ashes coverage. But no sign of anyone using the computer.

And as for wandering off without logging out of Facebook… well, I’m beginning to think that’s just asking to get your status sabotaged…

Then there’s the mess. Sure we have cleaners. But really, isn’t it just common courtesy to tidy up a bit after yourself? Last night I found three board erasers still sitting in one of the baskets we use to carry materials between lessons. The basket pile is just yards from where the board markers and erasers are kept, but clearly it was too far to travel for someone. And there was a huge pile of books just dumped next to the guillotines.

And it’s obviously much worse at weekends when the school is running at full capacity for the kids’ lessons. I am lucky. I don't start until 2pm while most teachers are in by 10am at the latest, and many much earlier. But this does mean that by the time I get in most of the materials, such as board erasers have already been taken. It also means that there is little, if any, spare desk space left.

For the past couple of weeks, I’ve spent the weekend squeezed into a corner between the DVD player and a guillotine. Not the easiest place to work to be sure. But when I went back during a break yesterday I could hardly believe it. Not only had someone been using the guillotine, but they’d left a complete set of freshly cut phrasal verb flashcards strewn across the table. Again, why? If you’re not going to use them, at least clear them away! Just in case the owner did return to claim them, I carefully gathered them up and sat them on top of the guillotine. Next break someone had been along and chucked them back onto the table. This time they went in the bin.

In fact, even when I am there with all my books out, I regularly seem to get people just chucking stuff down while they use the guillotine or the nearby photocopier.

So is it just me? I am being unreasonable?