In which I wish I were Maggie

Today, I learned that Stephi is going to be transferred to another branch of the kindergarten, where she'll spend the mornings with little children (0–3) and the afternoons with administrative work.

Apparently, TPTB are not happy with the rate at which new children are coming in, so they're replacing her with someone else.

Which is a pity, since the children love her and the staff get along well with her and bringing in someone new is bound to be disruptive—and then it's still an open question whether the other guy will be able to "turn the ship around".

One "problem" is that the kindergarten is in a commercial area (in the "offices" sense rather than the "shops" one) rather than a residential one; presumably, the organisers thought that the people working here will have lots of children which they'll all put in that kindergarten, but that didn't turn out that way—one reason Amy is there is because I work here, but I don't know whether the parents of the other children work here; at least one person said that he takes a fairly long trek upon himself every morning because he likes what the kindergarten has to offer rather than because it's geographically convenient.

Vivien especially was particularly sad, since Stephi and she were the first two people here and she's worked together with her since the beginning. And she said it was counterproductive, that it would be tough on personnel morale and also on the children, but that the staff can't do anything about it.

Stephi added that all the staff are still in the probationary period common in German jobs, usually half a year, during which either side can terminate the employment more or less at will, and so it's not impossible that there might be consequences if the staff were to voice their discontent to HQ.

On the other hand, she said that perhaps parents could say something.

I met Finja's father downstairs and he was fairly angry about the whole situation (and the short notice—the new guy is to start next Tuesday) and is collecting signatures for a parents' petition. He also said that his girlfriend phoned HQ yesterday, as soon as she found out, and that her voice was apparently taken into serious consideration.

I considered writing them but I'm not sure how to word my position, since I'm not good at conflict like that.

I did ask myself, though, "What would Maggie do?".

(Stella suggested I phone them, too. I still worried I'd just be overrun with counter-arguments about economics or something and chicken out.)

Amy and the passive

Amy doesn't seem to have acquired a passive voice yet, and will simply use the active voice instead—"stones can't eat" (= can't be eaten), for example.

It reminds me of the Swedish passives(?) in -s, which otherwise look very similar to their corresponding active forms (no separate auxiliary verb, for example).