Oh my goodness, this! I get roped into doing school events all the time and I get sick of it sometimes. What irritates me is that I’m never ASKED, but told that it is expected of me. Well, I EXPECT people to ask me first. Grr...
Our email said "please confirm that you are willing to participate", which is kind of like an ask/tell, but I'm secure enough at this point in my career to tell them what I told them. .
We call it being "voluntold." We have a couple of events each year that ask us to do dunking booths or pie in face and such. I make sure to contribute other ways.
I'm literally one of two male teachers at my school (middle school). I would have probably just done this one. A few years ago when I was at a high school there was some kind of competition where my name got put on a list to kiss a pig. (luckily I didn't win that one) No body really wants to do these types of things but the kids always responded well to it and would always see me as not quite as up tight as their other teachers. (I'm pretty laid back anyway) I think it helped the kids respect me more. The only time I say no to things like this is when it involves singing/dancing. No one needs to hear/see that. (no rhythm and I would sound like a bad American Idol audition)
We have stuff like this at my school but its the P who does them, not the teachers. -Getting a bucket of green slime poured over your head -P did it - Getting duck taped to a wall (suspended 2 feet above the ground I might add)-P did it -pie-in-the-face (like 16 pies to the face) P did it -have a "color war" with students and throw color packets on people-P, and VP did it I feel like your admin need to step up and be the ones doing this if they are the ones saying that they want this to be a thing. It doesn't feel very nice to be voluntold to do something embarrassing, uncomfortable, and that could be a bit demeaning.
When I don’t want to do something, I just say no. I do plenty of other things, so I don’t feel the least bit guilty when I decline things. I did agree to the kiss a pig contest, but I didn’t win. The pig was pretty cute.
