Teachers /Nurses partying in staff room

[Bonabee]

Michael Fabricant has just said on BBC that teachers and nurses were drinking and partying after their stressful shifts during lockdown.
This was in defence of Johnson, Sunak etc.
I know he is a clown but this is so insulting.
AIBU?

Both of us are public sector key workers and while the Government were busy having friends round, partying after work and generally breaking every law they set, we were both working, maintaining social distancing, seeing patients in ppe, working 18hr days manning school hubs, at the same time as negotiating and rolling out online learning and trying to maintain safeguarding and wellbeing for pupils, patients and staff. We weren’t allowed to make other staff so much as a cuppa or bring in food to share and there was no sitting around! Home time meant the entrance porch was a decontamination zone where clothing went straight in the machine and then heading up to shower even washing down ID cards, briefcases, handles touched on the way in just to make sure we weren’t bringing the virus home to our families. Fabrication really is the name of the game for this embarrassment supposedly leading our country.

Racking my brains to think of a single public sector profession that wouldn’t sack staff for drinking on the job 🤔 nope, most probably would be struck off as well. This Government are so out of touch with how ordinary people conduct themselves. 😡

Some unions gave advice to not do online teaching due to security concerns etc (the local private school got around that though).

The GOVERNMENT suspended the curriculum in lockdown 1.
The GOVERNMENT promised online education provision - it came in the guise of Oak Academy, backed up by BBC Bitesize a bit later.
The GOVERNMENT advised their use.

If your child's school 'only' sent you links to those sites then they were doing what they'd been asked to do by the GOVERNMENT.

It's actually the schools that offered full remote learning, led by the class teaching staff, who were going against official guidance.

It sounds like you have an issue with the GOVERNMENT regarding what they did regarding educational provision during the lockdown. You need to direct your annoyance in the right direction.

Can I just apologise to all nurses and teachers on behalf of our shitty government.

I’m sorry for the crap you have to deal with. Thank you for the amazing work that you do, and especially for what you have done over the last two years.

Thankyou

Can I please also add the police to this who got a rough ride as well trying to police the most unclear guidance (even Boris didn't understand his own rules ).

What absolute horse shit and disgraceful horse shit at that.

I’m neither a teacher nor a nurse but to accuse people from either group after they had to work flat out during the pandemic, give up leave etc - he should be ashamed.

I’ll admit. After a depressing Christmas term, the TAs and teachers in my bubble (5 in total) treated ourselves to a bottle of Prosecco in our ‘staff room’ (every year group staff bubble had to have their own makeshift staff room, ours was essentially not far off a broom cupboard with a window, two plug sockets, one for a mini fridge and the other for the kettle). I wouldn’t quite call it a party…

I know of nurses who right at the beginning booked themselves into a hotel to stay, so terrified were they of passing it on to unvaccinated family members. Working long hours in full PPE unvaccinated and watching so many patients die. They were totally shocked and exhausted after each long 12 hour shift they went back collapsed and started all over the next day.
They certainly were not partying in staff rooms! how completely out of touch with reality of him to suggest such a thing.
Who votes for this total idiot of a man.
He should have to resign for those stupid disrespectful comments.

He’s a joke, anyway.
I worked in a school post-lockdown - they strictly enforced social distancing and did not allow ‘gatherings’ of any sort.

@Abraxan

Some unions gave advice to not do online teaching due to security concerns etc (the local private school got around that though).

The GOVERNMENT suspended the curriculum in lockdown 1.
The GOVERNMENT promised online education provision - it came in the guise of Oak Academy, backed up by BBC Bitesize a bit later.
The GOVERNMENT advised their use.

If your child's school 'only' sent you links to those sites then they were doing what they'd been asked to do by the GOVERNMENT.

It's actually the schools that offered full remote learning, led by the class teaching staff, who were going against official guidance.

It sounds like you have an issue with the GOVERNMENT regarding what they did regarding educational provision during the lockdown. You need to direct your annoyance in the right direction.

Another one going off sideways. I really don't care that quite a number of teachers didn't teach during lockdown 1 - so what. You missed the original point.

My comment was that some teachers worked hard and some sat at home doing their gardens. Some teachers would have you believe they all slogged away when correctly following government guidelines meant they did very little other than in our particular case an email once a week that took 10 minutes to write if that. Nothing wrong with being at home sorting the home and garden at all since as you say they were following guidelines but why do some pretend all teachers were slogging away working hard when blatantly not true. It's the all the teachers slogged away during lock down that is obviously not true as you have shown with your post - lot's followed the government guidelines and did bugger all. No big deal since lots in many occupations couldn't do much either since it was a lockdown so why the constant pretence of working hard?

Anyway it derailed the original point and I repeat again - I think the government were wrong and Boris should go but he won't.

I worked longer hours during lockdowns than I ever have in my entire teaching career (over 16 years).

In addition to my "normal" duties (monitoring pupils health and wellbeing, planning daily lessons, marking, forward plans, staff meetings etc) I provided ongoing technical support to parents/pupils to enable them to access lesson resources. I trained staff on how to deliver content online (issuing/grading/feedback etc). I also had to plan/deliver 2 daily video calls per day for my class (one morning, one afternoon). In amongst all that I was juggling shifts in school looking after key worker children!

Furthermore - after I had finished work each day I had to check in with my boys to ensure they had done all of their online learning and submitted it to their teachers.

It was genuinely a RELIEF to go to school full time! Hence why I get beyond annoyed at comments about teachers lounging around in their gardens!

@Femalewoman

Following the government guidelines should be the right thing to do!

I thought I had posted already but I can’t see it so I’ll do it again. I find this so so insulting. It makes me angry.

On my ward (NHS) we went from around 15 at a time in the staff room to 3 - (we have a lot of nursing and therapy staff on the ward) In all weather we sat outside for social distancing making sure to stay 2m apart. Otherwise we would wait until space inside became free sometimes 3pm when staring at 8am. We can still now only take masks off for 15 minutes each break period to eat and drink.

My colleague I worked with daily died of covid during lockdown and we had no remembrance ceremony, nothing. We were not even allowed to hug. We sat 2 metres apart and had counselling crying but unable to physically comfort each other. I still remain angry about this.

I am so sick of people slating NHS staff. The last couple of years have been shit and I wish you could have walked those years with us. (Actually I don’t as I know the impact it has had on us). I honestly think some people have no idea what certain populations went through.

I find it so insulting to suggest that we flaunted the rules. It makes me want to scream with the unfairness of it.

Do you know, I find this man's comments oddly more offensive than the ridiculous lies that are emanating from Downing St.

Did Boris imagine the NHS staff that kept his sorry, lying arse alive were having a party after their shift?

No, like their colleagues around the country they strapped on more sub-standard PPE and followed the bloody rules.

I can speak only for our school Trust in categorically stating no parties were held on site. It's not a cause to party when you see first hand the damage lockdowns did to the kids in our care. We followed all edicts issued by the DfE beyond the letter. It was the law.

In addition,drinking in a school in our Trust at any time is a cause for disciplinary. We don't need the Government to tell us that at any time. The academies handbook specifically states that school funds may not be used for the purchase of alcohol.

To smear public sector workers in this way to attempt to deflect the Government's parlous failings is beyond the pale. The exception being the Met flunkies who have taken this long to investigate and stifled the Official report, and who's Officers stood outside No.10 as people walked past with beer fridges and bags full of bottles and didn't blow the bloody whistle.

Is FabriCat paid for by the Labour party to come out with these statements?
Surely he can't actually have thought his various defences of Boris were a good idea can he?

[quote Sherrystrull]@Femalewoman

Following the government guidelines should be the right thing to do! [/quote]
YEP

Around and around and around

@Femalewoman

Absolutely. The same tired arguments about teachers slacking off in lockdown one being dragged out again. It's boring. Try and move on.

Unbelievable. It's just been on the local news that he is "sorry if he upset anyone but Stands by what he said and is even trying to claim that people have been in touch with him today saying that they are nurses and did this.

Am trying to work out if being a liar is a qualification of being a Conservative MP, or if you are sent on some sort of training course once you've been appointed ?

@Kite22

Unbelievable. It's just been on the local news that he is "sorry if he upset anyone but Stands by what he said and is even trying to claim that people have been in touch with him today saying that they are nurses and did this.

Am trying to work out if being a liar is a qualification of being a Conservative MP, or if you are sent on some sort of training course once you've been appointed ?

Presumably if he has had people reporting to him that they have broken the law, he has reported them to the police?

I was redeployed to a covid unit, I have no experience of respiratory medicine, hardly any of us did. It was so stressful trying to do our best against an unpredictable enemy.
I came home and stripped naked on back doorstep every day then threw my uniform in the washer and ran to the shower. The teenagers knew not to come out of their rooms until I was decent.
I lost a colleague and many patients.
I'm so sorry for those that didn't make it but I can assure anyone that lost a relative that we really really did our best and treated them as if they were our own family.
There were no staff parties in the NHS.
There weren't even any hugs.
It's messed up my wellbeing and after 32 years of loving my job I am ready to quit. Things like the online hatred towards nurses and the attitude of this government have contributed to that.

@StScholastica

I was redeployed to a covid unit, I have no experience of respiratory medicine, hardly any of us did. It was so stressful trying to do our best against an unpredictable enemy. I came home and stripped naked on back doorstep every day then threw my uniform in the washer and ran to the shower. The teenagers knew not to come out of their rooms until I was decent. I lost a colleague and many patients. I'm so sorry for those that didn't make it but I can assure anyone that lost a relative that we really really did our best and treated them as if they were our own family. There were no staff parties in the NHS. There weren't even any hugs. It's messed up my wellbeing and after 32 years of loving my job I am ready to quit. Things like the online hatred towards nurses and the attitude of this government have contributed to that.

So sorry to hear this. Have you accessed counselling to help you process the trauma? It would be available via occupational health.

I feel experienced similar to you (thrown with a day's notice into a covid ward, with no relevant experience or induction). I have also seen that after the claps over the first lockdown, it has changed to a lot of resentment of healthcare workers. I've seen this on Mumsnet too: lack of empathy for those dealing with PTSD due to covid, complaining about NHS staff discounts, complaining about NHS staff accessing key worker provision etc. It's all pretty shocking.

Nearly half of critical care staff have symptoms consistent with PTSD. The trauma experienced by those working directly with covid seems to have been overlooked completely.

The last 2 posters: I hear you

Using so called “Tik Tok nurses” and making up reports of partying healthcare and teaching staff to try and mitigate their wrongdoing is a fucking low blow even for the conservatives

Trying to stir up resentment among the general public to cover your own arses is a despicable thing to do

I was chatting to someone today at my sons training session.

Said something about current situation in a lighthearted way (joked about it being school holidays and so less partying!) and they responded saying the problem with people believing this stuff is the unions didn't help by calling for school closures all the time.

I calmly (not sure how!) pointed out that another Boris line. It's not what they called for - it was mitigations and better ventilation etc - and considering everyone is constantly saying how worried they are for their children's exams and the covid situations in schools they've been proved right.

It's a huge issue what beings said - but a bigger one how many apparently intelligent people fall for it because the government are saying it.

@StScholastica @Meadmaiden

and love in buckets.
I absolutely hear you too.

I'm a safeguarding lead in a school. I have never in my life been more stressed out by work than I was during lockdown. On top of all our usual duties my team and I were out delivering food parcels, electric cards and phone credit to vulnerable families, doing doorstep visits to check on kids who hadn't logged onto online lessons, as well as taking part in the rota to supervise keyworker/vulnerable students in school. As many of the services our families usually depend on closed their doors we were expected to fill the gaps. I called each family classed as vulnerable at least weekly to check in and lost count of the number of parents I spoke to who were experiencing a crisis with their Mental Health, finances or relationships but unable to access support due to the pandemic. Suddenly I was the only person they had to talk to. I look back and feel I neglected my own children as I was working 10-12 hour days and still felt like it wasn't enough.

Then just when we thought things couldn't get any worse schools were ordered to turn their gyms/halls into makeshift covid testing centres at ridiculously short notice, don full PPE and test hundreds of kids per day. Initially the Government claimed the actual testing would be done by 'trained volunteers'...of course it wasn't, it was done by teachers and support staff. Many of us gave up several days of our holidays to do this so that the kids learning would not be compromised.

The staff room was off limits and all the chairs removed, the canteen was closed, all meetings and training sessions happened over Teams. I ate lunch alone in my office, Teachers ate in their classrooms, some staff had to eat in their cars. Even if we'd had a place to 'party', I doubt any of us could have summoned the energy.

When I hear Fabricant's comments, or people on MN still insisting we were all lounging around in our gardens, it makes me furious. Nothing could be further from the truth.