Signed off yet work are contacting me

[ThePerkyCoralPoet]

I’m signed off. Work are emailing me about things that I said I would hand over before the end of my employment. Meaning in my time. Manager has emailed and text me. I’m actually seeing it as borderline harassing me now.

All that while being signed off sick is actually somewhat generous.

I'd just try and get it over with. Presuming you literally have to do it at some point, it may as well be now then you can feel free of their burden any longer.
If you are genuinely too unwell to deal with it send a firm email saying so and that you won't reply to any further correspondence on the matter until you're well enough. Reasonably you should try and give a rough timeframe for this if you can.
I wish you well and sorry to hear your workplace are being difficult. X

I think when you're not in the best place mentally, everything feels too much and you can end up catastrophising and/or seeing bad intentions in others' behaviour when it isn't really there.

I'm a teacher, so I do understand your perspective and how exhausted, overwhelmed and lacking in any more grace you must be feeling towards a school that has obviously ground you down. However, from the perspective of having been left in the lurch by a colleague who left under similar circumstances to you, who refused to give a timely handover, leaving me with no information about my new students and no knowledge of where they were up to in the syllabus, I do think that you need to be mindful here of the impact of not giving information on your colleagues, who are probably not the ones to blame for your current situation.

Teaching is a collaborative profession and so much of what we do with our students in our classrooms and what we know about our kids is largely stored within our heads. Only you know exactly where you are up to in the unit, only you will know the current level of everyone in the class - which might not be reflected in assessment data, only you will know which child doesn't like being picked on to answer, or which one needs pushing because they're super clever but inclined to coast, or which one's parents are currently going through a messy divorce and needs a bit of TLC and so on - and without this information being handed over in a timely manner, you are leaving the colleague taking over from you in a tricky position and possibly giving them a load of work to do over Christmas to fill in gaps it would take you an hour to just send over in an email.

If you really can't face it at the moment, then you can at least give them a date by which you will, as to be fair, they do need to know. However, if I were you, I'd just do it now, get it over with, and then focus on healing and moving forward with your life.

It sounds like you want to be difficult, because you are mad at them

I dont work in the public sector but to me, being off sick just means i deal with 80% fewer texts and emails than i do when i'm actually working.
IMO you still have to answer stuff so the wheels can keep turning. Not hard to answer a message even if you do it from bed or the bathroom.

Suspect I may be in the minority, but unless youre off sick because youve lost both your hands, its easier to just answer the questions and help your colleagues.

So let them know when you'll finish handing over. As in, make a date.

I wouldn’t be checking my emails.

Are you returning to work before you leave. If not can you just send an email to all the relevant people saying xxxx colleague can sort out the niggly bits, please do not contact me again then just block or don't open emails or texts.

Honestly op, i think it's clear that you are resentful of them and wish to make life awkward for them. Being honest based on your two threads it seems that you perhaps lack the resilience needed to be a teacher and that's absolutely fine. Lots of us couldn't do it.
Also remember you may need a reference and being difficult at the end of your term won't help that. I'd suck it up if I were you.

As soon as I leave work phone is off at the bottom of my work bag until I go back. Get some boundaries in place.

Actually, I’m very resilient. But at the point a book is thrown in my direction. I’m not going to tolerate it. It’s unnecessary and requires sanctions. References are done very early on in teaching roles. I’ve sucked it up. I’m not being awkward. I’m being exactly as I should be. You’ve been given brief handover. You should only be contacting me once per week via email. Not email and text. That’s unnecessary.

Apparently texting my personal number and emailing me is required when I’m off sick. Even when they’ve been given everything they need. So relentless and unnecessary.

Gosh you sound like a really difficult person. All this time you’ve wasted on mumsnet you could have spent doing the handover info they clearly need

2 emails and a text is hardly ‘relentless’. You set a precedent when you chose to send in cover up to the end of term - the assumption will now have been made that you’d be cooperative with whomever needs the last bits off you before Friday.
Admin staff will not know the reason why you're off sick, so perhaps assumed you’d be OK with the text. When you were last in contact with school did you give them a date for the final handover?

You sound ridiculously selfish and difficult.

If they're small niggley things then just hand it over and you can be completely done. You seem to be dragging it out and causing drama. You aren't in work you have no idea what support staff are in school.
Just send an email handover so everyone else can get on with their jobs and then leave you alone.

I had this 20 years ago when signed off with horrid morning sickness and bed ridden. In the end I spoke to citizens advice who said work could make sparse contact but nothing more. They are not allowed to hassle you. You’ve already been more than then helpful, handing over lesson plans and giving them essential information, along with handover details in good time. In your shoes I’d email them and remind them of the date you’ll hand over information and mention that your phone is playing up so unreliable. Then block their number.

Or better still just ignore calls and texts after reminding them about the information handover date.

It sounds like you are not going back, in which case handover should have been done before you left. If you didn't bother, that's your fault.

Block them once you have done what you said you would. As of Friday you are no longer their employee, or 31/12.

Contact your union.

I had a colleague who was signed off following abdominal surgery. Her husband answered the door to find one of the deputes standing there with a class set of tests to grade. (The tests were given out in her absence. She was the only teacher for her subject apart from the HT. He had refused to grade them.)

The husband told the depute where to go, and he left together with the tests. The union was contacted. Unfortunately, my colleague was too scared to testify at the HT's eventual hearing. Fortunately, the rest of us weren't.

Your manager should not be contacting you while you're signed off sick. Contact your union. As for any other matters: I'm not 100% sure, but I suspect that you've done everything that you need to. Get the union to clarify if you want to make sure.

I had a line manager who was absent when reports were due, so other members of staff had to fill them up. Our then HT made the mistake of instructing the office to include a note saying that Ms X would complete an additional report upon her return to work.

On her return to work, Ms X was informed of this. She phoned the union straight away. The next day, the area rep explained in very simple terms that his member would not be completing the reports.

It's out of order. Phone you're union.

Are you the one who had “a very heavy object thrown in your direction” when really, a kid had chucked a book and then you couldn’t face returning and had to go home crying and shaking?

So a book isn't a heavy object? Depends on the book, I guess, but I can't think of many professions were people are expected to tolerate missiles being thrown at them and just suck it up.

No. It's management's fault for failing to manage. Source: was a school manager for more than 20 years.

@WearyAuldWumman this isn't the same situation.

The OP has left the school's employment and has taken sick leave to bridge the gap between the end of term and her leaving date.

In this instance, the school is entitled to get information, resources etc from the OP that she possesses in the form of a handover. How that is done is negotiable, however. It sounds like all that needs to be completed is a simple email with the outstanding information from the OP.

The fact that she is refusing to do this and refusing to let the school know when she might be able to give this information, is leading to unnecessary stress on both sides.

All the OP needs to do is either:
a) just sit down for an hour and write and send the handover email
b) send an email to the school to let them know she is too unwell to complete the handover at present but will send it in time for the first day back in January.

I don't think receiving an email from the school asking when she will be able to complete her handover and a couple of automated texts about a Christmas lunch is union-worthy, frankly.

I'm all for pushing back against unreasonable demands, but I don't think the school are being unreasonable here in requesting a handover from an employee who is leaving mid-year and who has information staff taking over genuinely need in order to effectively do their jobs.