Any school office staff?

[Rosee9]

Any one else working or previously worked in a school office. This is my first job back since having my Dson who is now in nursery. I’ve worked previously in offices but never a school one. I’ve been shouted at and spoke down to today for simply doing my job and passing messages on. (By parents) is this something others experience? I’m new to the role.

I was school administration, I too was shouted at for passing on messages. There wasn't a clear format or system that they wanted me to pass on important information via, if I didn't pass things on in a timely manner that was wrong also.
I also dealt with a lot of grief from parents too. And from other cluster heads and various professionals as I could never answer them in timely manners either due to not being able to speak to staff. It was stressful.
That being said there were elements I loved, it wasn't all bad and I caveat all of this by saying this was over the covid period..

Thank you. I think it’s just been one of those days. I got back to people straight away, but they were not happy with the message that I had to pass on, so I was the one being shouted at! I’ve enjoyed the role so far. I like that it’s so varied. Today was the first day it’s happened and it did get quite stressful today so I wondered if it’s a common thing.

I was a school welfare officer and it was the most miserable, toxic environment I’d ever worked in. I lasted a year. I’d never work in a school again.

The admin staff and SLT were awful to me and the parents spoke to me like I was a piece of shit.

There are days like that and if you pass on the message you suffer the consequences even though it’s nothing to do with you.
You just have to let it go I’m afraid, and have a laugh with the other staff about it.
Ive been sworn at and threatened, but so many parents were nice.
The worst for me were the total liars who tried to get you in trouble. Parents who would say you hadn’t got back to them or no one answers the phone. Luckily we got a system which logged all calls electronically showing none of it was true.

I worked in a school office.

Some of the parents were lovely, very reasonable, treated us professionally and bought us chocolate at Christmas 😁

Some parents were horrendous. Thought the sun shone out of their child's arse, their child could do no wrong, the rules didn't apply to them, they were rude, rude, rude, rude.

So unfortunately you need a thick skin and don't take it personally.

Unfortunately a daily occurrence in my school and it’s generally thought to be a nicer area. Has got a lot worse since Covid. You do get some nice parents but it’s the not so nice ones that stay with you.
I’ve worked in lots of customer service environments but never experienced anything quite like it. Teachers and SLT can also have their moments.

You need to make sure you don’t take it personally but it can be hard. We keep a log of the worse ones so if it gets too bad they can be banned from the school but that doesn’t happen very often. Make sure you share with your team and try to take it in turns (if possible) with the worse ones.

I guess what were the messages you were passing on? Looking at some of the threads on here, they are full of school admin incompetence, so I can see why some parents might be frustrated

School office staff are saints. Some of the parents are utter dicks. The staff aren't all that sometimes either.

I work in a school office.
Parents shout and are rude/abusive every single day, many times a day! I don't think I've ever had a day without at least one person being nasty.
You really need a very think skin and don't take it to heart. Lots of people don't last, as they get upset by it.
I do love my job though, that's just the downside.

There’s never any need to speak to anyone in a disrespectful way. Office staff are the epitome of ‘don’t shoot the messenger.’