Teacher wellbeing days for shopping

[ForAMinuteThere]

Nope - this isn't a bash. I saw an article in the Fail about it and wanted to add some support for the teachers of this world.

I am a non teacher. It looks hard. One day off for shopping is a nice gesture.

I expect mixed responses but personally, I think teachers staying sane and feeling worthy can only be a good thing.

(This isn't my first post, have NC)

Secondary teachers don't get gifts! In this race to the bottom, I now demand no primary teachers get a gift. It's not fair.

My DH has been looking into his pension. He has not changed hours , has neither been promoted not demoted. The year in which he was paid the most in the last ten years, when linked to inflation was TEN YEARS AGO.

DD1 works in accounts for a big internet marketing firm.

They get:

Drinks every friday from 3pm
Flexitime
Working from home
Discounts at a whole range of different stores, BA/Eurostar/hotels.
Heavily discounted gym membership.
Very beneficial insurance for sickness long term.
Significant bonuses ( about 20% of salary but extra)
Lunches on the company monthly
Pay rises calculated yearly based on competitive rates for their roles.
Season ticket loans.
5 Weeks holiday per year, not including Bank hols or Xmas shut down.

This sort of thing is very common in many different industries too.

"If teachers receive 20 minutes paid break per day that is 20 minutes more than other professions get. We are not paid for our breaks at all as they are not included in our working hours."

So your employers break employment law do they?

Someone doesn't know their terms and conditions enough then.

I wonder what do people honestly think teachers should be paid. I genuinely want to know. And how many hours do they think would be reasonable for said payment?

And on the subject of breaks I honestly can’t temember the last time I sat down and did nothing for a full 20 minutes of break.

Boris. Nope, no breaking of employment laws so you obviously don’t understand them. By law you have the right to a break but you don’t have to be paid for it.

However, the vast majority of PROFESSIONS include paid breaks in the working day, as you are SALARIED for X hours per day. If you take 10 mins on MN, that's a paid break, trip to the loo? Paid break, coffee and a chat, paid break.

In all reality my unpaid lunch time is shorter than what I am unpaid for , anyway.

Boris. You can’t change your argument to mean something else because you were incorrect

Breaks are not usually paid for any job. The basic 8 hour working day people are paid for does not include breaks, those have to be worked on top of the 8 hours.

I’m on here now because I’m part time and therefore not at work. There are also lots of teachers on here during the day too so I would assume they are also part time.

Breaks are usually paid tbf, most places don't take 20 mins of your hour of your break.

I've never worked anywhere where the breaks were unpaid, including catering and hospitality

.

I worked in the private sector and they didn’t go around deducting pay whenever you went to the kitchen to make a cup of tea (which basically is all you have time for if you’re lucky and not on duty or supervising a detention).

Teacher break times are paid so that schools can direct teachers to do duties in them.

"Teacher break times are paid so that schools can direct teachers to do duties in them"

Yup. Or for you to have detentions in them or any other number of tasks that they ask you to do.

nottakingthisanymore i suspect the answer is minimum wage and 24/7.

Well I am off today as the teachers in my school have worked extra evenings training to have the day off today. Instead of just the pupils being off, we are too. Many of my colleagues are away shopping etc, others just spending time with family and some are working through it at home.
I was off sick with a broken leg so I just reaped this rewards of this!

Think the bottom line is that if any of my friends complained about their jobs to me in the way posters on here have I’d be advising them to do something constructive about it and make a change. Not sure that moaning on MN achieves anything.

There are methods to feedback ideas on better ways of working, streamlining tasks, reducing hours etc and if that is ignored then I’d know I wasn’t working for the right organisation and would be looking for one that was.

It’s clear from posts on here (and teacher family/friends I know) that not every school requires 60 hours a week etc so there are better options out there and with the massive shortage of teachers you’ve talked about on here there are clearly opportunities for good teachers to change jobs.

I’m not complaining about my job. But when you have people writing stuff that isn’t true you want to let people know the truth. I have never seen a thread started on MN by a teacher complaining they have it so much harder than everyone else but I see many where they end up challenging common misconceptions.

However you miss the significance of the term "reasonable'.
That's always missed on these threads. It's absolutely reasonable to do some work outside of directed time. That's part of being a salaried professional.
The level of work some schools put on staff is unreasonable.

And that poster routinely pops up on education threads. I believe (if memory serves correctly) they are one of a few posters who, despite not being a teacher, appear to be oddly over-invested in turning up, having the same repeated arguments.

noble

I look at how the teachers are treated at my dd school and it's a different ball game.
They are expected to do parents evenings on a sunday though, usually between 3pm -5pm, these are arranged so teachers only have to attend the min, the most 3 per year.
No duties except teaching and seeing the odd student during their 2 hour lunch break.
The difference is unbelievable, obviously, they still have targets though.

The pension made me laugh. My son earns just under £23000 as an NQT. He is paying £140 pension contribution. After rent, travel expenses he has about £250/month to live on. We buy his food.

I'll be sure to tell him how lucky he is.

Awwlookatmylovelyspider because I know loads of children that have loads of Christmas shopping to do?? Wtf??!! Comparing the children’s requirements with the teachers requirements is pointless!!

To be fair, I work for a school where here is a massive emphasis on work life balance.

We get over the recommended PPA time, I work full time and get 6 hours PPA a week. After school meetings are minimum, once every two weeks.

I leave at 3pm everyday, but I do get in for 6.30. I do maybe an hour - 2 hours of work each night but I don’t work over the weekend.

Holidays, I always do 8-4 on the first day of any break to get everything out of the way so I don’t have to work too much over the holidays; although I do often find I have to do some sort of admin regardless.

Tunnocks you work 10.5 hours a day?

Yeah roughly. Sometimes I stay later, sometimes I get in a little later but on average about 10 and a half hours a day.

I don’t see over 50 hours a week as being a good work life balance