Page 7 | Having to ring absence line by 8am

Duchess379 · 08/10/2021 21:08

Can't you email them the night before? Sometimes it's impossible to get up at 7am to ring in sick, especially if you've been up all night being unwell. If I was awake at 7am, I'd go to work! 🤷🏼‍♀️

TheJade · 08/10/2021 21:25

Yanbu HOWEVER I have to call in by a certain time and every day that I would be off 🙄

echt · 08/10/2021 21:30

@GreenLakes

DH is head at a free school and his policy is that staff must phone his mobile at 7am each morning if they wish to request an absence due to illness.

DH will then review the request alongside the business manager, taking into account previous absence history, other staff absence and cover availability.

He will inform the staff member by 7.30am if the request is to be granted. Any requests not made by 7am are not granted and the staff member is expected to attend as normal.

Allowing results the day before is an open invitation to piss takers.

Of course he does

echt · 08/10/2021 21:33

While I'm here, at my school we phone voicemail by 7.00., though it could be the evening before to say we won't be in.

We do not have to say why, in fact we've been asked not to.

Moll2020 · 08/10/2021 22:06

Same policy in my school, everyday of illness you have to telephone HT before 8am to tell him whether you will be in or not!

HalzTangz · 08/10/2021 22:12

We have to ring in an hour before our shift starts.

I start at 7.30 so need to ring in by 6.30.

Dp starts at 9 so has to ring in by 8

Notthissticky · 08/10/2021 22:24

@lanthanum

Being able to leave a message would be so useful in some situations. If you've been up until 4am throwing up, then what you need is to be able to leave the message and go and sleep. (Of course some schools would expect you to set some cover work before going to sleep, which is also crazy.)

I'm a teacher and got a pissy email from my line manager about the quality of the cover work I had set. From hospital, where my toddler DC was receiving oxygen. Which I mentioned in the email with the perfectly fine cover work. It needs to be pretty fucking grim for school to accept you won't be setting cover...

StormyCornishSeas · 08/10/2021 22:26

7:30 is ideal 8am latest at our school. 8:30 is frowned upon unless exceptional circumstances

StormyCornishSeas · 08/10/2021 22:27

Cover work has to be posted by 8:30

VanillaAndOrange · 08/10/2021 22:28

I used to be a TA and we were supposed to phone at 7.

I appreciate that most teachers have to leave home very early, but for some of us TAs, who tended to live closer to the school and didn't have to be there so early, we didn't need to leave home until about 8.30. It would be entirely possible for someone to seem healthy at 7 but later be sick, injure themself or even have something more serious happen like a heart attack. I always wondered what would happen if a situation like that came up.

The only time I ever needed to be off sick during that job it was for sickness, so it was covered by the 48 hour rule (although the HT did say in a slightly sneery way "if it's due to a bug" which made me wonder if she thought I'd been drunk! Pretty sure it was viral as I later found out the class teacher and a few children had the same thing!)

LorenzoVonMatterhorn · 08/10/2021 22:28

We have to phone by 7.30am every day of absence and also by 2pm every afternoon to confirm absence for the day after. Once, with bacterial tonsillitis and fast asleep unable to life my head, the dept head phoned me at 2.30pm as i hadnt already phoned for the second time that day.

gogohm · 08/10/2021 22:31

My good friend does supply, it can take her 30 mins to get to some of the villages, there's a shortage of teachers in the area (she's often got a choice of bookings). Generally she gets calls from about 7.15 onwards from her agency, 8am seems very late to report in. I don't have an official policy at work except ASAP, the only time I called in I texted around 7.30am

saraclara · 08/10/2021 22:33

@GreenLakes

DH is head at a free school and his policy is that staff must phone his mobile at 7am each morning if they wish to request an absence due to illness.

DH will then review the request alongside the business manager, taking into account previous absence history, other staff absence and cover availability.

He will inform the staff member by 7.30am if the request is to be granted. Any requests not made by 7am are not granted and the staff member is expected to attend as normal.

Allowing results the day before is an open invitation to piss takers.

Now there's a great reason not to work in a free school.

I wonder how long he keeps his staff for? (Assuming this isn't made up)

Rainbowsew · 08/10/2021 22:36

Have to phone in at my NHS job, even if went home sick the previous day, at least we could give an idea of how long likely to be off or text boss after that.

I worked in a high street shop years ago and had to phone everyday an hour before due to start. I had a week off with flu)chest infection and could have really done without sitting in my mums freezing hallway everyday to use the phone (it was before mobiles) on speed dial as noone ever answered it and I was terrified they'd penalise me for not getting through on time, I was young.

lazylinguist · 08/10/2021 22:37

If you've thrown up today then of course you know you shouldn't go in tomorrow. The 48 hour rule applies to everyone not just children.

Yes but you can see how it might be better to have a blanket 'phone before 8 on the morning' rule, rather than mucking about with different phoning protocols for different types of illness.

It's been phone before 8 at all of the many schools I've worked at. I'm a cover teacher now, and one of the schools phones me at 7:30 if they need me, so I'm guessing their teachers need to phone in earlier than 8!

Toddlerteaplease · 08/10/2021 22:37

We have to ring in a minimum of four hours before our shift. I.e. 3am for a 7 am start!

HalzTangz · 08/10/2021 22:37

@ProbablyLate

DH and I are both teachers and have this policy and I wonder if it's the same in other jobs.

If I need a day off for illness I have to ring school between 7:30 and 8am. I appreciate that schools need to know as early as possible if staff aren't going to be in, and this works fine in the situation that you wake up ill in the morning. DH came home ill yesterday and last night let his head of department know he wouldn't be in today and cobbled together some cover work but he still has to be up to ring the absence line.

AIBU to think that if its obvious the previous day that you're going to be off ill the next day there should be another way of letting them know as often having a good sleep can make you feel much better?

In answer to your question it's not unreasonable, I've had short bursts of illness where I felt crap and thought I be off the next day but then woke up fine and more than able to work

Toddlerteaplease · 08/10/2021 22:39

If someone is due back the following day we start getting nagged to phone them about 9am to find out if they will be back

StormyCornishSeas · 08/10/2021 22:40

@GreenLakes

DH is head at a free school and his policy is that staff must phone his mobile at 7am each morning if they wish to request an absence due to illness.

DH will then review the request alongside the business manager, taking into account previous absence history, other staff absence and cover availability.

He will inform the staff member by 7.30am if the request is to be granted. Any requests not made by 7am are not granted and the staff member is expected to attend as normal.

Allowing results the day before is an open invitation to piss takers.

This sickness policy would make me not work at that school

Like I have taken the day off because I have woken up with a side splitting headaches & dizziness etc but I would have to force myself in because the head & business manager decided at 7:30 when I start at 8:15 that my illness is less serious than projectile vomiting.

That is not a good working environment

roundtable · 08/10/2021 22:42

@GreenLakes

DH is head at a free school and his policy is that staff must phone his mobile at 7am each morning if they wish to request an absence due to illness.

DH will then review the request alongside the business manager, taking into account previous absence history, other staff absence and cover availability.

He will inform the staff member by 7.30am if the request is to be granted. Any requests not made by 7am are not granted and the staff member is expected to attend as normal.

Allowing results the day before is an open invitation to piss takers.

Jesus, I genuinely hope this isn't true.

Unfortunately, teaching attracts (like other professions) controlling people. When you have the bad luck to come across them you know about it. It also attracts piss takers too though to be honest so the pair will be never be harmonious. But at least the piss takers tend to leave. But the collateral damage is the ones in between who end up leaving too. Or hoping to leave.

Lonecatwithkitten · 08/10/2021 22:49

My staff are asked to call before 7am so we can make arrangements. Several of them work cover in sister clinics covering 24/7 so the other night I got a message 3.45 to say a member staff had got injured and was now signed off for 5 days.

Rainbowsew · 08/10/2021 22:49

@GreenLakes

DH is head at a free school and his policy is that staff must phone his mobile at 7am each morning if they wish to request an absence due to illness.

DH will then review the request alongside the business manager, taking into account previous absence history, other staff absence and cover availability.

He will inform the staff member by 7.30am if the request is to be granted. Any requests not made by 7am are not granted and the staff member is expected to attend as normal.

Allowing results the day before is an open invitation to piss takers.

This can't be legally acceptable, who the fuck does your dh think he is "allowing" sickness time. One doesn't request sickness leave from their boss an autonomous adult makes a decision they're too ill to work and the manager has to deal with it!

What does he do if they don't show up?

lazylinguist · 08/10/2021 22:52

That policy is unenforceable and inhumane, GreenLakes, and against any kind of HR policy. My dh is a deputy head and says only a controlling arse of a Headteacher would even think of imposing such a policy, and would be taken to the cleaners by any teacher who decided to complain and take it further. Absolutely ridiculous.

Rainbowsew · 08/10/2021 22:53

If covid has done anything, surely it is to make employers realise that soldiering on into work when you're ill is it a good idea, and I say that as an NHS worker who often went to work ill (with colds not d&v obviously) as I felt I had to and a teacher DH who rarely takes a day off when sick as it is too much hassle to set the work and he has so much to do anyway.

Minniem2020 · 08/10/2021 22:54

We have to phone in each day we are off too. It was pretty shit when I had covid and all I wanted to do was sleep but I had to set my alarm each morning in order to phone by the correct time.