Work gripe - getting chased before a deadline

[Mummy08m]

This isn't a real problem just a little gripe.

I'm a teacher and our report deadlines are usually at 10.30am on a Tuesday.

I always get them in on time. I genuinely can't remember ever being late with them, certainly not in the last 4 years at least, if ever. I have several classes and I pace myself so that I do some on the weekend, some on the Monday, and the last few on the Tuesday morning before 10.30am. I can't do them much earlier, usually, because I need to include up to date info like the latest homework I've marked or whatever.

However, the data manager at my school sends out these chasing emails before the deadline! Today I get this at 8.50am:

Dear Mummy08m,
Please can I politely remind you that grades and comments are required by 10.30am today. We have noticed comments missing for [specific one of my classes]. If you are in the process of entering these comments [er, yes, obviously I am] please kindly ignore this message.
If you are not going to meet the deadline please kindly let me know when you'll complete them by.
[Data manager's signature]

Aibu for being made grumpy about this? Every single time! I always get them in by 10.30am! Sometimes I'm literally clicking submit at 10.25am, but it always gets done.

If you need them in by 8.50am, tell me the deadline is 8.50am. Don't tell me the deadline is 10.30am and then nag me for not getting them in by 8.50am!

I'm going to "kindly ignore this message", obviously. But I'm grumpy. Aibu for being grumpy?!

I better go finish them off now instead of ranting on mumsnet lol. But still. So grumpy.

It's possible that the email is automated - even though it looks personalised - you could create a bit of code which would flag all the unsubmitted areas and automatically email that information to the specific user.

That would be a lot less work than the data manager trying to copy and paste the unsubmitted work for every single teacher that morning - assuming it's a big school.

That's how I would do it if I was the data manager - it's a very efficient way of not missing anyone, and also giving everyone the same amount of notice.

I wonder if they could reword the email if it is automated to make it less annoying for you.

Alternatively, @Mummy08m if I was in your shoes I would mute all emails, or all emails from the data manager if you don't want to risk all emails, during the period of time you are doing your last-minute submissions. Turn them back on again after you have submitted them.

I'm a secondary data manager, and I have to say that chasing teachers for overdue reports is a bloody nightmare. Of course there are those who diligently complete everything before the deadline, but there are so many that don't I've become rather immune to the awkwardness of sending chasing emails.

Your data manager isn't trying to piss you off, they are probably just very tired of constantly chasing people and are perhaps being a little bit too proactive.

Having said all that, I always leave plenty of time after the deadline before I start chasing, and I always remind myself that teachers are extremely busy with a thousand things to do, so I always try and cut them some slack when they do miss a deadline. And I agree that passive aggressive "gentle reminders" etc are a no no!!

Easy enough to do. I could and I'm not that brilliant with technology.

No, almost certainly it's automated. I use an "off the shelf" system for monitoring and reminding clients of data/documents they need to send me, some are weekly, some monthly, some quarterly, some yearly. The system is programmed to do that, it takes me no time at all - clients continue to get reminders until they upload the required documents etc., all pre-set from just ticking a few boxes, and yes, reminders are automatically sent before the final deadline, depending on the timescales, that could be days, weeks or even months before the deadline! Clients get fined (by HMRC and Co House) automatically if the deadlines are missed, so it's pretty important that clients do their uploading etc before the deadline rather than after!

Haha thank you for defending me - I'm relaxed about it now but knicker-twisting did briefly take place!

The data manager sent an email at 2pm saying all reports had been processed and ready to view by form tutors. So clearly her system gets the job done!

I still do resent the specificity of the email pointing out which reports I'd not done yet, it made me feel like I'd done something wrong which I hadn't grrrrrrrr

My dh thinks I'm hilariously unreasonable and said he'd vote YABU if he were on here lol

Does it make you feel less resentful if you imagine the computer software system just automatically generating the email with the specifics not done, rather than a human (tutting judgementally) as they compile the email?

If it's as automatic as I suspect the data manager will not even see the email content.

I see what you mean but not really, I don't resent the Data Manager personally either way. She clearly hasn't logged who does and doesn't get them in on time otherwise she'd remember that I always do.

I think I disapprove of her system, which includes the template she must have written, that emails people individually in this way because it feels like being told off.

For example, if I were to write the template, it would BCC anyone who hadn't finished yet and would read:

Dear All, you're receiving this email because you have not yet finished inputting your reports into the system. Just a reminder that they're due at 10.30 today. Many thanks, data manager.

I do acknowledge though that her system definitely seems to get the job done, and I could never do her job, which is very different to mine

I sceptical that it's a template though because it's been phrased a bit differently each time (I literally get these chasings every report deadline which is 5+ times a year). This is the first time she's pointed out the exact class I'm missing comments on

take a deep breath and ignore OP. Or even ask the person sending the chaser email whether 10.30 really is the right deadline. What if everyone submitted at 10.28 - would they get their compilation out in time?

I have to do a weekly report along with the hundred or so other colleagues in my department, and my manager sends out a reminder every single week, and yet the number of times we’ve had 100% compliance this year is countable on one hand.

it’s astonishing - compliance with the deadline is a KPI, so theoretically you can’t ever get anything above “satisfactory” in your end of year review if you were ever delinquent without good reason. I have set my own reminders in both Outlook and on my personal phone in case I have the day off and forget to do it beforehand.

so yes, reminders are very annoying especially when you never miss the deadline. But then so are the colleagues who are unable to manage their own time to get this simple job done and cause everyone else’s inboxes to get clogged up with this shite.

take a deep breath and ignore OP

Yes indeed - I promise only mumsnet and my dh will hear these gripes!

@nonumbersinthisname that's shocking that compliance with the deadline is so low. But also kind of not my problem/fault iyswim. Surely there could be a way of logging and chasing repeat offenders rather than chasing the people who are never late.

I appreciate that this counts as knickers getting twisted

Then I'd either mute her before 1030 am on report days, or decide to reframe what you see as 'telling off' and don't include reminder emails in that category unless it includes a phrase like "why do you always leave it to the last minute you great lazy lummock" :)

That usually ends up with somebody making a complaint because they've been reminded and is deeply offended that a mere admin has dared to be so rude as to suggest that they should do the work within the accepted timeframe.

See also 'completing a register, rather than leaving staff none the wiser as to who is physically in the building', 'doing the data drop that is essential to complete by x time because it takes y in which to do the report run, print 350 separate documents, print labels through another report, stick on envelopes, place each report into an envelope and distribute the same day because the person who set the deadline doesn't concern themselves with the logistics of Assessment Manager, printing and stuffing of envelopes and thinks it can be done in ten minutes. Whilst also ensuring that an email copy is sent out using a different system that needs to work in sync with the original one, along with second copies for particular children because the parents are incapable of communicating civilly regarding their children's welfare and education'.

Oh, whilst it also being Census week, so the data manager is also having to ensure that everything on the system is correct and updated/amended wherever possible in order to ensure that the school receives the correct level of funding, exam entries can be made, creating additional progress measurements, recording all suspensions and chasing down updates, liaising with finance and IT because the payment software has stopped talking to the dinner hall terminals, staff changes, new stats methods for new SLT...oh, and somebody else demanding to know why x data that hasn't been released by the DfE yet isn't there.

It's the busiest week of the year for Data. Don't be mean to your DMs.

Much beloved in MN circles ...."just a gentle reminder"😁

@NeverDropYourMooncup I do appreciate she has a lot of processing to do after I've done my bit!

My argument is that if me doing them by 10.30 doesn't give her enough time to do her processing, she shouldn't set 10.30 as the deadline. She should set a good deadline that gives her enough time to do her bit (be that 9am, or 4pm the day before, etc).

I didn't know it was census week - but presumably that was known in advance and the deadline could have been brought forward a day or whatever if she'd need more time. She certainly didn't write in any email "just to let you all know it's particularly busy for me/my dept this week so please get your reports in early". It was just 10.30 on Tuesday, as ever.

I always meet the deadline. She could set it whenever she needs to, and I'll meet it, that's my point.

As a data manager for schools I can assure you this is not aimed at you. It'll be some sort of automated email they have created and in the spirit of being fair sends it to everyone.
I bet if you spoke to them they'd admit such thing and will probably say you're one of their most reliable ones.

She probably didn't set the deadline for teaching staff - somebody in SLT who doesn't need to bother their head about such things did it, assuming that, as always, the ability to pull it out of the bag at the last second means there is no need to ever ask a DM for anything relating to feasibility. (Hence my somewhat stressy ramblings about reports). After all, it's just hitting 'print' and they come out like magic, don't they?

Chances are it's been full on since August, it's just busier still this week. And yet new ideas, procedures and deadlines are introduced all the time. The last thing a DM needs to be doing is having to remind anybody, as it takes up time that could be spent wishing too tight socks upon whoever decides that a third new fileset can wait until the day of Census if not later to release or to drop an entire new set of packages with 'we're using these as well now' without even checking that it's compatible with the MIS...

Aren’t most schools getting rid of written reports? Ours has!

I understand your point, OP

I get very similar automatic reminder a week before a marking deadline. It has been the same for years. Just the admin staff doing their job.

I would take it as a reminder, aimed at those who never meet deadlines

It's not a chasing email its a reminder, no need to take it personally

As a fellow teacher (and line manager) YABU. I don't know how big your school is but it seems weird to assume the person checking reports have been completed has time to email individual staff.

Also seems unusual to leave your report writing quite so late, and that you've never in all the time you've been at the school, had to be teaching between 8.50-10.30 on a Tuesday!

Our reminder emails start coming out the day or two before for the following reasons:
Part time staff who may not work the day before/day of the deadline.
Planned or unplanned absence so that HODs like me can see gaps in advance and plan for them.
Staff who need an extension for whatever reason (absence, or a pupil who needs to catch up on a particular piece of work for tracking).

Clicking submit 5 minutes before the deadline, whilst meeting it, isn't exactly the most efficient way of working - what if you were unwell on the day of report writing, or had to cover a colleagues class or something? Are you quite new into teaching? It can be quite hard to see how you fit into the bigger picture in the early years.

What I do with my department is look at the dates reports are due and then we make sure the homework and assessment deadlines are set in advance of that, and then people don't feel like they have to do the reports last minute. If they want to set aside some time on the day of deadline that's fine, but at least all the data they need is available in advance.

Fair enough, but I think if some reminders were worded a bit more thoughtfully they wouldn't seem as 'chasey' and agressive.

Eg
Original message on Monday morning says
"Rugby game on Sunday at 11am. Please let me know if you're available by 5pm Wednesday."

Reminder message on Tuesday would be welcomed if it said "Reminder, deadline for names of those wishing to take part in rugby game on Sunday is 5pm Wed".

Instead, all too often the message on Tuesday says "REMINDER. We are still waiting on people's availability for rugby on Sunday".

The latter message somehow carries with it a tone of impatience and irritation and makes the recipient feel they're late and have done something wrong when they haven't.

seems like a person writing them each time,