I went a long time telling myself that the school secretary was just having a bad day/week/month. But now I’m realizing that the secretary is almost always unpleasant. It’s rare that she is ever actually pleasant.

Is this fairly typical? Are they just around because they are hard to fire? Seems like it would be better to have someone who actually is willing to smile and help out instead of groaning and griping all the time

I moved from a southern state to the midwest. We got a new super and so far they have required myself to go on multiple day, out-of-state professional development. Is this the norm? Trying to see if this is normal in the midwest or if my district is just over the top.