Feel a little taken advantage of (teacher)

[lecce]

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post - I have posted on the TES boards about some of these issues but always seem to offend someone there!

I teach f/t (secondary) and hold a TLR (the lowest kind - it is a management point) and am supposed to be in charge of KS3 within my department - under the HoD, obviously. As well as my HoD there is a second in department who, as you would expect, is paid more than me and has two more free periods a week then me.

My issue is that this man does pretty much nothing for his extra money - he is not given particular tasks to do, as I am, and he seems to spend all his frees getting his marking done. He is more experienced than me, so may just be quicker but, tbh, I don't think this is it as we are a small department anyway and I know he is doing nothing for that extra money and time.

As second, he would be responsible for the dept if our hod was off, but she never is. He also mentors NQTs and student teachers so has even more time off (not money) for this. This annoys me further as I used to do this before being off for MAT leave and now he's taken it, does a rubbish job and moans about how much time it takes him - which is a lie, frankly. His most recent student told me herself that I had helped her far more than him and that he rarely spent the allocated hour per week with her. He is good at behaviour management so will get involved if a colleague needs help during a lesson (not that often an issue) but that is it.

To make it worse, I have written a few SoW and whenever he uses them, he moans on about how rubbish they were, how he didn't enjoy teaching my stuff etc. He has contributed nothing to the department in terms of materials and resources.

The funny thing is, and I know it doesn't sound like it, but I quite like him but I think he is clever, knows how to get away with stuff and I, on the other hand, am a bit of a doormant who finds it impossible to say no. I like our hod but she is, frankly, gutless over this and doesn't really ask him to do stuff as she is worried he'll refuse (has happened before).

Any advice on how to handle this would be great- I am getting so resentful and will volunteer to do stuff because I am ambitious but now feel I'm probably just being taken advantage of and it won't even benefit my career.

Thanks for reading, sorry it's long.

[DrSeuss]

I would tell your HOD that you are unhappy, clearly and politely. Try to keep it as much about the good of the department and as little about your resentment as possible. Tell her that something must be done, give her a time frame for change (half term?) and state calmly that, unless something is done, you will take this up with whichever member of SMT is responsible for your department. And stop volunteering for stuff unless it benefits you!

Good luck!

[KatieMiddleton]

I'm sorry I didn't understand all the acronyms but I think I have the gist.

There are a few things in your post which I think you need to address with your HoD, particularly the change to your responsibilities after maternity leave. You need to ask for those back (yes you shouldn't have to but if you want it sorted you need to be proactive).

However, I would not recommend you criticise your colleague. It won't help your cause and will just make you look bitter and jealous. A much more constructive thing to do is approach your manager and say "I would like to get to X position in X years time. What can I do to achieve that?"

Forget your colleague (unless he's doing something illegal, immoral or gross misconduct) and focus on your career. You'll feel better I guarentee.