I don't want to waste any more time than I already have with my "support staff" about this situation, but I also thought it would be good to ask for your opinions as someone who is not involved.
The JTE I work with doesn't like giving criticism to me or expressing things they don't like about me, but the fact is that they still have these opinions. When these issues inevitably come up again later on, they "blow up" at me while it's the first time I've heard of it.
When I try to continue to talk about it and find a mutual understanding in these moments, they don't want to hear it and just brush it aside so that the subject can be dropped. The reason they cite for this is, it feels like I'm blaming them for the argument in the first place, so they don't want to talk about it.
I always feel like walking on eggshells working with this person, and I'm not the first person to have these problems with this JTE either. The past 2 ALTS who only stayed in the area for a year each, had problems with them also. So, I believe am the 3rd ALT in 3 years and this makes me reasonably confident that this is not a "me" thing. The vice-principal at one of the schools I work at said as much, as well.
Is it toxic for my support staff at my company to say things like "consider the children in these situations and do what's best for them" when I express this to them? Not that I don't agree with the sentiment because it's something I thought of as a way to "cope" with this situation, but this response feels like a cop-out to actually doing something about it.
Should I just do my best to check out mentally and "tough it out" til the end of my (1 year) contract? I could technically, probably continue pretending like everything is "okay" like the JTE does and just dismiss the arguments with them when they inevitably come up again. I'm not sure if there are any other viable solutions to this.
It is my first year as an ALT in Japan and I want to stay in Japan but this is kind of shitty if I'm being honest.
by Striking-Corgi-9762
