A teacher was left confused and “insulted” by her employer’s choice of Christmas gift and took to social media to share her experience, where viewers expressed their astonishment.
The festive season is also a season of giving, and teachers are no stranger to receiving thoughtful gifts from grateful students. Turning up on the last day of school, they are always thankful to receive a tub of Quality Street or a bottle of Prosecco.
However, in a departure from the typical personalised notebook or bouquet of flowers, this teacher was stunned to be gifted a COVID test on behalf of her employer.
Sharing the video on her TikTok account (lil.yambs) in 2022, the American art teacher was visibly frustrated as she spoke to the camera.
She wondered whether she was being ungrateful, referring to herself as a “brat”, by being confused at the gift.
As she unwrapped the disposable test she said: “I’m confused. Is this a joke? I got my Christmas present from the school. It’s literally a Covid rapid test.”
These tests are used to detect the COVID-19 virus via a nose and mouth swab, and the revelation was met with a sigh from the teacher.
Incredulously, she held it aloft and joked: “This is my Christmas bonus”, adding the #teachersareunderpaid hashtag to the video description.
Educators and non-educators alike flocked to her comments to express their shock, with several pointing out that these tests were available free of charge in this specific district at the time.
One flabbergastered viewer wrote: “”What??!? You can go online to the USPS website and request four of those tests for FREE!”.
Another chimed in: “”Those are the current free ones I just got in the mail today from the government”.
Several equally-as-frustrated teachers shared that their employers hadn’t given them anything for Christmas at all!
One said: “Last year we got served hot cocoa that was left over from an event for the kids”.
In a similar vein, another added: “Girl, all we got was a Merry Christmas announcement on the intercom”.
Commenters were united in their sympathy for the art teacher, with one posting saying the gift was “plain insulting”.
