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.

Yes, it is.

Your union would advise you that you've done much more than you need to.

Before someone gives me the "Be reasonable!" spiel: I was responsible for junior in a dept at one point; then for an entire department; finally for an entire faculty in a Scottish secondary school. It is management's job to manage. That's why they get paid more.

If I had staff off sick, it was my job to see that things were being taken care of.

If you have actually resigned it will be difficult for your employer to pick up if you are not returning. I think you need to be reasonable under the circumstances.

Again: it may sound like a simple task, but the fact that she is signed off with (I presume) work-related stress means that it is management which needs to be going the extra mile here.

I strongly advise that the OP should either email or phone her professional association.

You're being very difficult. Just send over what they need and then it's done.

You can draw a line under the whole situation and not have to worry about it again.

I have also been a Head of Faculty.

I would expect a member of staff who was leaving the school - under any circumstances - to give a handover of necessary information to ensure a smooth transition for our students.

I would not expect them to plan lessons. I would handle that.

I don't think the school is being unreasonable in asking for a handover of information only the OP possesses about the students she has been teaching. The school genuinely needs this information in order to effectively teach and safeguard students. If, for example, she has files on her computer that need to be shared, or data that hasn't yet been inputted, then she will need to do these things. However, the time she has to do these is what is negotiable and if she is genuinely too unwell to cope with doing it now, she needs to let the school know and inform them of when she will be able to get them the information. Continuing to ignore the school will just lead to more emails which will cause more stress, so it's rather pointless refusing to engage with them at this stage.

She's signed off because she doesn't want to work her notice and a student throw a book at another student that accidentally hit her.

She's not that sick 'stressed' because there was a long old thread on hand wringing because she cocked up ringing in her absence and caused chaos, and didn't want to go back in incase she got in trouble and was umming and aching going off with stress because she wanted to say goodbye to her groups. The fact it was a choice means she's not that bad and has just left her colleagues in the lurch because she's annoyed with the school.

It would make it easier if the OP acquiesced, but she is under no obligation to do so.

I'm trying not to be too outing here. When I first became a PT, the union made it quite clear that a member of staff who was signed off with stress could not under any circumstances be contacted at home - no matter how inconvenient it was for other members of staff.

So far as handovers with regard to pupil attainment are concerned, it does vary from school to school but most schools in my old LA now use tracking systems which should be up to date, in addition to any reports already filled in.

Your comment made me laugh so much!

Are you the poster who went of sick because a kid threw a pencil in the classroom that accidentally hit you and you cried. This is your 3rd thread about this

You're not required to set cover if you are signed off sick, so they're fortunate that your are doing that.

I'm the Cover Manager in a secondary school and it is hard when you don't know what's going on with staff, but they shouldn't be contacting you while you are signed off. I'm guessing you're not leaving on good terms OP.

Um ... what? Surely not.

That's quite remarkable. That's name and shame level of embarrassingly bad.
Why are so many employers able to get away with being this bad?

My husband and I met at work. He retired before me.

I was called into our new Depute's office: "Could you ask DH whether the 5-14 figures he left were accurate? They seem awfully low."

At home, passed on the message. DH went ballistic. "They're accusing me of unprofessionalism! I'll go in tomorrow..."

"No. You won't. I'll sort it."

I had a spreadsheet of the entry level figures for my class, so handed them to the Depute. Her jaw dropped. "They're similar across the school," I explained.

"Does the Head know?"

"Well, he should do if he's been paying attention to the information we've been giving him at transition time."

He did not know.

ETA The HT had previously been the Depute. It turned out that none of the SLT had ever bothered to read the transition info.

The fact that this isn’t just sick leave, but a resignation complications things. You need to consider if you want to be able to work as a teacher again. If you do, then a timely, full handover is to your advantage.

Leaving mid-year already makes you look unreliable. Not even leaving at the end of the term makes your prospects worse. You need solid references and whether or not management should be contacting you, the fact that they don’t feel you have provided a proper handover may impair your references.

To be fair, the OP is signed off with illness/or stress and is not firing on all cylinders and he boss is requesting a fair bit from her. When people are not well they cannot cope in the way they usually do. Can you all be at least a little patient with her. My advice would be to send an email stating you are not very well and will be in touch when you can. The boss sounds unreasonable as the school should be running nice events for the children and other situations are maybe not so important .It shows me that the OP is seen as important to the place as suddenly things she has is noted as vital. It sounds like the school are adding pressure on her. I was signed off once with stress and needed some money and the bank wanted to sort a review out for me. I told them I was off with stress and wanted to wait for my review. When people are not well usual situations are not possible .I wish you well OP and hope that you are soon feeling better. I wonder would a holiday be possible where you are looked after eg in a hotel. With any luck a holiday might be just what you need .I hope that the New Year is more positive for you. Hugs indeed.

What do you gain by holding out?

You're leaving. Why drag out what you can simply end?

If you are a teacher, you must know that ultimately the kids are the ones impacted. As a professional just sort that and you can go with grace.

In the time that it has taken you to post on here then you could have typed and sent a handover email ?

I assume that you are not ever returning to teaching?

To clarify. Lessons, safeguarding and handover was given. The stuff they want is actually completely minor. It really could wait. Documentatjon of seating plans etc was all already available on the stuff I emailed previously.

Well I’ve done it now.

This has no impact on the kids. It’s literally very much a nothing thing that they want and won’t leave me alone about. And they should have gathered this info long ago.

lol!!

In teaching references are given early. I have given timely handover.

No. Op is signed off by a doctor not to work. So they’re not obliged to do anything work related

So if it could wait, just tell them when you'll get it to them by.

Then switch off your work email, take a break from it all over Christmas, and send in the remaining info by the date you have promised before the new term starts.

Or just send it now - if it's minor, easy stuff - and then you can forget all about it.

I am understanding and sympathetic to your situation but quite frankly you are coming across as being unnecessarily difficult over the whole thing. It's all a bit of a storm in a teacup.

I went above and beyond and planned lessons for all year groups and sent it in. Then I got a text on weds and thuds and Friday and an email about silly things. Then again today an email and text. I went above and beyond for them and literally said I’ll give handover before the term ends. Essentially saying wait till I’m ready but you will have it. I’m not unreliable in that way. But no, annoyingly it’s been left on bad terms. Sad for me as I have so so much time for my students and they knew this. But the way things were handled made me literally near lose the plot and I had to take time to get myself toget her again