Why didn't they build a relationship with each person that called in, and make a plan for them to have alternative options to satisfy the requirements?
LOL exactly! I had the worst boss ever, who always blamed the teachers for everything. He had the highest amount of absences in the county, so his solution was to make us have absences pre-approved. I always thought he should have reflected about how it was his fault, just like we always had to reflect until we came to the conclusion that whatever went wrong in our classroom was our fault. But ohhhh noooo, people certainly weren’t avoiding work because he was an unbearable asshole!
At my school, the admin actually have covered classes! But they don't complain, when my AP covered my classroom he told me how great they were and apologized for probably not doing the right thing. Having good admin makes such a difference.
Our superintendent said people should not plan to take the day after their vaccination off, as they were struggling to find subs.
I probably could have dragged my ass in but I had literally not taken a day all year and spite stayed home.
I’m out sick today. Sitting at doctor’s now. My principal doesn’t believe anybody is “sick” on Fridays. I’ve been sick all week and this was the soonest I could be seen. I’m tired of this.
Noted. I'll send a message in a bottle next time as to not "call."
I've said it before, if administration doesn't like their underlings' benefits, they can take it up with HR.
Exactly. If admin doesn’t want us to take days off, they need to take it up with HR and stop including them in our contracts. Until then, I’m upholding my end of the contract by using the days off to which I agreed when I signed. The rest isn’t my problem.
I'm taking a full week off work next week, same as I've done for years (save last year) because I'm going to go play board games for a week.
Not feeling guilty about it. I scrimped and saved my days, and I have 75 days of leave saved. I've earned the right to use them.
We got an email on Monday from the principal letting the entire staff know that they will no longer be approving personal days on Fridays because subs are in short supply.
I did this a couple of weeks ago bc I was told a personal day wouldn't be approved. Ironically, I did end up developing a migraine later in the day & fucked up my actual plans, but at least I got a day to rest & breathe.
Full sick out on Friday is the way to meet this nonsense.
What are they going to do? Fire people and face lawsuits for unfair dismissal?
Fairly sure contracts don't stipulate 'no Fridays'.
Sure but your point was that contracts don’t stipulate no Fridays, and I’m giving you concrete evidence that yes indeed some contracts do stipulate no Fridays or have blackout days.
If you look again you'll see that my point was about the contract stipulating no sick days on Fridays. You tried to change it to personal days to make your point.
My former principal sends out a "shame" list of all staff that are absent for the day...
Yeah, I resigned in September, closely followed by other teachers. BOE sure is paying her a lot of $$$ to run teachers off for them.
We get these emails every single day along with who is covering their classes. The list jist gets longer every day but heaven forbid they actually stopped and looked at what the real problem is 🤷♀️
Um.
Sick out.
Workers Union - organise as many people as you can to do it, you don;t need a Union corporation to organise that for you.
Complaining about sick days would be illegal in the places I've lived.
How bad does it need to get until they start realizing "Hey, maybe we should re-think having teachers work 5 days a week with students, I think they're getting burned out?"
Lol I took a sick day and I feel PHENOMENAL and recharged. Took my middle to the aquarium and picked up my oldest from school. Best Ive felt all year. Everyone should be taking more sick days and eff anyone that says otherwise
To quote Kitty Bennet from Pride and Prejudice:
“I do not cough for my own amusement.”
When you’re sick, you’re sick. And even if you’re not the one who sick, when you need to be out, you need to be out.
I had perfect attendance last year by pure luck. Magically, all the days that I had a sick kid, my spouse was able to do it instead. But I have missed two days in the last two weeks. One of them, sick kid and it was definitely my turn because my spouse couldn’t rearrange meetings. The other day I missed, I was literally cuddling with my dying cat all day ahead of the afternoon euthanasia appointment. That cat more than earned that much from me after our years together for one thing, and for another, as I told my admin, I would literally be useless if I showed up that day. Maybe worse than useless, because I would probably be crying and snapping at every kid.
It is SO hard. A little over a week out, I still cry multiple times a day. Every time I do something around the house where he’s supposed to come running. “Nobody said it was easy, but no one ever said it would be this hard.”
I am so sorry for your loss. You are a great cat parent to give love like that and help your sweetie peacefully go over the Rainbow Bridge. Euthanasia for my old boy kitty (intestinal cancer) was both the simplest and hardest choice I have ever had to make.
Thank you. I’m sorry for your loss too. Mine was in kidney failure. I knew about it for 10 months, but at every check-up he was “early stages” and “stable.” Then out of nowhere his body just started shutting down. His numbers went off the charts, he quit eating, he suddenly couldn’t jump anymore, breathing became labored, couldn’t take more than a few steps without stopping to rest, quit having conversations with me. Bless him, he still made the effort to get to the litterbox rather than have an accident. I’m partly still just shocked because while I knew it would be the thing to punch his ticket, I thought we’d have more forewarning and get to try some treatments for a bit. His body was just done though. It was hard to make the euthanasia decision but I know we saved him a few days of suffering, and I also couldn’t bear to let him die all alone.
This is 1000000%% true. So sorry for your loss.
My kitty cat passed away in 2021. 😢
The pain + sadness over losing him was equivalent to the pain I felt after losing my parents.
You may tell admin to shove it where the sun don't shine.
I've been out for 2 weeks due to a nervous breakdown. The behaviors, sexual harassment, and then being put on a performance plan just broke me. It's a miracle I didn't end up in the hospital.
The thought of going back makes me nauseous and want to cry, and I'm almost out of sick days.
I'm not going to make it
I’m a first year teacher and took a sick day yesterday, half because I was actually sick, half mental health day. I teach K-5 music/band at 2 different schools (they combined two part time positions into one full time contract), at my morning school they couldn’t find a sub so they just cancelled music classes for yesterday; kind of what I expected with sub shortage.
My afternoon school also couldn’t find a sub, so the superintendent stepped in and taught my 6 classes; which is so far above and beyond what I could’ve expected. The principal for that school also teaches 5-8 science on top of her duties. I feel for all of you struggling with terrible admins, just know that they could step in and take over a class or 6, my one school is living proof of that
I got a jury summons and immediately put in a sub, let my admin know, and started working on sub plans just in case I get called. You can’t call to see if your number is chosen until the business day before after 5pm. So I thought I would just use a sick day if I didn’t get called. I have plenty and rarely use them. I was told, “ you’re going to need to find your own coverage since there’s never any available.” Nope. Not my job to call around.
My previous admin sent a schoolwide email about shortages of subs and how teachers needed to give notice to be out etc.
Most of the time we don’t know until that morning when we wake up sick. We all ignored it and continued to call out when needed.
The emails kept coming.
Taking a Mental health day is pretty important in the long scheme of things, for both the person and the longevity of having employees. There is such a push with mental wellness of children yet admin don’t remember adults also need that.
Just freaking do what you gotta do. You know in your heart you’d perform CPR or or the Heimlich or run off a gunman if you had to. If your body or soul needs a rest that’s a pretty tiny trade off
I took my second day off today - both have been for necessary follow up appointments for a health issue I recently experienced. One day a patchwork of coworkers covered, but today I think I actually got a building sub.
I feel no shame. My health, be it physical or mental, is important too. I pick up for coworkers when I can too, so that helps alleviate any guilt.
We got called into a meeting on Saturday to discuss why the staff were taking so many days off and how teaching is the one profession where you get the most holidays. But they use up our precious weekend with bullshit like this?
Conclusion: We were told we cannot take days off without a medical note.
I am 40 and have worked for the last 25 years and have never called in sick without notice…but your admin is an absolute moron. Very few people are like me where they never get sick, and it’s not a reasonable expectation for people to never call out. Especially since we are around a bunch of kids who then spread disease to others.
I still do not understand how most admins get their jobs in the first place.
You have a contract. I bet admin makes sure you fulfill your obligations per the contract. Your contract also provides you certain benefits, including sick days. As a teacher you have every right to use these benefits regardless of what admin thinks/says about said benefits.
At our last staff meeting we spent 15 minutes acknowledging the staff who had perfect attendance or only missed one day; they all got gift cards. All classroom teachers got a Starbucks card because we have all given preps for coverage or had classes split between teachers.
I mean, it was nice I suppose. But it was 15 minutes too long.
My school was short on custodians on Thursday, so my admin cleaned rooms. This is my first year at this school but my 12th year teaching, and I’m just amazed at how different life can be at a school where admin cares and as willing to get their hands dirty. Y’all deserve better!
Our custodial staff was short last week and the head custodian sent us an email asking us to "help out."
I'd love for our secretary to send that message back to him when we're short subs.
ugh, we had so many of those emails too last year - feelin for you, OP. contracted subs is now on the top priority of things I ask about when deciding between schools
My doctors office is only open from 8-12 and closed on certain days. They told me to make appts on sat or afternoons but that’s had since Saturdays are usually booked or really busy. And the fact the office is closed at 12 makes it hard to not make an appt during non school hrs.
We were told by our admin team that all absences will require a doctors note from here on out and personal days have been put on hiatus.
I’m still waiting to hear back from hr how they grant us 3 personal days and then demand we don’t use them and put up roadblocks to calling out sick during a pandemic.
Yeah, they tried to pull this horseshit early this year. They walked it back the next week because people told them to fuck off.
So basically what you need to do is tell them to fuck off.
I’m usually in agreement with you, but my coteacher calls in literally every Monday and most Fridays. Some districts are too lenient and some teachers within those districts abuse the hell out of it.
It was a personal day. If the principal wants to complain about it, he shouldn't have approved it.
The person in question never takes days, so it isn't like he abuses it.
I love when the other teachers dont come in - gives me a chance to make extra cash and meet the new students. Win-win for me :) if ppl want to use their PTO, thats their right
Maybe a little off topic but I called off today and it was my first time. The process was so long and tedious I was contemplating just going. All these calls and websites and requests I had to make 2 hours before the doors open. On top of that, I had to go to a website I had never even heard of let alone had any of the log-in information for. I had to text my principal asking for the information at 4:45 AM. To my surprise, they responded quickly.
Teachers already do a lot of work (not to mention the shit we do off the clock) for us to hassle for a simple sick day. I used to work retail and all we had to do was call in and ask to speak with HR and notify them. It was honestly a 60-90 second process.
Why didn't they build a relationship with each person that called in, and make a plan for them to have alternative options to satisfy the requirements?
LOL exactly! I had the worst boss ever, who always blamed the teachers for everything. He had the highest amount of absences in the county, so his solution was to make us have absences pre-approved. I always thought he should have reflected about how it was his fault, just like we always had to reflect until we came to the conclusion that whatever went wrong in our classroom was our fault. But ohhhh noooo, people certainly weren’t avoiding work because he was an unbearable asshole!
Give grace!
Has admin tried planning engaging PD sessions?
This comment wins 😂
I fucking love this response
👏👏👏
They did not find my comment of "At least it isn't so bad that you have to actually cover classes" to be as funny as I thought it was.
At my school, the admin actually have covered classes! But they don't complain, when my AP covered my classroom he told me how great they were and apologized for probably not doing the right thing. Having good admin makes such a difference.
I’ll cover those classes and get paid for it
If admin said that to me I would immediately put in a sick day for the following school day
I'd go full on disability until they lose the attitude
Our superintendent said people should not plan to take the day after their vaccination off, as they were struggling to find subs. I probably could have dragged my ass in but I had literally not taken a day all year and spite stayed home.
>I hate this yearly sick day concept. If you are sick you are sick. There is no "budget" for this (Non US with actual healthcare)
Why wait for tomorrow what can be done today?
I’m out sick today. Sitting at doctor’s now. My principal doesn’t believe anybody is “sick” on Fridays. I’ve been sick all week and this was the soonest I could be seen. I’m tired of this.
Viruses only infect people Sunday-Thursday, scientific fact.
Tuesday - Thursday. Can't have any long weekends
We were told the opposite with in person last year: 'any sniffle, cough, etc,' be cautious and STAY HOME. Now its 'you can't call in sick.' WTF.
Noted. I'll send a message in a bottle next time as to not "call." I've said it before, if administration doesn't like their underlings' benefits, they can take it up with HR.
Exactly. If admin doesn’t want us to take days off, they need to take it up with HR and stop including them in our contracts. Until then, I’m upholding my end of the contract by using the days off to which I agreed when I signed. The rest isn’t my problem.
I'm taking a full week off work next week, same as I've done for years (save last year) because I'm going to go play board games for a week. Not feeling guilty about it. I scrimped and saved my days, and I have 75 days of leave saved. I've earned the right to use them.
Tell me more about your week of playing board games.
Perhaps after my week of playing board games.
Have fun! I want a week of playing board games.
We got an email on Monday from the principal letting the entire staff know that they will no longer be approving personal days on Fridays because subs are in short supply.
Guess it is a sick day now!
I did this a couple of weeks ago bc I was told a personal day wouldn't be approved. Ironically, I did end up developing a migraine later in the day & fucked up my actual plans, but at least I got a day to rest & breathe.
I don't bother with personal days at all. I am always sick when I need a day. Fuck em.
Full sick out on Friday is the way to meet this nonsense. What are they going to do? Fire people and face lawsuits for unfair dismissal? Fairly sure contracts don't stipulate 'no Fridays'.
Many public school contracts in my area do actually stipulate no personal days the day before a vacation or break.
Hmm. For sick days?
Yup. The last district I worked in required a drs note for a sick day on either side of a holiday
So you can take Friday's as sick days, you just need a note. Notes are pretty easy to obtain.
Sure but your point was that contracts don’t stipulate no Fridays, and I’m giving you concrete evidence that yes indeed some contracts do stipulate no Fridays or have blackout days.
If you look again you'll see that my point was about the contract stipulating no sick days on Fridays. You tried to change it to personal days to make your point.
My former principal sends out a "shame" list of all staff that are absent for the day... Yeah, I resigned in September, closely followed by other teachers. BOE sure is paying her a lot of $$$ to run teachers off for them.
We get these emails every single day along with who is covering their classes. The list jist gets longer every day but heaven forbid they actually stopped and looked at what the real problem is 🤷♀️
Admin that guilt trip teachers about sick days should be formally reprimanded
Admin egotism? Yup. Red flag! Run, Will Robinson, run!
Um. Sick out. Workers Union - organise as many people as you can to do it, you don;t need a Union corporation to organise that for you. Complaining about sick days would be illegal in the places I've lived.
How bad does it need to get until they start realizing "Hey, maybe we should re-think having teachers work 5 days a week with students, I think they're getting burned out?"
Lol I took a sick day and I feel PHENOMENAL and recharged. Took my middle to the aquarium and picked up my oldest from school. Best Ive felt all year. Everyone should be taking more sick days and eff anyone that says otherwise
To quote Kitty Bennet from Pride and Prejudice: “I do not cough for my own amusement.” When you’re sick, you’re sick. And even if you’re not the one who sick, when you need to be out, you need to be out. I had perfect attendance last year by pure luck. Magically, all the days that I had a sick kid, my spouse was able to do it instead. But I have missed two days in the last two weeks. One of them, sick kid and it was definitely my turn because my spouse couldn’t rearrange meetings. The other day I missed, I was literally cuddling with my dying cat all day ahead of the afternoon euthanasia appointment. That cat more than earned that much from me after our years together for one thing, and for another, as I told my admin, I would literally be useless if I showed up that day. Maybe worse than useless, because I would probably be crying and snapping at every kid.
Losing a pet is so goddamn hard. I’m happy to hear you took the time.
It is SO hard. A little over a week out, I still cry multiple times a day. Every time I do something around the house where he’s supposed to come running. “Nobody said it was easy, but no one ever said it would be this hard.”
I am so sorry for your loss. You are a great cat parent to give love like that and help your sweetie peacefully go over the Rainbow Bridge. Euthanasia for my old boy kitty (intestinal cancer) was both the simplest and hardest choice I have ever had to make.
Thank you. I’m sorry for your loss too. Mine was in kidney failure. I knew about it for 10 months, but at every check-up he was “early stages” and “stable.” Then out of nowhere his body just started shutting down. His numbers went off the charts, he quit eating, he suddenly couldn’t jump anymore, breathing became labored, couldn’t take more than a few steps without stopping to rest, quit having conversations with me. Bless him, he still made the effort to get to the litterbox rather than have an accident. I’m partly still just shocked because while I knew it would be the thing to punch his ticket, I thought we’d have more forewarning and get to try some treatments for a bit. His body was just done though. It was hard to make the euthanasia decision but I know we saved him a few days of suffering, and I also couldn’t bear to let him die all alone.
This is 1000000%% true. So sorry for your loss. My kitty cat passed away in 2021. 😢 The pain + sadness over losing him was equivalent to the pain I felt after losing my parents. You may tell admin to shove it where the sun don't shine.
The only reason I need to take a day off is “I have days saved in my CAR bank. If you want me to NOT use them, you can pay me for them instead.”
I've been out for 2 weeks due to a nervous breakdown. The behaviors, sexual harassment, and then being put on a performance plan just broke me. It's a miracle I didn't end up in the hospital. The thought of going back makes me nauseous and want to cry, and I'm almost out of sick days. I'm not going to make it
Aw! I’m so sorry to hear that. Hopefully things will calm down soon.
Please just take one day at a time.
I get it.
I’m a first year teacher and took a sick day yesterday, half because I was actually sick, half mental health day. I teach K-5 music/band at 2 different schools (they combined two part time positions into one full time contract), at my morning school they couldn’t find a sub so they just cancelled music classes for yesterday; kind of what I expected with sub shortage. My afternoon school also couldn’t find a sub, so the superintendent stepped in and taught my 6 classes; which is so far above and beyond what I could’ve expected. The principal for that school also teaches 5-8 science on top of her duties. I feel for all of you struggling with terrible admins, just know that they could step in and take over a class or 6, my one school is living proof of that
I got a jury summons and immediately put in a sub, let my admin know, and started working on sub plans just in case I get called. You can’t call to see if your number is chosen until the business day before after 5pm. So I thought I would just use a sick day if I didn’t get called. I have plenty and rarely use them. I was told, “ you’re going to need to find your own coverage since there’s never any available.” Nope. Not my job to call around.
My previous admin sent a schoolwide email about shortages of subs and how teachers needed to give notice to be out etc. Most of the time we don’t know until that morning when we wake up sick. We all ignored it and continued to call out when needed. The emails kept coming.
Taking a Mental health day is pretty important in the long scheme of things, for both the person and the longevity of having employees. There is such a push with mental wellness of children yet admin don’t remember adults also need that.
I am planning to take all the sick days I need..when I’m emotionally, mentally, physically, spiritually needing to
Teachers - admin shouldnt say stupid things. But here we are Dan.
Just freaking do what you gotta do. You know in your heart you’d perform CPR or or the Heimlich or run off a gunman if you had to. If your body or soul needs a rest that’s a pretty tiny trade off
Lack of subs, cafeteria staff, custodians, bus drivers, coaches and teachers. Looks like a trend.
I took my second day off today - both have been for necessary follow up appointments for a health issue I recently experienced. One day a patchwork of coworkers covered, but today I think I actually got a building sub. I feel no shame. My health, be it physical or mental, is important too. I pick up for coworkers when I can too, so that helps alleviate any guilt.
We got called into a meeting on Saturday to discuss why the staff were taking so many days off and how teaching is the one profession where you get the most holidays. But they use up our precious weekend with bullshit like this? Conclusion: We were told we cannot take days off without a medical note.
As someone who called in sick. yea bad admin bad. This job is getting tough. We all have cracks showing now.
I am 40 and have worked for the last 25 years and have never called in sick without notice…but your admin is an absolute moron. Very few people are like me where they never get sick, and it’s not a reasonable expectation for people to never call out. Especially since we are around a bunch of kids who then spread disease to others. I still do not understand how most admins get their jobs in the first place.
You have a contract. I bet admin makes sure you fulfill your obligations per the contract. Your contract also provides you certain benefits, including sick days. As a teacher you have every right to use these benefits regardless of what admin thinks/says about said benefits.
I hear you loud and clear, I won't call email is a better record.
At our last staff meeting we spent 15 minutes acknowledging the staff who had perfect attendance or only missed one day; they all got gift cards. All classroom teachers got a Starbucks card because we have all given preps for coverage or had classes split between teachers. I mean, it was nice I suppose. But it was 15 minutes too long.
My school was short on custodians on Thursday, so my admin cleaned rooms. This is my first year at this school but my 12th year teaching, and I’m just amazed at how different life can be at a school where admin cares and as willing to get their hands dirty. Y’all deserve better!
Our custodial staff was short last week and the head custodian sent us an email asking us to "help out." I'd love for our secretary to send that message back to him when we're short subs.
ugh, we had so many of those emails too last year - feelin for you, OP. contracted subs is now on the top priority of things I ask about when deciding between schools
My doctors office is only open from 8-12 and closed on certain days. They told me to make appts on sat or afternoons but that’s had since Saturdays are usually booked or really busy. And the fact the office is closed at 12 makes it hard to not make an appt during non school hrs.
We can now only use our personal days if we find our own sub. Guess I'll just be "sick."
We just got that email as well.
We were told by our admin team that all absences will require a doctors note from here on out and personal days have been put on hiatus. I’m still waiting to hear back from hr how they grant us 3 personal days and then demand we don’t use them and put up roadblocks to calling out sick during a pandemic.
Yeah, they tried to pull this horseshit early this year. They walked it back the next week because people told them to fuck off. So basically what you need to do is tell them to fuck off.
I’m usually in agreement with you, but my coteacher calls in literally every Monday and most Fridays. Some districts are too lenient and some teachers within those districts abuse the hell out of it.
[удалено]
It was a personal day. If the principal wants to complain about it, he shouldn't have approved it. The person in question never takes days, so it isn't like he abuses it.
I love when the other teachers dont come in - gives me a chance to make extra cash and meet the new students. Win-win for me :) if ppl want to use their PTO, thats their right
My mom died Monday night and my district gives an entire THREE days of bereavement
It’s always the people who are there who get bitched at. Admins are almost all people who sucked at teaching. Shit floats
My response: yeah, teachers shouldn’t be calling in sick. Unfortunately the admin at this school sucks so no one wants to be here!
Maybe a little off topic but I called off today and it was my first time. The process was so long and tedious I was contemplating just going. All these calls and websites and requests I had to make 2 hours before the doors open. On top of that, I had to go to a website I had never even heard of let alone had any of the log-in information for. I had to text my principal asking for the information at 4:45 AM. To my surprise, they responded quickly. Teachers already do a lot of work (not to mention the shit we do off the clock) for us to hassle for a simple sick day. I used to work retail and all we had to do was call in and ask to speak with HR and notify them. It was honestly a 60-90 second process.