Friend and Continued Work Absence

I think you are getting a rough ride here OP and don’t really understand why. Yes, everyone is entitled to feel ill or struggle with their health and feel supported. The key here is that it’s a repeated pattern and your friend sues her employers when they have finally had enough! It’s a pattern that doesn’t put her in a good light at all. And for everyone saying “oh there are toxic workplaces and that probably is making her ill”, when it’s more than one or two in someone’s career then it’s usually the person that is the common denominator and the problem.

This has never been true in the 19 years I’ve worked in the education sector

@GentleWord you sound resentful of your friend. Why did you put IBS in quotation marks? Do you think she is malingering? If she had a chronic condition like rheumatoid arthritis or MS and had to be off work frequently would you also see this in the same light? Or is it because her issue is mental health that you are so concerned about her ethics?

FWIW the T&C in most teaching posts have declined as academies can opt out of Red Book conditions. My current teaching job offers almost no paid sick leave at all (at least for me; maybe the HR or management positions get a better deal) and holidays have to be booked (during school holidays, of course). So I doubt your friend is coining it while on sick leave.

Oh, and if you use your sick leave up by July it doesn’t just reset in September. You have to do time in work with no absence before it will reset.

It sounds like she needs to medically retire tbh but she's doing what's best for her, like everyone else - because relying on benefits doesn't make for any good quality of life it's so little.

So she’s struggling to cope with MH issues caused by her parents by desperately trying to stay in a job she can’t cope with because they forced her into a professional degree?
That doesn’t make it any better, OP.

But isn't this what has been happening and then she's sued the schools? Of course after she's gone she's not on the payroll, but she's on another school's payroll and the situation is repeated.

But surely in that case they just hire a replacement. The school isn’t paying for her and a cover teacher if she’s left and gone to another school, so they’re no worse off.

I didn't say they had no money, ever, to pay for cover. They have to find the money from somewhere, until they can't I suppose. The school she works at is finding this money to cover her absences. That doesn't mean it is an endless pot of money. Usual short term sickness or a longer term leave in unusual circumstances is definitely something that should be covered. Long term going off sick, not coping with the job, coming back and then going off with the same thing again and again in different schools (so not just one bad one or one where she wasn't a good 'fit') is a problem.

You are right OP. Someone who has a realistic expectation of being unable to complete less than a year in work without needing significant time off has no business placing themselves into children’s lives in such a prominent way.

Of course teachers have the same right to be ill and need time of work as anyone else and it is up to their employer, not them, to minimise disruption, but to be a good EY teacher you have to care about what you’re doing, because the bare minimum just isn’t enough. If she doesn’t care about children receiving a consistent reception education. then she can’t be a good teacher.

All the people sticking up for this woman would probably feel differently if it was their own 4 year old being taught by a random mixture of cover/supply staff and TAs for weeks at a time.

But you were just suggesting she works as an agency teacher. Where is she meant to find work, if schools are too squeezed to hire any to cover absences?

But school budgets are so squeezed already that they can't automatically allow for a teacher's salary plus expensive cover on a regular and long term basis. What if there were five teachers like this on the staff? How could the school afford to do this long term? And a cover teacher needs to be found quickly, the school can't take weeks/ months appointing the very best fit for the class - she could be back at work before this happened (or not, and off another few months). If the teacher's sickness is regular and it seems, inevitable, it is unfair to just say that this is her right to earn a salary regardless of the consequences for anyone else.

Of course, I see the point about the kids’ education. But if children are losing out on education because she’s off sick, that’s not her fault, and they shouldn’t be. If they are, that’s entirely down to the school, for not hiring a suitable replacement or cover teacher.

Absolutely, I agree, it's not black and white, but when this has happened repeatedly, it surely must be time to reassess. Agency work as a teacher when she's well enough is still teaching and a profession, and not leaving a class to potentially fall behind without their permanent teacher. Lots of people carry family expectations of achievement, and some of those children who are losing out on a decent quality education could well be among them. Should young children be having to catch up in their spare time so that they are meeting the high expectations of their parents? Tutoring would also leave students without their regular tutor during the times when she isn't well enough to work, so probably wouldn't be a good alternative. I fully sympathise with anyone struggling with their job and I hope OP's friend can find an alternative solution to their presumably quite unhappy situation.

That depends on so many things, doesn’t it.
Is this person well enough to retrain in another career path?
Is she young enough? The OP hasn’t said how old she is despite being asked.
Are there any other jobs she’s able to do, or qualified for?
She also has the family pressure of the expectation that she will be in a professional job to deal with.
Tutoring, maybe, but it takes time to build up enough students to make it worthwhile and then she’s not earning while she’s doing that.
It’s not as black and white as people make out.

Personally I couldn't be friends with someone who was so manipulative and deceitful. Education in this country is up against the wall financially we don't need people like her taking the piss. Literally taking money away from children what an awful awful woman.

Surely if you take a maternity package without going back to work afterwards you have to pay it back? I'm pretty sure anyone I know who was lucky enough to have something like this also had a minimum amount of time they had to return to work for after the maternity leave. A workplace can plan for maternity leave(s) cover as it's usually a fixed time and they aren't having to pay high cover rates on a daily/ weekly basis. I'm not saying disabled or (sometimes) unwell people shouldn't work, but surely one should also consider the type of work you are doing or are able to do, and the knock on effects of being unable to perform in that role. A large team of admin workers can absorb an absent colleague's workload in a way that a missing teacher can't be well replaced with multiple covers. When those most affected by your absence are really reliant on the job being done well and consistently, surely it is the better choice to allow them that and to look for a job that is easier for you to both earn a living with and not let down not necessarily your employers, but the people who have no choice but to rely on your presence in the workplace.

Because it's a forum and some people like me were questioning whether she is actually your friend. Because you don't sound very much like her friend.

Why do you have sneer quotes around the words immunocompromised and severe IBS? and why do you say she 'feels' she has these things?

EDITED for typo

Ah yes, but how many of them would be acceptable to her family, who insist she must have a "professional" job?

Hats off to someone with mental health problems and still trying to work. Doesn't matter what work she is trained in teacher,cleaner etc at least she isn't sitting on her butt when she is well. Sorry but if I was her friend she would be getting praised for trying the rest is none of my business. I'm pretty sure anybody with mental health problems that never know when the next bad flare up will be and keeps trying needs support not a critical friend. She must actually be a very good teacher when well for her to actually be able to get the jobs

Actually, we absolutely can have it both ways! Adjustments have to be 'reasonable'. There are certain jobs that certain people can't do. You wouldn't have to adjust a roofer's role for someone with multiple amputations or a proofreader role for someone with dyslexia. We have to be practical. There are many many types of jobs - she can work without claiming disability benefits, it may just not be teaching.

Most people have 2 or 3 kids over about 8 or 10 years.

Actually, not so much these days. With the cost of living as it is, many people are having their kids very close together so they can get the high nursery fees out of the way as quickly as possible. That absolutely leads to repeated maternity leaves with very little time in between them; meanwhile the employer is stuck paying their maternity package (if they have one) and for repeated maternity cover staff.

And then you have those who take their full entitlement knowing full well they're not going back to work afterwards but don't tell their employer until the last minute, so that they don't lose maternity pay.

I don't see that as any different, aside from the fact that it's deliberate and planned for, whereas ill health is not.