AIBU to use this as the reason I left a job after 5 weeks?

[Smoggy1]

I very briefly taught at an FE college. I still had another couple of jobs throughout this, so it's just not on my CV, because leaving it out, doesn't create a gap. However, there are some jobs I might apply for that I can't leave anything out for safeguarding reasons.

There were 3 reasons I left.

1. The workload was insane. I've spoken to other people who work in FE and they don't have to do anywhere near the same tasks. A lot were small, but there were a lot. They added up. I was spending huge amounts of my spare time (and non-spare time when I should have been doing my other jobs) doing these tasks. The college had me teaching more hours that friends and family do at other colleges. I was hourly paid, so wasn't paid specifically for prep. I seemingly had more planning and prep to do, whilst having less time to do it in, I was going to try and see it out until the end of the term, but reason 2 and 3 meant I left when I did.

1. What I can only describe as bullying. The reason I was employed there was a colleague, Anna, took another subject, leaving the one I ended up teaching. She acted as an informal subject mentor. She wasn't my manager. She was just someone to go to if I had any issues with content etc. Anna would constantly make little comments and constantly had a tone of voice with me. Some specific examples:

(I) She would ask my students where I was with the content, after she'd asked me, like she didn't believe me. (II) She stayed in the classroom for my first lesson and told me off in front of my students because I went to Google a lesson key concept on my phone before the slide came up (I hadn't figured out the IT properly yet, there wasn't a freeze option, and most importantly, I hadn't had an induction where I was told staff weren't allowed phones - I turned up on my first day and was put into a lesson straight away with no prep). (III) I asked her where a particular document was, and she just said "I showed you where that was last week", and then didn't tell me where it was, so I spent half an hour trying to find it. (IV) She would tell me not to tell my students about my other job (industry experience, which was why I was hired in the first place). (V) She repeatedly said she was 'concerned' that I was too far ahead with the content. It wasn't constructive at all and as an attempt to make it feel less tense — I (very obviously) jokingly said "I can stick [relevant film] on to slow us down, if you like?" She then interrogated me, in front of my line manager, about why I had switched the lights off in the classroom after my lesson, accusing me of putting the film on. (VI) She then accused me, also in front of my line manager, of being "off" with her and a colleague when I had come into the classroom they were having lunch in, where I was about to have a lesson, so I could get set up — I didn't kick them out of anything, they left of their own accord because they had lessons to get to too. My line manager said afterwards to me she through that was inappropriate and that it should have been a conversation with her not in the room. There was more than this, but it just made me feel on edge constantly. She was behaving like she was my manager, when she wasn't.

1. The contract indicated I would be paid at the end of the month worked. However, I was actually paid a month after that e.g. Start work on 1st March, payroll cut off is 25th March, payday is 30th March... but you don't get paid until 30th April. New starters on zero hour contracts have to go 2 months before their first pay. Staff on regular contracts don't. I didn't know this until 2 or so weeks in when my manager was showing me how to do timesheets. The job I had been doing was term time only and we'd only just come out of the summer holidays, so I'd gone through all my savings. I was going to struggle to pay my mortgage. By the time week 4 rolled around, I wasn't eating properly. I was bringing in breakfast bars I already had in my kitchen cupboard for lunch rather than buy a meal. There would have come a point where I literally didn't have money to put fuel in my car to get to work. HR refused to do anything about it because their system apparently wasn't set up to give me a little bit of pay early to tide me over. If I'd have known about this ahead of time, I could have applied for UC, but because of the waiting time to get it, it was too late by the time I found out. The final straw was when I asked if I could go do an extra day with my other job on a training day (as this would be paid at the end of the following week) and I was told no — I was on a zero hours contract, I was under no contractual obligation to do this training, but was told no. They knew I wasn't eating properly and I wanted to do this extra day (which paid less than I would have for the training day) solely so I could pay for basics.

When I apply for certain jobs, I have to go through every bit of work history, and may have to explain why I left. I suspect, given I was only there for 5 weeks, even if they don't ask in application forms, there's a good chance they'll ask at interview. AIBU to just use reason 3? Is that going to seem more valid than the others? If you have ever recruited, would someone saying they left after 5 weeks because the employer essentially lied (although I definitely put this down to incompetence) about how the employee would be paid meant they couldn't afford to stay? I was really sad about leaving. In theory, it was the dream job I'd been looking for. The students were (mostly) great and I loved teaching, and I do still feel guilty about leaving the students without a teacher. But those 3 issues together meant staying was impossible.

Without going into details, anyone reading my CV would probably see that as very unlikely to be true. In terms of quality experience and career progression, the one I left was far far better.

So I'm an agency teacher. The job at the college was 3 days a week and I was still doing 1 day agency. When I left the college, I just picked up the 3 additional days and was paid the following week. Leaving meant I could just about get through the month financially. Although I did have to walk to work fairly long distances for a little bit, I could manage it.

If you had other jobs that you were doing at the same time, were they all part time? If so, that would be an option to quote - it turned out that the hours they wanted you to do exceeded the conversations you'd had through the interview process therefore you decided to step down so as not to have a detrimental impact on your other jobs and to give the FE college chance to fill the role with someone who can truly commit to the hours they need.

Not at the same time. One was on the day I wasn't in the college (only doing this because the college couldn't give me more than the 3 days) and the other is evenings and weekends.

Just say the role wasn’t a right fit so you went back the agency. Don’t say anything about team as they’ll think you’re hard work. And don’t say anything about pay roll as they’ll make have same issues.

It’s a fixed term contract so just say that. It’s the truth. In interview if asked you can say it was fixed term and you moved on to other work, again true.

I agree OP - you say it was your dream job but you lasted only a few weeks. Instead of trying to deal with it you just walked away. Yeah your colleague acted poorly but unhelpful and poor behaviour isn’t bullying. Gives me no faith in hiring you in future. The fact you have to ask here is a bit telling. And in future brevity can be your friend as others have suggested with reason for leaving.

I left a job in Secondary after four months and under ‘reason’, I wrote ‘I felt unable to succeed in this role’.

Noone has ever queried this, but I’ve only had one job since, where I’m very much happier.

I'd say that the role was not as advertised.

Look just say the agency work offered you the work life balance you needed at the time. Don’t get caught up in explaining the awful dynamics or the huge amount of unpaid over time. In interview you can explain that your time was limited so agency worked better at the time.

It wasn't fixed term, it was permanent. Well...as permanent as zero hours could be. That's how it was labelled anyway.

I was going to run out of money for food and to even be able to get there. You know the saying "too much month left at the end of the money"? I virtually had an entire month left. If the job was incredible, I might have considered trying to take a loan out to get me through, but I wasn't willing to go into debt under the other circumstances.

This is a potentially good one. And to be fair....I did end up teaching more than what was advertised. It was meant to be just A Level in a particular subject and then I was given some Access and half of another A Level subject. So, that is also true.

Reading the second reason, I can see why even after 5 weeks that would have taken its tole. I'm not judging you for leaving at all. Any idea why she treated you like that? Did you speak to your line manager about it?

To answer the question. Don't use the first reason obviously because they might think a 'too high workload' is what they will give you and you just can't cope, regardless of if that's true. The second one might be too subjective anyway.

I think as other have said, stating that it was an issue with payroll, will seem reasonable to a reasonable employer. I've done interviews before and this wouldn't be a red flag to me.

I would definitely caution against the work/life balance suggestions. Unless you have had a major change in your life circumstances, if you go for a similar job, they might think you are going to still have those work/life balance issues.

The role not being as advertised seems reasonable too though.

As for the "paid montly, in arrears" issue - I think every contract I've had has stated this and I've never had to wait two months to be paid. I also worked in FE for a year (non-teaching, thankfully), and this is also what my contract stated there. I am also aware that HR in FE colleges are notoriously awful, so this story does not surprise me in the slightest.

I think, perhaps, she still felt a sense of ownership over the course and didn't like that I was doing some things differently to her? Yes - I did speak to my manager about it. She was sympathetic. She thought how Anna had spoken to me in the meeting with her was inappropriate. She also had no issue with me being a little ahead with the content - sometimes different classes grasp concepts quicker or slower than others. She said that to me privately, and in the meeting Anna was present for, which briefly shut her down. Ultimately, I don't think there was a solution where I wouldn't have to work with Anna because she was the only person with experience teaching that subject.

I just hope after I left, my manager (who was also Anna's) did have a frank conversation with her. I was having panic attacks, when I have never ever had anything like that before. I hope she is treating the next person better.

I've been asked about that college by agencies since (there's a version of my CV floating around that still has the college on), and their response has always been "that doesn't surprise me." I think it has a bit of a reputation in the region for not treating its staff very well and having a high staff turnover. I wish I'd known about that beforehand!

This is perfect. They will just ask you or them to confirm dates worked and any safeguarding concerns

I fundementally disagree with the comments saying you've posted too much information. I much prefer this to drip feeding.

I've sent this to my sister who works in HR -
Where you do actually have to explain something, she'd go with the payroll issue (where you do have to explain further, you've stated that your other job would pay you quicker) or job not as described. For the latter, this might be a risk if that job would also not be as described, but I suspect you probably wouldn't want a job like that anyway, so that weeds those jobs out. She said definitely don't say anything that could be interpreted as you lying e.g. fixed term contract.
She agreed with @ThisDaringWasp about not using work life balance, as this could be a red flag to an employer. She said only use this if you have genuinely had a change in life circumstance e.g. You have DC and you DP has now reduced hours to take on additional childcare. If nothing substantial has changed, an employer might see this as a problem unless you get very lucky with an employer which really values this.