AIBU? Working during annual holiday

I don’t know why you are checking work emails when on annual leave? Just put out of office on, with info for anyone with a safeguarding concern.

Face to face, “sorry, got to dash. Email me.”

How does teachers salary/ annual leave work? Is it a yearly salary and they you take you annual leave at your own discretion during the school holidays? If yes I would have my annual leave days where I would turn off emails and put ooo on. Then on ‘work’ days do planning/ answer emails etc

Yes, I'm ostensibly in a corporate 9-5 role but I expect to be called at any time. The flexibility works both ways though.

Im a teacher and I’ve been contacted by three parents by email and “caught just to say” in town.

I don't understand what this means but no, this doesn't sound right. What do you teach?

I work in academia and yes, unfortunately, it’s the norm to monitor and respond to emails outside of working hours and on holiday. My colleagues literally take work with them on holiday. It’s not healthy or okay though.

You do need to establish your own boundaries though. I keep an eye on my emails. I would respond to urgent ones (about student safeguarding or about time sensitive decisions, sometimes we have grant application deadlines to meet or academic misconduct proceedings ongoing). Otherwise, I have an out of office message on that says when I’ll be back. Day to day emails, no I don’t respond to them until it’s my next working day. Sometimes I don’t respond to them at all if the urgency has passed by the time I’m back.

Not every email warrants an immediate response. People email when they have time. You can respond when you have time.

At my school SMT respond to emails during holidays but they are being paid significantly more than £40k 😂

I go into school and do stuff during the holiday but I would need get respond to a parent email. I would forward it to SMT if it couldn’t wait until September.

I also live near my school so run into families past and present just about daily in the holidays. I always stop to chat if they want to but never about anything, just quick pleasantries. They sometimes ask questions about equipment or if I know the new teacher etc. It’s never anything difficult.

As a parent if I messaged school when shut I.e through the holidays I wouldn’t expect reply until start of term. At my sons schools we don’t get any out of office reply’s or acknowledgment to emails. Your school will have a policy even if you have access to work emails whilst not working I doubt your employer expects you to respond. I also have worked for a large financial company we did have a policy of out of office when staff were on holiday but that was different to education as the business was open all year except of bank holidays and colleagues knew you then to contact rest of the team (not on holiday).

As the daughter of a teacher, I can tell you that this is a massive misunderstanding. During term time teachers work every evening and every weekends. Most of them do clubs or extra classes in their own time. During the school holidays, tbey put in many hours too.
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My auto reply goes on at 3pm on the last day of term and goes off at 9am on the first day of term! I sometimes choose to check in with my emails towards the end of the holidays just to see if there is anything from SLT regarding first day back but I’m not paid during the holidays so I’m not working unless I choose to! I’m support staff not teaching staff but wouldn’t expect teachers to either!

What do they even want you're not even their kids teacher anymore. I do however send emails to companies, nhs etc at allsorts of times but I would never expect an answer at 2am on a sunday morning just because thats when i sent the email I just assume they will read it when they are next in work and available.

This. It's not that difficult is it?

This 100%

As I understand it, teachers aren't actually paid over the summer - their 11 or 10 month contract is just annualised across 12 months. So no, you do not have to respond during booked & approved annual leave.

There Is nothing wrong with them emailing you during your holidays. Email is an asynchronous method of communication - you send when it suits you and the recipient replies when it suits them. It’s on you if you check your email when you’re on holiday.

The “just to say” when they bump in to you - depends. If it’s just mentioning they need to talk to you about something when you’re back at work, I wouldn’t get too excited. If they expect an actual discussion, then yeah, unreasonable and you need to shut them down.

Set up out of office and ignore parents. Why would they be emailing you now?! Also why does your school allow parents to have your direct email?

All.our emails go through the office so it would never happen that I would get one during holidays.

As regards meeting parents I live locally to my school (my children attend it) and I will chat away at the supermarket about the weather holidays etc but if anyone mentions school I just shut it down immediately.

I'm a secondary school teacher and I do regularly check my emails during the holidays as I often get emails from students needing help if they're working on coursework over the breaks, as well as students needing support after exam results with advice on remarks, etc. I will always help my students if they email outside of regular school hours. Parents don't tend to email over the break, but if they do, I will happily send a quick reply.

However, there is no expectation from my Head that we respond to any emails over the break. It's up to us as individuals whether we choose to respond. There would certainly not be any comeback from my Head if a parent were left waiting until September for a response to an email they'd sent after we broke up for the summer.

Just because a parent emails, it doesn't mean you need to respond. If you want to completely switch off, then take your emails off your phone if they're on there and don't check your work account until the week before you go back to school. You are perfectly within your rights to do this. Putting an out of office on will make it abundantly clear to parents that you do not check emails during the holidays and will not be responding.

As for parents stopping you in the street - that's a tricky one. I think just saying 'sorry, I'd really rather not discuss work while I'm on holiday - thanks for understanding - see you in September and I'll be happy to chat then' is the best way to deal with it before making a quick exit.

It’s a full time job so no need to pro rata... £40k pa.
As per all full time employment, some pay is retained on a daily basis to “earn” holiday pay. So if you left your employment midterm you would only be entitled to accrued holiday pay on leaving.

To op - when on holiday, don’t read work emails. If a parent stops you in the street to request some kind of action say you’ll deal with it when back to school.

I have never answered work emails whilst on annual leave (in 30 years) and I’ve worked in international corporations, education settings and now a very busy family business. I’ve always made sure I’ve done everything I can do before I leave, then put my out-of-office on, and only then open my emails once back at work.

I am very boundaried about my work and I don't check emails or respond to anything on annual leave but my colleagues and manager do, so yes it does happen in other £40k professions.

Put an out of office on, don't check the emails during annual leave, if someone stops you in town to ask a question then find a polite but firm way to move along.

How do you know you have e-mails? If you're logging on, you're the problem not the parents.

Lots do, lots don't. Why are you checking your work emails? Have you been told you have to?

I once emailed my child's teacher at around 11pm (not because it was super urgent, just because that was the first chance I'd had to sit down and compose an email). She only bloody replied immediately! I almost told her off but it was early in the school year and I thought it would be a bit over familiar!

Teachers usually aren’t pro rata’d

I’d get another phone

work one - switched off with voicemail
personal one - friends and family only

Yanbu but genuinely curious as to
what issues parents deem necessary to email about now rather than waiting until term starts?

It’s really on you to set the boundaries. You can not check emails, and you can say “we’ll pick it up in september” when people ask you in person. You can’t control what others do, but you can control your own reactions.