Is this normal for the public sector? Feels a touch illegal

I have a feeling you've just summed up the public sector there.

after doing a couple of contract jobs, I realise I can't do a permanent job, no matter how attractive the pension is!

FE/HE institutions can be brutal places.

I was sent to one last year on a temp contract (London) and it was very chaotic as well. The level of abuse directed at the staff was off the scale. One of my colleagues had a chair thrown at her by a young girl who was almost boasting that she had a 'personality disorder'. At least once a day we'd get someone flounce out saying, 'You'll be sorry if something happens to me.' A very high number of students now have or claim to have, 'alphabet diseases' as my ex-boss use to call them and behave in the most appalling manner. The BBC wrote a very good article on the mental health epidemic that is hitting Universities, where academics don't feel prepared to deal with it as they don't have mental health training; increased security is needed; budgets are being diverted from learning to support wellbeing & mental health services, counselling, etc...

I'm not sure what it happening with the younger generations. There is a great deal of rage and this is manifesting as mental health disorders and what feels like a tremendous sense of entitlement/verbal threats/aggression, etc.

This is just my own opinion. Personally, FE/HE is not an industry I'd want to willingly return to.

Good luck, OP.

Agree totally with this

So to be clear, you're a director? How high up the food chain is this in context?

Why haven't you pointed out your contractual terms? And had yourself removed from the rota to match it?

Why haven't you sat the CEO down to discuss the pushback about the project?

Why did you accept a project entitled "Ideas" rather than discuss terms of reference and so on before writing it?

You sound like you're being terribly passive in what sounds like a high level job and responsibilities. It's been four months, you've had time to thrash some of this out like setting up a meeting with HR to discuss their work if that's in your remit, or to ask for the training in dealing with a lockdown to be reviewed.

I worked in a marketing team in the public sector, my first task was to create a poster, showing our mission statement, to hang above the staff printer. It took 6 weeks and 3 reworks before it was agreed as the SLT couldn’t agree whether matchstick men or puffy men were better! I kid you not. OP, you are in for a bumpy ride I’m afraid.

So first of all to put a pin in it - your contracted hours are your contract and by then asking /telling /expecting you to stay is a breach of that.

I am slightly perplexed as to why you haven’t pushed back on this? Have you felt that by leaving at your contracted time your job will be at risk?

I think you should evidence any and all breaches of contract quietly to one side where you can access from a personal email and then politely tell whoever is responsible for rota that you need to be removed from rota as per contract and again ensure you keep evidence.

any pushback/threats etc - keep evidence
any attempt to end your contract eg not meeting probationary period - keep evidence
same with any stupid work issues like the CEO/SLT authorising /shutting down projects ideas etc that are making your job impossible

the reason for the above is when you double down on your contact and if they consequently make your position untenable for this you will have them by the balls for breach of contract. Chuck in the fact that the reason for the hours is your daughters autism and you will possibly also have a claim for sex discrimination as a working mum and a claim for disability discrimination by association.

evidence evidence evidence and stand up for yourself - but join a union first if you haven’t already and then raise the complaints with management in the right way

Yes this is familiar.
Pushing of boundaries and ignoring accommodations to see what they can get away with.
Having you put yourself at risk of violence because you are dispensible.
Focusing on the rights and welfare of the daffodils in the next county instead of meaningful protection of staff.

Yes, it's normal for the public sector. I have worked in the NHS, LA, FE and HE over a thirty year career - it's poorly managed chaos a lot of the time and you will be asked to do a huge amount, especially at director level. Although as others have said, some places are better than others. The politics is huge - as you have found with your project plan, there will always be someone creating some noise because it makes them feel important.

That said, you can find niches that would work better for you. However it sounds like public sector isn't for you and that's ok! Don't drive yourself mad trying to improve things (safeguarding and professional ethics aside of course!)

My friend left a private sector role after 20+ years to go and take a senior position in a local authority

The stories she tells absolute waste and mismanagement and ineptitude is shocking

If the public knew how their taxes were being squandered at every level they'd be aghast

She does say, as others have that the whole lot is kept afloat by a dedicated group of staff who go way beyond their remit to keep it all going.

She also says they're in the minority!

It sounds very typical of much of the local government/education sector to me.

Welcome to the public sector. Very under-funded and would totally fall apart without the goodwill of employees starting early, skipping lunch, working late etc for no remuneration.

It's not for the workshy despite what the gutter press tell everyone.

While it has been underfunded, Op being tasked with writing a report called 'ideas' is not a result of underfunding, it's terrible management

Yes, do this.

And job hunt intensively!

I don't think you can improve this by yourself.

From working part time in a school, no one will know or care what your contracted hours are and it will be up to you to assert them, e.g. write back to whoever does the rota and say 'Please remove me from this rota as per my contract my working hours end at 4pm'. And then just leave every day at 4pm regardless of what else is going on.

Ha I worked in HR for a few years in a FE college and it sounds very familiar. Could be the same place or could just be a symptom of poor management in FE

I have previously worked in the educational sector as a senior non-teacher having worked elsewhere first.

Your situation sounds intolerable but some of the fundamentals don’t surprise me. Teachers work incredibly hard but also (in my experience, I’m sure NASALT) can do so inefficiently, often with few boundaries and the sense that if you have some, it’s akin to not being good at your job - indeed that if you have them, you shouldn’t be working within a school because that it what a school requires. To an outsider, it’s clear that there are obviously areas (safeguarding for example) where this is true but in most cases it is not, and this is a large part of why teachers burn out.

Schools can be poor at lines of management / communication, with a resistance to proper line management feedback and an expectation that the SLT be looped into everything.

I think as a first step I would look at all your schools policies and try to understand as much as you can about how the structure here (and I obviously use the term loosely!) works. When an idea comes to pass, does it tend to get rubber stamped at the SLT meeting? Do non-SLT members come in to present ideas? Do they do it by email or sharing a Google doc instead? I would use the fuss over this initiative to have a meeting with the CEO about how things tend to be done here and whether that should change. Are you senior enough (you’re a director, so surely) to start changing the structure?

And also - it goes without saying that you need a new job ASAP. But jobs can be hard to come by in this environment so attack this from both ends.

When you do find another job OP, make sure you let them know why you aren’t staying. They need to realise that if they treat their staff this way, then it’s going to affect staff retention.

I think its normal for a shit organization. Can be public or private sector. Ive worked in many over the years and the crapness isnt limited to one sector, although I do think having to make a profit and beat the competition in some private sector employers means crapness isnt tolerated, or if it is the organization doesn't survive.

Where's the money coming from and is it guaranteed regardless of performance is what id ask myself before determining whether an organization has an incentive to get things right.

I used to work on a school.

yes completely normal. Some are better than others.

If the CEO is also new to public sector she might be feeling rather similar and if she's new to grade maybe a bit our of her depth. Wonder if you can try getting her onside a bit? Maybe try to have a discussion along the lines of "crikey is this what you were expecting? Chaos, isn't it? Not how we would have done things in our old jobs. Shall we whip them into shape a bit? [...make plan for getting shit together to the extent possible...] "

She will probably be glad of an ally who gets her and you might find strength in numbers together to make progress. I would start with addressing SLT decision making, emergency preparedness training, and take it from there....

@Nightingaleuk122Yes, I agree. Terrible mismanagement at my workplace too, constant churn of SLT all with new ideas that never come to fruition. But we are also chronically understaffed which makes achieving even the most basic requirements of any role very difficult.

From a family member's experiences yup, this sounds like typical FE! But grow a pair - no way in hell would I accept regularly being rota'd outside my contract hours if it didnt suit - push back! Putting me at risk? Think again. Just have the fight; you're a director, direct.