To think that if I call in sick and have been sick for a few days now I shouldn't still be expected to work from home?

[Gotosleepeveryeffingone]

I'm still baffled as to why this past week when I have felt so utterly miserable from this cough/cold/phlegm/bodyache/sore throat combination (yes I know many people will refer to it as just a cold but I felt it was more than that) and to add an extra challenge my DS (just turned 1) and DH are also sick I was expected to be up and call in and email work to colleagues by 7am each morning.
For the first day off, I get it, no one was expecting me to be off, neither was I to be fair, so I send work in for cover lessons, as I had already more than half planned work for these lessons anyway but in order for me to have relevant lessons to send in by day 4 of me being sick than I would have to be working whilst sick. I could barely get out of bed and baby was super unsettled and DH despite having gotten sick over a week ago was still 'recovering' so late in the evening once baby is finally asleep I'm working on lessons.
I bet most people reading this thread title would have thought that is unreasonable but as soon society realise it's a teacher than who cares right.

And ofcourse when you get back into work you can have a week's worth of marking just waiting for you.
In my younger days, pre motherhood I would just go in sick and sneezing because sending in cover work was a ball ache but I have had the painful realisation now that I don't get better after just one day off anymore.
I know I sound pissed off but this morning when I needed to get to GP before 8am to make an appointment I had hoped that I could ask a colleague who was teaching the exact same lesson to a class similar to mine that morning might be able to help by sharing her lesson ...no such luck, instead I was advised to send work through. Lovely.

That's outrageous! Couldn't you just say 'Sorry, I simply can't do any prep, I'm too ill for that' OP? After all, if you'd been rushed to hospital, you wouldn't have even been able to send the work in that you'd already prepared, would you? Stop being a martyr to the job, sadly it really isn't appreciated these days!!

That is ridiculous, I really feel for teachers.
If there is more than 1 class in a year surely the other teacher can share a lesson plan? Or the lesson plans from the same topic the year before - I know that doesn't always work when schools change phonics or maths schemes. But especially if it's infants level, they can wing it.
My daughters infants school very rarely uses external supply for this reason, they have an extra teacher on staff who covers for sickness who is familiar with curriculum,so only an issue if more than 1 of the 6 class teachers sick at same time. This an other reasons means they have excellent staff retention, 1 teacher left for a promotion, next year she was back even though meant a pay cut, as staff are well looked after.

i don’t think that would happen at our school (primary), the year group teachers do weekly lesson planning together, and then each teacher makes any further adaptations for their class. So the core lesson planning would already be covered, and the year or subject lead would be able to help with any adaptions.
sorry that you are having to do so much while you are poorly.

Dont do it. Say you are too sick to set work. Why isnt the supply teacher marking? Oh yes because schools wont pay for supply anymore…

What would they do if you were incapacitated? You’re either unwell or you’re not which your employer should understand. It becomes an issue because of the members of staff that muddy the water by being ill but offer to work from home so they don’t have any sick days. The managers are the problem because they don’t deal with it.

Ours was 06:30, I didn't need to be up that early as I lived close to school. If feeling rubbish the night before I had to set my alarm for 6am to work out if I was feeling too ill for work. We had to set work for the first 3 days then the HoD would take over

It's a cold. A shit cold yes but still.
Anyone who's in a job that can be done remotely does some work when sick, at least monitoring inbox and answering urgent queries.

Teachers are in no way an exception, despite what they like to believe.

So here's a few more reasons why this is so shitty.

1. The school have employed cover supervisors who can print off work etc
2. One of those teachers works within my department so is familiar with the schemes of work and after a bit of asking around I'm sure would be able to find work to print off
3. It's secondary school, there's are schemes of work for each year group but when I started the head teacher actively discouraged sharing of any lessons, a rule which he's stopped enforcing but has a bit of a hangover.

This morning I was dressed and ready to head into work, despite still feeling pretty crap but thought with a free period in the morning I'd be able to finish planning lessons I had started the night before, then my baby wakes and he's burning up, has a temp of 39.1 and as a new mum I'm worried. This fever has been on and off since Friday so I text my line manager telling her I don't know what to do - it's past 7am and I haven't informed anyone I'll be off - and I don't think it's a good idea to drop him off to nursery, instead I literally want to head out the door to GP right then. And I don't have finished cover work to send her anyway.
Reply: Please let cover know you'll require cover for x,y and z and is there anything I can send her as she has a full teaching day herself.

Is it any surprise that the largest group exiting the teaching profession is new mums, who are experienced teachers, mid-late 30s?

You are talking without any understanding of the teaching profession. Because planning lessons at 7am equates to answering an email. Sure.

And teaching is a job that can be done remotely (!)

First rule, never mark cover. It's a waste of everyone's time.

You are well within your right to not send work. As long as you give people notice, HOD or other, will have to sort it. It's really hard to be in school sorting last minute cover, whilst teaching/doing form time. I can see why she was asking for something. Even a "y7 need pie charts" is something to go on.

What subject are you?

?!? Well yes, it does equates to planning lessons. Do you understand how other people job works?

What did your actual message say?

Because "I'm not coming in and can't do cover" is very different to "please could you help, you have y7 period 1 and so do I, please could you print a second copy of your resources as cover for my class?".

It sounds like you're completely overwhelmed and perhaps not communicating in the best way. Your colleagues are probably snowed under with their own work (not your fault) but extra requests do make it harder for them.

This is hilarious. monitoring inbox and answering urgent queries is absolutely not the same as planning five hour long interactive presentations someone not qualified can deliver. Also teachers also have to monitor inbox and answer urgent queries throughout the day.

I don't believe for a minute teachers are special, nor that my teaching job is even particularly challenging but like many teachers I have worked in other jobs and no, in those jobs sending a few emails was not at all like planning. In actual fact, when most people were off sick they didn't answer emails at all and certainly not at 6.something am.

OP I'm primary and it's not a thing in primary generally (even though I'm the only one teaching my key stage, so there is no parallel class to get work off AND more than one year group to teach at once). I like to think in a secondary I'd refuse but know how hard it is if that is the expectation. If you're sick though, you're sick.

Another one that is assuming teachers have no experience outside of teaching. I have ten years of non teaching experience, I take it seeing as you think planning a lesson is the same as sending an email you also have ten years of teaching experience :)

Because schools Can't pay for supply anymore. The most recent pay rises which were not fully funded, plus the funding crisis around SEN means budgets are worse than they have ever been. As a governing board we hoped positive change would come with the new government, but we are much worse off than a year ago

No they don't. I used to work from home. I did no work when sick. I turned off my phone and certainly didn't log on to check emails. My DH who is more senior than me does the same. He also would tell his staff off for working when sick. If you are sick enough to be off, you shouldn't be working.

You're clearly not a teacher, and anyone who does work at home when they're off sick, is making a rod for their own back. If you're too sick to go into work, then you don't work. If your child is sick and has to stay home from school would you still let them eat chocolate and have fizzy drinks, then go and jump on the trampoline? No, because it would likely make them more sick. Hence if you're off sick from work, you shouldn't be working.

My mum was a teacher - I remember taking in her cover lessons when I was a student there. Thought it was bonkers even as a kid!

Completely agree that you shouldn’t have to send in cover work if you’re ill; pretty sure it’s not lawfully enforceable. If I was your SLT I would expect that your lessons were planned for the first day of sickness however so would expect you to send that in when you were calling in sick as the work should already be done.

For your last point however - you didn’t call in sick. You asked to take an emergency day’s parental leave. Which I’m assuming was fully paid. I would therefore absolutely expect you to send in your lessons for that day unless you were very hands on dealing with sickness like mopping sick etc. Very few jobs would give paid leave so you absolutely should expect to meet the business needs as far as possible. A temp of 39=call the GP for an appt, not rushing to hospital, so you theoretically had the ability.

This is another ridiculous expectation on teachers. I complained about this a few times and got nowhere. Are your lessons normally online beforehand? I taught primary and we had to submit the weeks lessons by Monday morning so were fine for the first few days. They’d usually change our PPA to the sick day too which was awful, not well enough to work includes planning; when you’re planning for such a range of abilities and needs people underestimate how much work goes into it. 19 years I lasted. I don’t think you should be planning but sadly, it’s very common.

Ex teacher.

This used to really, really bug me.

If I had a migraine I could barely think straight, let alone sit at a laptop, yet I was expected to send in all the cover details - and I am sure it was by 7.

I hope you and your baby are better soon, OP.

I don't think you should be doing work if you're unwell. If your child is unwell, then doing some work planning while they sleep on you seems fairest to everyone (which would be after the GP, BTW you need GP if over 40 degrees with calpol + ibuprofen, or other worrying symptoms like going floppy).

Preparing a lesson on the day itself does seem quite last minute. I'm not a teacher, but the majority of my work will be prepped weeks in advance and only emergency bits on the day. I wonder if your school has an expectation (which clearly they didn't communicate effectively) that you prep ahead of time e.g. half a term ahead, or even just a week ahead? That might mean they expect materials, not that they expect you to be doing the prep. Not for now, but worth chatting with your HoD to find out when you get back?

No you shouldn't be expected to work from home, in principle.

But unless this is your first year of teaching you also shouldn't need to plan from scratch in huge detail. You aren't going to be off for months so it doesn't matter if it's a few days of "watch this video and answer these 5 questions" or "work through page 76 section A".

That's not true.

Some people on £000's k salaries who head teams may do that if they are unwell and can WFH.

If my ds is unwell and cannot get out of bed he doesn't even WFH - but he can.

If you are too unwell to work you are too unwell to work.

I think those who can work from home perhaps take time off when they "could" go in but feel a little unwell because they can - teachers are either in or too unwell to work.