Please or to access all these features

Add post

Watch this thread

Save thread

Start a new thread

Flip thread

Hide thread

My feed

Active Unanswered threads

Getting started FAQ's

Unanswered threads Acronyms Talk guidelines

Hide shortcut buttons

Talk

AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Original poster

Having to ring absence line by 8am

219 replies

ProbablyLate · 07/10/2021 07:35

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?

OP posts:

Parker231 · 09/10/2021 17:07

My friend is a teacher. She and the class TA are off sick. It’s not Covid but a bug with similar symptoms. They didn’t ask permission to be off work, they merely followed the policy of notifying the Head that they wouldn’t be in work.

Justgettingbye · 09/10/2021 18:06

I deal with the student absence at a school so not quite the same but we request that a message is left on the answerphone to say the child won't be in or even an email so when we check the answerphone on that morning we make a list of everyone that's off and then it's simple.

I guess it's just to do with protocol although they would probably know you were gunna be off

pollymere · 09/10/2021 18:34

I love that as a teacher you're ill enough to not come into work but you're still expected to provide lessons and ring in early! You can call the Coverline the night before as I've done in the past.

PawsNotClaws · 09/10/2021 18:47

Asking highly qualified and experienced headteachers to teach lessons would be like getting the CEO of Tesco to man the tills.

Our "highly qualified and experienced headteacher" not only steps in to cover classes when needed but has also mucked in and cleared tables & swept floors when several lunchtime staff were off sick.

Staff remember things like that and go the extra mile if she needs us to. If she viewed us as "resources" and demanded staff go in to work when ill, it would be an entirely different matter.

LolaSmiles · 09/10/2021 18:58

Same here paws. I doubt the poster up thread realises that their DH isn't the shining example of leadership he thinks he is.

MissCruellaDeVil · 09/10/2021 19:02

At the school I am working at I just read the policy, it's before 8am for teachers and 8:30 for support staff. We also must ring before 2:30 if we will not return the next day, failure to do so is a disciplinary. We have to ring the heads mobile as no one is in the office until 9!

chocolateorangeinhaler · 09/10/2021 19:07

Yes it's standard to have to do it in my department in the NHS. You are getting paid sick pay. The manager has a duty to make sure you're actually ill and not off on holiday in Spain. Also helps spot and help those that may be having a tough time at home for whatever reason. It is s faff I do understand, when you're ill the last thing you want to do is call your boss.
Some reasons for being off sick can be a bit lame. I've had 'I've got a sore leg' and 'the tumble dryer broke and all my clothes are wet'. Both those instances didn't really warrant a day off sick. As arrangements could have been made to alter the work or provide alternative uniform once in work. Sadly there are some out there that think they are entitled to two weeks sick a year. I had one boss years ago that was always sick for two weeks in August, he was brazen in telling everyone that he was entitled to it and was having it.

PissedOff2020 · 09/10/2021 20:24

As a manager, albeit not in a school, why should our evenings be ruined by someone letting us know they’re off ill tomorrow? Unless you’ve got a sick note, call you each day as you should do. Let the people who need to deal with know on ten days, don’t contact them the night before and expect them to let people know the next morning.
I mean, who sorts cover? Is it your husband’s manager or someone else? Why should they have to get up and make the call on your husband’s behalf?

I don’t think it’s u reasonable at all. As soon as the policy is relaxed people think they can contact you out of hours for all kinds of things - it’s not fair on line managers to have to deal with that. Stick to the policy.

saraclara · 09/10/2021 20:45

I'm retired now, but I was talking to my DD who teaches, today. A horrible cough virus (not covid) has run rampant in her school, and loads of people are off. Both the head and deputy have been teaching for most of last week, as it's the only way to have enough cover.

When I was working, it was standard for the DH to be teaching when things were tough. Less so for the head to, but not unheard of.

I've heard of some terrible schools to work in, and awful heads, but GreenLakes' DH takes the biscuit.

lazylinguist · 09/10/2021 20:53

Headteachers and their deputies are incredibly busy, er, running their schools hmm

They simply don’t have time to be teaching year 8 history lessons.

That's what supply teachers and cover supervisors are for. And my husband is well aware how busy headteachers and deputy headteachers are with running their schools, since he is one. If somebody is not well enough to be in school, they are not well enough to be in school, and that's that. Whether they come in or not should be dependent on their health and their likelihood of making others ill too, not on whether the almighty headteacher deems it convenient for them to be ill or not.

surreygirl1987 · 09/10/2021 21:06

If he knows for definite he will be absent then that is a bit silly (although not awful - surely it only takes 30 seconds to make the call and then back to sleep?!). But I imagine in most cases of illness, people wouldn't know if they're well enough to go to school until they wake up that morning? Eg I'd always have the approach of 'I'll see how I feel when I wake up tomorrow'. So I don't think it's ridiculous in that respect.

Youseethethingis · 09/10/2021 21:07

Some stuff just started to make sense.
My best friend is a teacher and she has permanently weakened her heart by pretty much crawling in to school when seriously unwell several years ago now.
She was unwell again two years ago and off for a week, returned when still unwell after being harassed by the head, ended up even more seriously unwell and back off sick again, only to end up in a disciplinary for having two periods of absence in quick succession! They didn't give a fuck that it was the same bout of illness, weren't in the slightest bit grateful that she had dragged herself in when still unwell.
So now she doesn't do all the extra curriculars, volunteers for nothing, and is quite happy to go off sick and stay off sick. She puts her own health first.
I think she might work at Greenlakes DHs school.

me109f · 09/10/2021 22:42

You are staff so the school really needs to know as early as possible. I am sure the school may be a bit flexible but they need to have as much notice as possible, particularly if you have duties beginning at 9 am.
In this particular case it is a bit picky, but if you ring the absence line on you husbands behalf it just confirms that he would not be in, it is sort of common sense and fulfills you DH 's obligation.

Parker231 · 10/10/2021 22:07

From Sky News - employers should support employees to stay away from work when they are ill.

UK Health Security Agency chief executive Dr Jenny Harries told Times Radio: "I think, particularly as we approach the flu season for example, whereas people traditionally in the UK have sort of grinned and borne their infectious disease and then gone into work and spread it around, I'm hoping that, as we go through winter, people when they are symptomatic will generally recognise that and stay away and be supported to do so."

lazylinguist · 11/10/2021 07:50

You are staff so the school really needs to know as early as possible.

Quite. And knowing the afternoon before is earlier than knowing the next morning. If I were in charge of sorting out cover for teachers, why would I want to wait until next morning at 7:30 a.m. to know if a teacher was going to be absent if they had d&v that afternoon and therefore weren't even allowed to come in next day, however well they were feeling when they got up?

Surely that's the point the OP was making? Not 'Why do you have to ring in early?' but 'Why can't you inform them the afternoon before instead if you know you're going to be off?'

cansu · 11/10/2021 07:54

That is stupid. We have to ring before 7.30 so I ring the night before if I know and leave a message. I have sometimes left a message at 4am if I am up and ill. It is a deliberate policy to make it awkward as fuck and a way to insist that you have to speak to someone about why you are off. I hate stuff like this especially as most teachers are also having to get up to produce cover work .

MyrtlethePurpleTurtle · 12/10/2021 19:57

@Twickerhun

Sound alike a policy to inconvenience skivers to me!

Yep

hollyivysaurus · 12/10/2021 20:04

We have to ring before 7:30 at my school and it doesn’t really bother me - I think ringing the night before would be daft because sometimes you feel better after a decent sleep. That said, work have always been decent about it. I once rang, totally frazzled because my son was in hospital and was unable to set cover work, and everyone was really wonderful about it.

Purplepeoniesdroppingpetals · 14/10/2021 21:48

[quote GreenLakes]@Mazblue86

Headteachers and their deputies are incredibly busy, er, running their schools

They simply don’t have time to be teaching year 8 history lessons.

Asking highly qualified and experienced headteachers to teach lessons would be like getting the CEO of Tesco to man the tills.

There is no substitute for having teachers in school teaching rather than absent at home.[/quote]
Strongly suspect you’re bullshitting now. Any school leader worth their salt would damn we’ll roll their sleeves up and get on with it in extremis - saw it today in my school where teachers have dropped like flies. The rest of us have abandoned PPA rules and pulled together as a team because there’s no choice. Perhaps your husband can’t manage recalcitrant year 9s anymore since he’s been stuck behind his desk?

Flip

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9