probably a metaphor

 It's hard being at work today, but I've made a bunch of headway in what I have to do, and my classes are pretty much planned for the next few days. The people I work with are kind but they need to work on their reading comprehension skills... i'm tired of telling them the same thing 3, 4, 5 times. 

I never asked to be a teacher group leader. In fact, I ask NOT to be one every year, but I get it anyway. Punished for doing good work, I guess. 

There's this Chinese story I really like by Zhuangzi:

Old woodworker is walking through the forest with his apprentice. They come across a large tree with a shrine built into its trunk. The apprentice goes, "why is there a shrine beneath this tree?" 

The old woodworker goes "the tree is too heavy to float, too pliant to build a house out of, too fragile to make out of furniture. Its fruit isn't tasty or good for cooking, its nuts are poison. It's leaves are too sparse for shade, and besides all that, it's an ugly tree. 

THEN THE TREE SAYS "hey well smartass do you know what happens to useful trees? I grew this way on purpose, idiot."

the moral of the story is don't appear too useful or you will rise in station and your life will be worse.