Hours of lecturing?

[ludditelass]

I am being asked by my team leader to teach from 1-7pm without a significant break - so two teaching sessions 1-4pm; 4-7pm. Students have a 15 minute break within each of these slots. I will be working on admin etc from 9am to 12 that day. Is this legal? Can I say no to him? I live an hour and a quarter drive from work so won’t get home until 8:15pm at the most on those days and I’m usually in bed by 9pm to cope with menopausal night wakenings. Really don’t want to do this.

I don't think there is anything illegal about it. Exhausting, yes. You can keep your morning load light. You will also get a break with your students, so you can eat/drink then.

It is tough but I think it is legal and I’ve done it. The upside is that is just for 12 weeks, hopefully.

You could look at your contract,if you have one. You should look at the Working Time Directive, which should be referenced in your contract. People can choose to opt out of WTD, but you can not be forced into opting out. Many people get very dodgy contracts or even gig economy agreements, though this has been successfully challenged in the courts. So a) look at your contract and b) speak to your union,if you are in one,if not join now. If you don't have a contract speak to HR. Your union rep will probably give some support even to a non member. Personally I would do the above before taking on your boss. What is happening to you is wrong. Good luck.

Living a long way from work is your choice so that’s not an argument you can make, I don’t think. You can take the 15 min break too? It’s tough but with a slow morning I think it is doable. No worse than teaching in a school really.

Our timetable came through with this for a couple staff members. I was prepared to request a break with timetabling but in the end they've said they'd rather finish earlier so we're going to try it.

Can you take longer breaks? My students wouldn't come back after 15mins. If we say 20 it's usually 30!

It's gruelling with the morning on top. Not sure why you need to do a whole morning in the office on top?

Also, do you have a menopausal policy ?

I sometimes get days like this. I guarantee your students will be glad to finish at quarter to 4 and quarter to 7 - give them a final reflective task to do.
Also lecturers hours, do you start at 5 past the hour and finish at 5 to? If so, you are teaching for 50 mins not the full hour. So the break needs to be 20 mins halfway through.
I would be looking at your work menopause policy and work from home/flexible working policy, and utilising them so that you go in to do your teaching that day, work from home in the morning, and start late the day after.

Is this every day? Or once a week? That makes a difference I think.

i think legally you shouldn’t work without a break for more than 6 hours. 1-7pm is 6 hours, so I doubt there is a legal issue with this unfortunately.

Other thoughts, does team leader mean they are your line manager?

If not, raise with them.

I don't think it's illegal but I don't think they could make you work 9-7pm. Surely you have a normal number of hours you work a day(even if we do more in reality often).

Check your contract too.

If we would not schedule students for six hours in one go, we shouldn't ask it of staff, in my opinion.

If you end up doing it, I'd start later and have longer breaks in each session. Control what you can control.

I don’t think you can complain on grounds of your commute. But I would be asking about a break in that 6 hours of teaching! That’s not good - you need to have time to eat something nutritious between classes.

In my department, we teach in three hour blocks with a break of about 20 minutes in the middle of each 3 hours. I tend to teach 2 hours straight through and use the 3rd hour in other ways. Better for student concentration and engagement.

Can you negotiate shaving of about 20 minutes from each teaching block and having a half hour break between sessions do you can eat?

I often have two hour lectures or labs, sometimes 3 hours but have never had two three hour sessions back to back.
However, I always give the students 10 mins minimum to get a coffee in the middle of even a two hour class.
Even if I answer a question at the start of the break, I get 5 mins to go to the loo (and if I didn't finish till I had less than 5 mins, I'd take 5 more mins).
This is the advantage of being an academic - you can at least tell the class you're having a break and they will be happy.

Our timetabling policy is that there should be no more than 3 hours’ teaching continuously; we’re supposed to have a 1-hour break in between a 3-hour block and whatever else is timetabled that day. In reality, I’ve had days where I had 4 hours in a row and timetabling wasn’t able to change it, so it was approved as an ‘exception’. Was still awful! By hour 4 when I had those, I would be very tired and sometimes repeat myself or miss things off.

I’d be pushing back on that much teaching in a row. It’s simply not possible to sustain the focus and energy needed for good teaching for that long, even if you are able to structure sessions with breaks, with plenty of options for student activities, etc.