I work in healthcare, and I am assigned to six schools. Four schools are close, two are far, and we only have one assistant at the moment.
The assistant is there to help us carry out our sessions.
She says no to visiting the further schools because she isn’t comfortable with driving, so I’ve ended up doing all visits this half-term. I even offered to take on the further-away child if she would swap and pick up some of my nearby schools - she refused, saying it “wasn’t appropriate” because a) she didn’t understand the targets and b) there were other children waiting.
She hasn’t visited a single one of my schools.
I have been raising this with supervisors weeks ago. Their approach has been extremely indirect (sending general reminder emails to all assistants, arranging monthly meetings, etc.) but nobody is actually addressing the behaviour head-on.
But last week it got worse:
I put her initials next to the children I needed her to see (as advised by my supervisor). She removed her initials. I put them back. She immediately messaged me asking why, and said she thought it was a typo... I explained I have no capacity and that the school is extremely close so would be helpful for her. She then changed the initials to “assistant” - presumably because another assistant is starting soon.
I then assigned two more overdue children to her (the same ones she previously refused to swap with me). She ignored the tasks completely and has now removed her initials again.
So:
- She is repeatedly removing her name from children I assign
- She is ignoring messages
- She is altering notes I have written next to children on the waiting list
- Supervisors keep handling everything indirectly and softly
- None of them are actually acknowledging that she keeps overriding me
I'm carrying the entire school caseload, burning out, and feeling completely undermined.
I am considering emailing my line manager about it because I feel the removal of initials, editing my notes etc has gone too far?…