Teacher strikes and work plans

[Yellowcoffeecup]

Not sure who to be pissed off with teachers or work colleagues.

Big face to face team meeting next Wednesday. Whole morning.

Been in diary for couple of months.

Due to teachers strike colleagues now saying they can't make the meeting. They're saying they can't join on line either because of distraction by their children.

Fine - take a days annual leave or make alternative arrangements for your children.

Not a meeting to easily rearrange.

AIBU to be pissed with teachers ?
AIBU to be pissed with colleagues ?
AIBU all round ?

The meeting should just be moved.

And sure I saw someone say something like 'Well if they'd be too distracted for the meeting surely they'd be too distracted for work' - not true, not true at all. Being in a zoom meeting all morning, where you are expected to be 'on' at all times, in a meeting setting that sounds relatively formal, is entirely different to doing general work, with the odd little distraction that can be dealt with either whilst continuing to work or by taking two minutes out and getting back to it.

Your issue should be with the government for not treating teachers the way they deserve to be treated and with your employer for booking in whole morning meetings.

Taking annual leave would still mean they miss your meeting though, so you'd need to reschedule regardless.

You need to redirect your anger to the government not teachers. The strike is about more than pay.

Is it that some colleagues apparently have found meaning and purpose in their lives - in the shape of children who need them and give them something to exist for, rather than filling their time with pointless busywork meetings that only serve to fluff the fragile egos of childless managers without any other means to enrich their sad work-obsessed lives?

Ah yes, because mummies are all loving well-rounded angels whereas childless women are all shrivelled crones with nothing better to think about than work.

I don’t agree with OP either but Jesus, it’s not as if mums stay at home all day doing useful nourishing activities whereas us lesser women go and do pointless cot pirate activities that render us miserable. Most of us work and most of us are on the corporate hamster wheel.

Oh My God. I am so sorry our striking is inconveniencing your meeting... If we'd have known we would have rearranged. How terrible for you.

Cot pirate? CORPORATE. I hate my phone.

Be pissed off with the government who have caused this utter shit over the past decade.

I’d love to be a ‘fly on the wall’ at said meeting when/if it happens.
I’m betting the content will be ridiculously trivial compared to the real issues that teachers, health workers etc encounter on a daily basis.

You don't have school age kids, do you OP.

Yep, be pissed at the teachers. Lazy bastards, just wanting another day off...

How dare they make a stand to ensure that the education system isn't totally and utterly fucked even more beyond repair so YOUR children (and their own, mind) get the education they deserve.

BURN THEM, BURN THEM ALL!!! 🔥

I am not a teacher, but do work in a school. Children of keyworkers and vulnerable children will be accommodated on strike days, probably by support staff, as they will not be striking.
As other posters have said, one reason for this strike is that the pay increase on offer has to come from existing school budgets. In my school, that means we have to find an extra £100k per annum from a budget that is already stretched to the point of not being able to afford basic items such as pencils for our pupils. I am a governor and at our last meeting we came to the difficult and sad decision that unless the government increases funding, the only way we can afford this is to make staff redundant. And that will be support staff to begin with. Losing support staff will mean that intervention groups will not happen - EAL, SALT, catch up phonics, Family and Pastoral Care will be reduced or cut, enrichment clubs will be cut. This strike is not just about the money a teacher takes home on payday, it is about how that money is going to severely affect the standard of care and education schools will be able to provide for the children of today who will be one the doctor, nurses, scientists, care workers , lawyers etc of tomorrow.

@Erictheavocado keyworkers and vulnerable children are not being supported in a lot of schools. DC's school is closed to ALL children. I'm a keyworker and DD has a disability which if we're back to a lockdown criteria she classes as vulnerable. I'm taking annual leave/unpaid leave for the strikes because despite the government guidelines and what my NHS Trust are saying, most schools, here at least, are just closed to everyone.

Ours is open to key worker and vulnerable but have given us a choice.

Both mine are vulnerable (EHCPs), I'm not sure being in is better for them than being home and being home is a massive change in routine too. It's a bit no win.

I also know how badly screwed schools are re funding etc so I'm 100% the strikes, but the impact is definitely hard for us as a family. I can be frustrated about that whilst 100% supporting schools and teachers. I know where responsibility lies.

How are the children of key worker being catered for?

I work in a school and asked for a leave of absence as I have children affected by the strikes. Leave of absence has been refused. However the primary school said they weren't providing anything for keyworker.

Really stuck now. Cant take day off and cant go in with 5yr old.

Let's turn this on its head...could you be a teacher?

@georgethegeranium 👏 Best response ever hehe!

OP seems to have disappeared...

No not a teacher.

Still here @Covidwoes bit have a life outside of MN 🤣

You should be pissed off with yourself by coming on here bitching about a problem rather than finding a solution.

🤣

'working from home ' with children has become a pisstake.

It's hard and distracting. I've done it myself when I was self employed.

It cannot be done so therefore I am pissed off and yes colleagues should take annual leave.

Glad that you seem to now realise the expression (in the UK at least) is “pissed off”. not “pissed”, which means something entirely different. Maybe you’re based in the US?

Try planning for provision of NHS services for next week. It's looking likely that will be some not insignificant disruption at my Trust, potentially made even worse by staff ringing in sick on the day who haven't been able to take other leave to cover childcare. At least with planning for the RCN strikes there were derogations that allowed for protection of urgent and emergency care services.

don’t be annoyed at either your colleagues or teachers. Just accept it’s one of those and rearrange the meeting.

It shouldn’t be done a regular basis but surely as a one off due to exceptional circumstances you make it work. It may mean catching up on some of the work in the evening/weekend but I would hope the employer is flexible enough to be understanding

Why do MN TRY and read so much into posts !