Friend and Continued Work Absence

More fool any school that employs a teacher without seeing their most recent reference and chasing up any inconsistencies or gaps. This has been standard practice for very many years.

Keep your nose out. Be a friend, not a busy body

She won't listen. Let them know anonymously about her history. The kids have a right to an education, she doesn't have a right to be a teacher.

I think if it was me I would just pull away from
the friendship.

No point saying anything as she is not going to change, sometimes as you get older, you just suddenly see people with new eyes and if you don’t like it then move away from it.

Don’t be around people that stress you out x

I don’t believe all the nasty messages about how the OP is not a true friend. If it were my friend taking frequent absences from jobs, I’d suggest she gets help or find a job which she can do without out all the time off. Why are you only regarded as being supportive if you slavishly approve everything people do? She is not treating her employers, colleagues or students well. If she carried on doing it, I’d probably distance myself. Personally, I think she’s taking the piss from what you say-but am surprised she keeps finding employment.

I have voted YABU, not because I disagree with you but because it’s really none of your business.

My sister has an illness and she is unable to keep a full time position. She has also spent years at university training and retraining when she realised she would like to teach. She has decided to just do agency work (for teaching). That way if she isn’t well enough it’s not a big deal. They are lucky enough that they can manage on her partners wage. If they couldn’t though, as I’m sure many people are in this situation, she isn’t sure how they would cope.

She would be better suited to supply work as being a teacher is a highly demanding career even if you have no disabilities or illnesses I think she should be honest with employers. Agree with you OP

It would be better all round if she was more honorable and said I can't do full time. Do supply, or part time/job share/ppa cover etc. Then she would have more chance of sticking in the role and the school would know where it was as well. It is hard (particularly in primary) when you think you have a whole teacher all year and it's just dribs and drabs and a partchwork of supply teachers in between. We had 4 years on the trot with DC2 and it was extremely disruptive for learning and class behaviour was all over the place. I know teachers are people and have lives, but the set up in this country (one teacher for a class all year) makes it difficult to pivot when the set up breaks down.

She’s qualified and experienced and isn’t lying to get the role. It’s unfortunate that she has mental and physical health problems but I don’t see where it’s your place to start telling her she isn’t worthy of employment. She is a teacher after all, you’re not her employer and nor do you have any experience working with her.

If she’s been qualified for 10 years and had several jobs she’s unlikely to have been in them long enough to gain employment rights. That means a couple of things. Firstly she’s very unlikely to have qualified for fully paid sick leave. In most jobs you gain paid sick leave based on service eg 1 month paid/1 month unpaid per calendar year in the first year increasing with each year so she’s going to have had significant unpaid leave if she’s off half the year. Even local authorities start you off with limited sick leave.

The second is that if she’s leaving with a financial settlement the school/employer will have breached equalities legislation because that’s the only basis you can take action for dismissal in the first two years. And employers don’t pay a settlement unless they think they’re likely to loose at tribunal. So by any measure she’ll have had a rough ride especially given you acknowledge she has significant health issues.

Yes as a parent it’s frustrating if your child’s teacher is absent but employers have a duty of care to their staff. She has the right to apply for any job she likes, the employer has a duty to do due diligence. References have always included a record of absence, it’s highly unlikely every job she’s had hasn’t provided this, and people talk. So schools are employing her despite her absence record, which is their choice. You have absolutely no right to tell her what jobs she’s should or shouldn’t do.

Because she had to. Because of family expectations to have a profession. You’re not too bright at understanding this, are you?
There are many ways one can “work with children” without being forced into a “profession” by one’s family and the immense stress that would cause every time you have to get up and go to work. Literally every single day of your working life.

That’s the school’s fault for not employing an appropriate teacher for the job. It’s not the fault of the teacher who was sick or the poor sod trying to teach an unfamiliar subject matter (and again, imagine how stressful that is).

Has she tried a day nursery type setting, rather than a school?
She clearly hasn’t found her niche.

She would be better as a private tutor and doing that as and when she can or retraining but easier said than done especially if she's sick alot. I imagine she would do something else if she could - it can't be easy with all the effort you have to make starting a new job then to quit not long after.
I had an A level biology teacher in school who went on long term sick and they replaced her with a physics teacher who was trying to teach himself biology at the same time as teaching it to us but it was awful, he really had no idea and couldnt answer any questions. I had been a straight A student the whole way through school and came out with a B in Biology and I know that was because I didn't have a biology teacher to teach us - it annoys me to this day. Not her fault though she was off sick but wish it had been dealt with better.

i would be worried about my friend rather than unknown children

I think its not your business. If you disapprove of their behaviour then stop being their friend, if they are committing fraud or benefit fraud then contact the fraud hotline. Otherwise keep your nose out.

The best teacher in the world is a useless teacher if they're not there. If you know your health is such that a particular type of job makes it worse, why keep going back to that type of job rather than looking for a way to work that doesn't exacerbate your problems? Apart from anything else, it must make sense in terms of being able to stay in the job so you don't have to keep job searching and your CV looks better. Teaching does at least offer you quite a lot of options in that regard, e.g. part time work, home tuition, online teaching etc.

I'd be wondering what she is doing with her time off sick. All of that time off should give her plenty of opportunity to focus on recovery and get better. There are so many tools and options out there to facilitate recovery. What is she doing with herself?

OP what do you have in common with your friend? How much support do you give her with her mental health? How much do you know about what reasonable adjustments have been made for her? Given that you seem to know so much else about what's in her reference and his much time off she's had?
Just out of interest, what job do you do yourself?

The OP has explained her concern. One person's very regular absence and inability to fulfil her role is impacting on the education of hundreds of children. Why are you not concerned?! I suspect you would be very concerned if your own child's teacher was continually being replaced with temps.

Exactly. Family expectation. She didn’t want to be a teacher, she was expected to have a profession, so she picked one she thought she could do. And then found she couldn’t cope with it.
Family expectation should not play into it. She’s a grown woman and should be able to do whatever the hell she wants to pay her bills. Instead her mental heath is being trashed by the weight of that expectation.

Poor woman.