So five tutors and three of them are year 5 (two of whom have been teaching this mod for the past few sems) while me and this other guy, let's call him L, are year 4s. All of them are DDP and I'm the only single degree tutor; also the prof is a new prof who just got her PhD.
When I arrived outside the office, Senior (laojiao) A was already with L, so I went to them and self-introduced myself before being joined by the other two TAs to enter the office. The seniors also decided to just settle the tutorial slots and office hours there and then, to shorten the balloting process, and so chaos ensued. I was kinda afraid that I'll have little say to protect my two-day work week, and indeed the three seniors were vehement in their choices. But good thing this life lesson doesn't come at a cost to me: A was super critical of everything L was saying, from why he was teaching even though he's on a local exchange, to why he was given three slots by the prof while the rest of us two. And so with the excuse of scheduling issue, L's initial plan to conduct three consecutive classes was butchered up beyond recognition (made worse by me in my bid to have nicer schedule instead of having to come back for one lesson on Wednesday), even though he's lucky I bargained with him with a proposal that'll keep his 3-slots arrangement with Prof.
And after the fiasco, I found out the main reason behind the whole episode between L and A: L ignored A when A initiated a conversation outside the office prior to my arrival; and A also found out that L emailed Prof privately to negotiate the 3-slot arrangement while the rest of us were discussing other issues on a common thread.
明人不做暗事
And I guess it's always nice/beneficial to be humble and friendly, especially when you're dealing with people who are (or think they are) superior (for a lack of better word).
