Could you drop everything at work with a day's notice for a school event?

[Schoolirons]

School are holding an event for parents of certain children this week. It is important to attend.
Usually we get a list of key dates but my son and non of the other parents I have spoken to have received it this term so we aren't sure if it was not sent out or if it was only uploaded to the website which I only noticed at the weekend after another I parent mentioned it.

quites
They have been inconsistent with this in the past so many people had stopped checking.

The event on the key list isn't labelled as parents evening but as a progress evening and is on a mixed list of events for two years and doesn't specify which year it is for.

Apparently according to someone else the children have been told today that the staff running it will think about it tonight and will be told tomorrow if their parents have to come in on Thursday .

Aibu to think if they already knew about it they could be giving more than less than 24 hours notice of whether you need to attend?

It's an important year and important to attend but I know many people who couldn't get time off work with a day's notice.

I couldn’t get time off unless I was given 35 days notice and even then couldn’t guarantee holiday.

I could at certain times - as it is, were it this week, no as I’d be leading audit (currently on mat leave). Other times I probably could but I’d not be pleased about it.

Depends on what is in my diary. Some days I could easily other days not so much. No one really picks my work up if I am not there and I have no one to hand over to. I also have a 35 minute drive (minimum) to get to school.

So basically if I had nothing in my diary* then yes but otherwise no.

• this translates as catching up with paperwork, phone calls etc.

My son's SEN school are horrendous for this. For two years, there was one good KS Lead who understood that I worked and gave me the schedule of dates at the start of the year (stay-n-plays, parents evenings). Being a good KS Lead, she left after two years to another school that actually valued her.

Out of interest these companies that require so much notice like yours @Samantha2018 do they actually need people in to cover your work while you're away? Or could it be caught up by you working lunchtime or late the next day?

In my case I'm often delivering training that is arranged months in advance to allow people to book to attend, which can mean them arranging cover for their own jobs, or wraparound childcare, or swapping days for a team event. They're not going to just pop back in my lunch break the next day! Leaves me with a choice between being utterly unprofessional and pissing off anywhere between 6 and 30 people (and my boss), which as sole earner I can't afford to do, or disappointing DS just because the school couldn't organise their way out of a wet paper bag.

Nope. Not a chance. I could with a weeks notice, I work in quite a fast paced job and organise my own diary, but not only a day.

Yes of course it is important
But in this case there is absolutely no reason why the school could not give you a decent amount of notice.
Were I so summonsed I would make a separate appointment at a convenient time.

Of course not. I would email the Head and say I can't attend because of the frankly daft notice given. I would ask for a different appointment as, clearly, there are concerns about your child's academic progress.

There's two of us and twice since this year's started we've had a weeks notice of afternoon/early evening events and struggled.

Most dates are flagged up but some seem to get missed and come out of nowhere.

I might be able to depending on schedule. If I'm working in another site 50 miles away where lots of people including senior management have had to arrange their diaries around me being there, then no, definitely not. If I'm due to be in my normal office and have no meetings or easily rearranged meetings only, then I could work from home and pop out for a bit.

Husband's situation is similar except that he's got more pressing deadlines than I do so it would really depend on what's happening on the day/during that week.

If this did happen I'd be making my feelings very clear to the school. I appreciate that you can't please everyone, but the majority of households these days seem to have both parents working and they just cannot expect people to be able to take days off work with no notice.

I was a hospital consultant in a specialty where it is very difficult to recruit new consultants. I'm not working at the moment and a part of the reason was that I couldn't come with the last minute changes to school schedules- we have to give 6 weeks' notice for leave and a text the evening before is no use to me.
I find it really frustrating particularly as I know that the post that I was in is now unfilled (and being covered by a string of very expensive locums).

@mumonashoestring I get that if you've got delegates etc. However, I do think some employers are difficult for the sake of saying no.

I worked in an estate agent once and took a late lunch to see my sons receive a presentation.

Boss called and went mad because I wasn't there at 3. No difference to anyone my job could be done any hours from 9-5.

The next day he cane into the office and I looked him straight in the face and said so what was the issue, he huffed and puffed and couldn't come up with an answer. I said you just wanted to stop me seeing my son? Really? I didn't take a minute over, just from 2.30-3.30 and lunch hour times aren't in my contract!

He was a prize arse!

Tweakanddashi, you have just summed up why so many clinical NHS staff either leave or dramatically reduce their hours once they have school-age children . I found most clinical work completely incompatible with school.

Yes. I'm just office admin.
But the dc's primary school never pulled this crap on me. I was lucky enough to be able to choose a school that had its act together. unlike DS's secondary school which will tip me over the edge.

Occasionally, yes but this week, absolutely no way. I'm slammed at work and my clients would be out for blood if I took a day off.

Yes, mostly, but I'm self employed and do the sort of work that can be done anywhere with the internet and power points. That said, if I was on deadline it would be unnecessarily stressful and potentially not possible.

I would make a bit of a fuss about the notice, there needs to be a bit of give and take, and that should include reasonable notice.

Not for anything bar emergency. Six weeks notice is required to cancel clinic ideally and same for theatres, but that could be picked up by others if need be (and they were willing to pay back session).

I have re-arranged things with a couple of weeks notice but only if my clinic slots haven’t been filled or others in the same clinic have enough slots to take up mine. Management hate it though as tbf patients get a letter saying their appt has been cancelled and then a separate letter giving them a new appt on the same day.

Absolutely not, unless it was a genuine emergency situation, no.

I don't know anyone in my immediate family with a flexible enough job to be able to take Thursday off with 1 day notice unless they lied about the purpose (police officer nope, primary teacher no, self employed trades with booked jobs, accountant in training no).
Surely the teachers themselves are mostly parents who couldn't do it themselves?!

The only people I know who could aren't working (either through choice or not).

Police officer. Not a chance!

Mine is very flexible but it would be very diary dependent. If I had internal 1:1s I could probably rearrange. If I had important client meetings then no way.

The thing is I dont even know what time the event is either.
Parents evening is usually 4pm.
Information meeting for year 11 was 6pm another event was 10am.

Either way DS has a rehearsal for Remembrance Sunday at 7pm which he needs taking to.

If they had given notice I could have booked it off and arranged for family to take DS to his rehearsal.

They might say I should have booked the day off when the key dates was uploaded but it doesn't say what time, isn't clear it's for their year and they don't know if DS will be on the list yet. I cannot book loads of holidays based on the possibility that they might tell me the day before that DS is on the list.

Not a cat in hells chance. Unless it was a desperate emergency. NHS nurse and my units Sister is shit.

Ds’s school rang me and apologised profusely that an important meeting with an outside agency (autism outreach) had been arranged with only 48 hours notice. It wasn’t their fault ds had been on a waiting list and a cancellation arose.

On that occasion I was able to sort work (they knew the difficulties we’d been having waiting for referrals and someone offered to come in on her day off to cover) but it was a one off.

Definitely no way

Contracted to give 6 weeks notice of leave any less than that and it’s an instant and definite ‘no’

I'm on mat leave so it doesn't really apply at the moment, but not a chance when I go back to uni. I'm a student nurse so I'd have to make up hours (which can be difficult) while on placement, or miss out on important lectures. DS1s school frequently gives less than 24 hours notice on events/dress up days etc.

The last 3 things were:

The harvest assembly (told on drop off the same morning)
Dress up as an African animal
Dress up as a scarecrow

We don't have an abundance of dress up clothes, nor do we have loads of crafty stuff but we made do. It wouldn't have been doable if I hadn't been on mat leave, and lots of other parents just didn't have the time because the school don't give enough notice.
They seem to assume every family has a SAHP or at least one parent who has flexible working hours.