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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

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Original poster

To be annoyed at my employer?

90 replies

Ecgwynn · 23/04/2012 15:11

I am expecting my first baby, due this Thursday. I am a secondary school teacher and my maternity leave started on 16th April. I have just received a phone call from my line manager asking me to do reports for 90 children. The reports are done on a computer system and the spread sheets to put the comments into were opened from 16th April, so I was not supposed to have done them before I left.

AIBU to be really annoyed at this? I understand that I taught the classes and that only I really know about their progress and how to improve etc but I would have happily done this before I left work if I'd been told I was still responsible for it and been given a bit of time to get it done (ie have someone cover a few lessons).

I'm really upset that I'll probably end up having to do them. I can't see a way out of it. :(

OP posts:

YonWhaleFish · 23/04/2012 15:13

I would have thought common sense dictates you'd be doing them if you've taught them all year, but it's not fair on you at this point

StrandedBear · 23/04/2012 15:13

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Annpan88 · 23/04/2012 15:15

If you do them, and I'm not saying you should, but you seem pretty resigned to the fact that you'll end up doing it, you need to discuss some sort of overtime arrangement for it. That makes it a bit more fair at least. Or a few extra paid days of mat leave

Emsmaman · 23/04/2012 15:19

I would do them but make sure that the days taken are added to the end of your mat leave. Sounds like a management stuff up but for the sake of the children/parents it really should be you writing the reports. I was taking phone calls from a temp job which I'd finished a month before my due date. But I'm a soft touch. That said the job market sucks at the moment and if you want flexibility from your employer when you return to work, you should show some flexibility now. At least it's deskwork, I wouldn't recommend it if something physical. Plus it will take your mind off the due date, I went nine days over and was quite nutty by the end!

FluffyJawsOfDoom · 23/04/2012 15:33

This would come under a "keep in touch day" wouldn't it? Which are paid :)

bakingaddict · 23/04/2012 15:34

Surely as the teacher taking the classes and ultimately knowing the true progress the pupils have made even though it wasn't implicity stated for you to do the reports you would have done them anyway before ML to make sure everything was properly finalised before going.

If it really wasn't possible to enter the comments before then why not leave them in hand over notes for the teacher taking over your classes. I'm not a teacher so cant really appreciate this but it does sound, to me, like it's an important part of a teacher's job to have progress reports prepared for pupils

SarahBumBarer · 23/04/2012 15:35

Seriously - didn't it occur to you to raise the issue of how this task was going to be managed given that you knew only you could do it? I would be irritated with any member of my staff who failed to raise a handover issue before going on any kind of leave.

ruddynorah · 23/04/2012 15:37

This should have been part of your handover with your replacement. When are you due? Can you arrange a keeping in touch day and do them then?

LaurieFairyCake · 23/04/2012 15:43

No, you don't have to do them - you do have to have thought of how they were to be handed over to someone else to fill in. How did you hand over everything else?

If your first day of ML was the 16th and the document wasn't open to comment til then it's obviously not your responsibility to actually do them but you could have left notes for your HOD to do them.

emsyj · 23/04/2012 15:52

What SarahBumBarer said - come on, you're a professional. You knew they needed to be done and that only you had the knowledge to complete them. Who did you think was going to do this work? Grow up a bit and accept that this was your responsibility and your failure. You should have sorted this out before you finished - so YABU.

As for it being a 'computer system' - you do know that computers only do what people tell them, don't you? And that if you had said, 'actually I won't be able to do these after 16th April as I'll be on mat leave, so can you open my spreadsheets by x date so I can complete them before I finish' then all this could have been avoided?

Original poster

Ecgwynn · 23/04/2012 16:03

My replacement was appointed on the Thursday and I left on the Friday, I have never spoken to him (they lacked organisation despite knowing about the pregnancy since October half-term).

My head of department was aware that I hadn't done them, she knew they needed to be done. The problem is that she is off for a few days with family commitments at the moment and the line manager has realised that the reports need doing before this Friday. I have left notes with my HOD which are for my replacement and we went through all the class lists discussing children who were not progressing and why, so I have handed over to the HOD, just not to my replacement due to the circumstances..

OP posts:

fussbucket · 23/04/2012 16:04

They should not have contacted you with anything like this while you were on maternity leave. I'm sorry for the children and their parents who are missing this year's reports, but responsibility works both ways, your line manager was well aware that you would not be available from April 16th onwards. Presumably someone else is now teaching these classes and presumably you have handed on marking sheets, assessment notes etc for their use.
If you really don't feel up to doing this, and are feeling pressured, your union may be able to help.

fussbucket · 23/04/2012 16:05

xposted with Ecgwynn

fussbucket · 23/04/2012 16:07

It is not fair to bog up the last few days before your life gets turned upside down because some people at your place of employment seem to be incompetent.

IvanaNap · 23/04/2012 16:12

This reply has been withdrawn

This has been withdrawn as this poster has privacy concerns.

MadamFolly · 23/04/2012 16:16

If you left them notes then hard cheese. Not your responsibility, leave it to your HoD.

Or do them but demand paying/an extra weeks paid maternity leave.

Original poster

Ecgwynn · 23/04/2012 16:16

emsyj- If I asked them to open up the computer system for one set of reports and set that precedent, I would then surely be expected to do all the other reports that come up this academic year. There has to be a cut off point somewhere.
I put in a lot of effort to ensure all my marking and everything was done by the end of term which meant I was working much harder than usual for the last few weeks of term whilst also being heavily pregnant. It's upsetting to now have something else on my plate because of someone else's disorganisation when I was doing my best to tie up all my legitimate loose ends.

OP posts:

hanaka88 · 23/04/2012 16:32

I did mine even though I had left teaching for good. Not fair for the kids or parents to not get a proper report but a heads up would have been nice I guess.

porcamiseria · 23/04/2012 16:34

do them as "keep in touch day" and get paid x

fussbucket · 23/04/2012 16:35

So, line manager thinks... shall I ring up HOD (who is on emergency leave to deal with family problems and who should not be contacted) or more junior member of staff (who is on maternity leave and also should not be contacted) - and makes decision - I'll thoroughly upset the one who (1) is less important in the hierarchy and is less likely to get me a bollocking for my own incompetence and (2) I'm not going to see for some months by which time I'll have had time to wriggle out of this cock-up.

emsyj · 23/04/2012 21:25

Who do you think was disorganised? Whose responsibility do you think this is? I just don't understand why you think you aren't responsible for doing this work. If you were a lawyer with a massive trial due to start the week after you began mat leave you wouldn't be able to just pass the buck and say 'oh well it's not really my responsibility and it happened the week after I finished so my supervising partner is disorganised for not coming to find me, checking all my cabinets and then telling me what needed to be handed over'. You would have had to deal with handover yourself - on your own initiative.

As a teacher, you have a responsible and professional job and you are responsible for sorting this - the fact that you didn't make suitable arrangements before you left for maternity leave is down to you and not anyone else's fault IMO.

I don't get your point about doing other reports for the rest of the academic year either - you do your reports for the period that you have knowledge of, if another teacher has now taken over your classes then surely they will do the next set of reports since they have the immediate knowledge of the children in those classes? Why would you think that doing this set of reports means you'd have to do the end of year ones? That doesn't make any sense to me.

ENormaSnob · 23/04/2012 21:32

yabu

dramaqueen · 23/04/2012 21:47

I put in a lot of effort to ensure all my marking and everything was done by the end of term which meant I was working much harder than usual for the last few weeks of term

You are joking aren't you? This is part of your job! I can just imagine if I went on holiday and left my work part completed. I wouldn't have a job to go back to. As said previously, if you want to be treated like a professional, act like one. Who on earth did you think was going to write the reports?

McHappyPants2012 · 23/04/2012 21:55

Yanbu you are on maternity leave.

How long would these report take and when are you due

fivegomadindorset · 23/04/2012 21:57

As a parent I would expect you as the teacher to write the reports for the subject you have taught over the last two terms. YABU.

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