To decide myslef how to spend my lunch break

[OpenMe]

I'm a school business manager in a small school which means I do the finance (everything from orders to the budget), personnel, payroll, health and safety, premises, most of the admin, as well as manning the front desk and the telephones. It's a wonderfully varied role but it does mean that people always want something from me and my working life is full of interruptions and chaos.

I started in September and am contracted for 7.5 hours a day plus a 30 min unpaid lunchbreak.

I've had two probationary reviews which have gone very well but each time the HT has "suggested" that it would be nice if I spent my break in the staffroom, so the staff can get to know me. I don't think I'm particularly unsociable, but if I go in the staff room everyone takes the opportunity to tell me what they need from me, what they're waiting for, what they forgot to tell me about that is now urgent etc etc.

It's also really noisy. It's a lovely school and the staff are all very friendly, but the noise of them chatting at lunchtime is horrendous

Anyway, my preferred way to spend my 30 mins is reading, running out to the shops or (best) just going for a walk. Just 20 minutes of quiet away from the chaos.

I understand where the head's coming from but I also like (need?) my break. AIBU to ignore her or only go in there when it's raining occasionally?

YANBU.

I have been criticised for this before. Most people in my office eat lunch in the adjoining kitchen or chat at their desks.

I am always desperate for some fresh air and exercise so I choose to spend mine taking a stroll round the park next door.

It makes me more productive anyway.

No of course you shouldn't "have to" spend your lunchbreak like this. But you're still in the probationary period - to me it would be insane to ignore this request if you want the job. Just start taking your lunch in the staffroom, once you've done it for a couple of weeks then you can bring it down to one or two days a week. It also never hurts to know people in the workplace, especially if you're planning on keeping the job.

How would you feel if the head let you go at the end of your probationary period? Would you wish you had tried more to fit in or would you be pleased you didn't?

Unbelievable that employment law is so weak that someone could be pushed out of the door for not doing what her employer told her in her unpaid break.

I might spend some time in the staff room once a week for networking purposes, but otherwise, it's your time to use as you wish.

If your employer wants to create team building opportunities then this should be relatively easy to organise, during her employees' paid work time.

As much as it sucks, if you want to keep this job beyond the probationary period I suggest you play the game. Once you have made it through the probation period it is easier to do WTF you want.

Sadly it isn't. Probationary periods are a bit of a red herring. You don't have protection against unfair dismissal for two years. So if you are going to compromise, it needs to be a compromise that will work for two years, not just for three or six months or whatever. Probationary periods generally just have a shorter notice period eg where I work it's two weeks for the first six months and then three months' notice after that.

I agree with people who've suggested go into the staffroom once or twice a week at lunchtime and take your walk/run errands on the other days.

Yanbu. I dont get paid for my lunch break but consider it part of my job to have lunch with my colleagues.

I can see why the headteacher would like you to be in the staff room at lunchtime. For starters lunchtime is often the only time teachers would be able to talk to you! I would be cross if dp was late coming home in the evening because the only time he could talk to someone about important things was after school when he should be coming home!

That said, I agree that you should have the opportunity for a proper break and go for a walk if you would like.

I would suggest being honest with the teacher than you would struggle to stay productive in the afternoon without having some fresh air and a walk. Why don't you go into the staff room during the normal lunchtime so you can get to know the other staff and help them with information etc, but take your 30min unpaid break before or after and do what you like at this time.

As a nurse I rarely get a break anyway so I might just be used to it, but when I worked in a school I would spend time in the staff room when support staff and teachers were there, because it meant they all knew me and I usually knew more about what was going on in the school.

Short version- you are not being unreasonable to want to spend your unpaid break on your own. The headteacher is not being unreasonable to want you to get to know the staff and be around during lunchtime. I would suggest doing both!

A good HT would stagger the break, so that the admin/support staff take their lunch before or after the teaching staff. Then the teaching staff can get to see the support staff about work issues without impeding on their unpaid lunch break. The school runs efficiently and people get their unpaid breaks.

You can be perfectly social and get on with colleagues without spending half your free time with them too. Many of us spend more time at work than at home with family, why the hell should we give up unpaid time (whether lunch break or out of hours "social" things)?

People always used to pull that shit on me when I worked in financial industry. I never attended out of hours social events. There used to be an annual do where the firm shipped everyone somewhere miles away by bus (like Brighton when we were in Gloucestershire), paid for overnight accommodation and a big dinner and live band disco etc. I never went. I was told it would hurt my prospects by not going. I still never went. I would go to my team's annual Xmas lunch but that was it. I would chat to colleagues at work and once a week would lunch with one or two, but most times went out to walk to recharge. Still, people said it would hurt my job prospects not playing the social game.

Guess what? I became the youngest assistant manager in that part of the business within 3 years, then headhunted for a role in the corporate centre and became the youngest manager in the whole company (including London) and did very nicely thank you. And even at THAT level I didn't do any additional "socialising". Because I was very good at the job and while I didn't do additional stuff I was very friendly during working hours.

Sorry, but my attitude was and still is that the firm pay you for X hours. That's what they get. I spend 35 or 37 or 40 hours a week, as paid, to be with colleagues, some of whom I would not choose to be friends with in normal outside world. Why would I want to spend even more time with them?

It's perfectly normal for a lunch break, indeed any break, to be unpaid and the working time directive information says people just have to have break. It says nothing about payment.

School lunch break in the staff room working then take your lunch break before or after that time?

I'd go with the Head's suggestion in order to make a good impression and show that I'm taking their advice onboard. Then I'd gradually phase it out to just one or two days a week.

It's not unreasonable to want to spend your break by yourself, but making impressing your boss can be invaluable. And pissing off your boss can have a much more detrimental effect on your day than spending lunch in the staffroom (however unfair the boss is being)!

ask the HT how she suggests you reconcile your legitimate need for a proper break with her wish for you to socialise at lunchtime.

This is a good idea. It's her wish; she can come up with some suggestions as to how to achieve it. I think you need to be careful to phrase and say it in a positive, 'I want to cooperate' way though.

Make a point of going in to the staffroom once a week,and be seen doing it, then you have complied with the Head's 'request', (which actually she has no right to make), until your probationary period is over.
Then please yourself.

You don't have to take on actions from them at lunchtime - just chat and be friendly and get o know them. If anyone does try to give you work, just ask them to email you about it.

As others have said what you do depends on how much you want the job.

I'm not paid for my lunch break and I don't know many other sectors where you are paid for it.

Your employers are however obliged to let you have a break if you work over 6 hrs a day hence why they couldn't pay you for that half hour even if they had budget or wanted to.

You've had some good suggestions above - I do think showing up 1-2 days per week is the right thing to do in this situation. If it's all too much for you then perhaps you could go for a quick walk eat your lunch, then pop your head round the door for 10 mins.

If teachers start approaching you in the break about working matters, if it's something urgent I'd do a lot of nodding and then ask them to email you and tell them when you'll get it sorted. Yes it's your lunch break, it's also their lunch break and surely you all have the common goal of making things at the school as best they can be.
Unfortunately as it's a school it's not that easy as someone suggested to arrange team building exercises during work time as generally teachers are teaching during that time.

I personally wouldn't be going back to your head whilst you're on probation to talk about your entitlements. If you like the job it seems like a reasonable compromise.

If you're rarely in the staffroom then maybe that's why the whole world wants to talk to you when they see you there. If you were there more often perhaps it wouldn't be so concentrated.

Op I do the same role as you for about the same pay. Tbh I am actually surprised that you have time for a break. I get paid for 35 hours a week and usually work 45. I work through my lunchbreak so that I am not too late getting away.
I am not just incompetent, all of the SBM's in our academy group do the same kind of hours. I'm afraid its just how the public sector is nowadays.
For those posters who say you should only work the hours you are paid, does anyone actually do that nowadays and if so can you tell me where to apply?

If teachers aren't paid for lunch breaks or holidays, what is their average hourly rate of pay?

less than minimum wage when you work it all out I suspect... but you do have a lot of freedom as to when you work.

M48294Y It depends whether you include all the unpaid overtime they do...

£2.50

NMW is £268 for a 40 hour week so I imagine you are joking futureme?

If teachers were paid for holidays the government would be breaking the law with the working time directive.

Primary teachers work on average about 60 hours per week in term time www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-27087942
which means new teachers earn about £9 hour. Less if you include work done in holiday time.

Sorry OP. Back on track; I'm a teacher, we never see our business manager in the staffroom and I can't say that it makes any difference to her work or ours.

"all of the SBM's in our academy group do the same kind of hours. I'm afraid its just how the public sector is nowadays.
For those posters who say you should only work the hours you are paid, does anyone actually do that nowadays and if so can you tell me where to apply?"

I work many fewer hours than I'm paid for (i.e. I'm there, but doodling on a notepad). Also public sector. More than my job's worth to tell you exactly where.