Trouble is a matter of perspective.
When a fellow teacher tells me he or she “got in a lot of trouble” for failing to complete a task or follow a policy, it usually means the principal spoke with the colleague and warned him or her not to commit the offense again.
I do not think of this as trouble. I think of this as being spoken to by your boss.
Early in my career, when I was less subtle and considerably less intelligent, I would point this out to my colleagues, failing to realize that many of them graduated from high school and college with 4.0 GPAs, spotless disciplinary records and lists of extracurricular activities a mile long.
In this regard, I guess that being called into the principal’s office for a verbal reprimand could be considered trouble.
They’ve never been suspended from school. They’ve never been caught selling term papers to classmates. Never received in-school suspension for damaging school property. They never received a report card with an F or even a D. They’ve never been arrested by the police. The police never broke up a party in their apartment. Never been tried in a court of law. Never faced a prison sentence. They’ve never been fired from a job or had their career meaningfully threatened.
Trouble is a matter of perspective. When you come from a background like mine (as described above), a verbal reprimand isn’t trouble. It’s merely a verbal reprimand. A reminder about what you’re supposed to be doing. Or what you’re not supposed to be doing.
For some (and to their credit), a verbal reprimand is the most trouble that they have ever experienced.
That said, even with a pristine record, I still struggle to accept the idea that your boss’s disapproval counts as trouble.
