AIBU to tell team members to forfeit their breaks

[Suedesofblue]

Team member 1: came unprepared to meeting and needed to use one of my pens. Unprofessional. She is being groomed for a role in another office where manager would definitely make her forfeit her breaks for that, so it’s important she learns now.

Team member 2: Left annotated document at home which means I have to fit it in tomorrow instead of today. It is only five minutes of work, but again that’s not the point. They should have remembered.

Team member 3: Briefing team and a team member takes his suit jacket off in the middle of it, which meant I had no choice but to disrupt the meeting for everyone in order to apprehend him.

Before I worked out that this was an analogy, I was thinking of sensible ways to handle this at work - coaching the colleagues as to strategies for being organised, finding what works for them amongst the multiple planning tools that are available; and in terms of non-adherence to dress code, taking this up in a one-to-one rather than in front of others.

Those strategies could work with schoolchildren, but I suppose the difference is that if someone at work has to borrow a pen, it wouldn't normally trigger a ripple of low-level disruption amongst their peers and delay the meeting getting going, which is the danger of that kind of thing in a classroom.

I am strongly against dress codes in school or work that mandate the wearing or not wearing of jackets, jumpers etc. People of all ages should be free to choose what they need to wear to maintain a comfortable temperature - we are all different in that respect. By all means have prescribed uniform garments but make it that the minimum is socks, shoes, trousers/skirt and blouse/shirt (and tie, if they must, pointless things that they are) and anything else is optional.

My kids are disciplined, well behaved, and not subjected to this level of ridiculous control at school or home.

Agree

Lol who the hell do you think you are? You are not their parent. You sound like an awful boss if this is the way you think.

I agree with point OP makes . I am a teacher and it’s crazy how punitive schools are . I think she’s made a good satirical point. Unfortunately we are as bullied as the kids and SLT come after you if you’re not logging/ punishing kids in the way OP describes. Good on you OP . Well made comment!

call the police for having to borrow a pen and as for taking of a jacket - death by firing squad

lie someone said if this related to children and you are the teacher you need to leave the profession or take a very long holiday with a lot of therapy to discuss why you behave and think like this

The other thing that people who complain about this sort of thing don't get is the low level disruption that is unchecked often also spins off into bullying of those who want to learn.
And those who are happy to learn, but struggle with concentration, so these constant interruptions make it impossible - so then they give up.

Maybe we should split the schools again.

Parents can do it by their choice, simple tick box:

1. I will support the school and their rules
2. I won't support rules that I don't agree with

I'll put bets that very shortly schools #2 will have parents complaining that their child, who is the most honest, never lies, and is free spirited but would never be rude, is not learning anything and wanting to change their child to #1.

I'm a little confused about the op's intent but is an interesting discussion point around taking people's breaks away.At work the breaks are mandatory so perhaps it should be the same for school.

I know school rules can seem ridiculous but seriously bringing a pen to class is a basic need! Organising yourself to have homework/ paperwork ready at a deadline is a basic need.

TBH I’m surprised autocorrect didn’t help with ‘distroy’ (it just did here!) since AFAIK it’s not in any standard dictionary.

Must be a joke thread no one is this stupid.

Bring back corporal punishment for those serious misdemeanors.

This

We teach students how to ask to remove blazers in French or Spanish, handy knowing how to use the modal verb from week one. Couldn’t care less if their blazers are on/off in class, I’ll check before they leave class or they will be reprimanded (but not apprehended!) by management. If they don’t have a pen, they are told that it’s poor organisation but I’ll just give them one, it’s pointless wasting more time on such a trivial matter, particularly if they had one run out, one break, one lost, for example.

This has made me laugh 😂

How about

Team members 1-1874 are currently streaming out along the corridors, down staircases and through the entrances. 360, 375, 395 and 417 decide that because 1834-1874 are under five foot tall and weigh around 6 stone apiece that the appropriate way to vacate the premises is to plough down one flight of stairs using their combined mass and velocity comparable to that of a rabid hippopotamus in pursuit of somebody threatening its infant to send the smaller team members scattering like skittles.

Team members 754 and 791 do not like one another. Apparently it's because 760 says that 791 looked at 734 who 754's friend 763 likes that 723's sister's aunt's dog's cousin 773's friend 877 went to a party and says that 734 posted a TikTok that might have been meant to be about 752's friend saying that snakes are poisonous and 936 posted a heart which means that 791 is trying to make 744 like them. So 722 is now tearing clumps of hair out of 791 whilst 845, 634-670 and half of the 820-876s and four of 23-86 inclusive are caught in the middle of this.

325 has disclosed that they have been the subject of severe abuse to somebody from facilities, so HR have been contacted but are currently involved with issues arising from the representative of 137 declaring that it's all a conspiracy and they are going to contact the local paper about the targeted bullying of 137, 289 and an ex team member from 1996 who was unfairly dismissed following an incident where a chair flew up by magic and wrapped itself around a previous supervisor's head before rotating midair to escape through a second floor window. And whilst facilities is engaged with 325, a toilet has spontaneously blocked itself with somebody's PE kit and all of the paper towels and fallen off the wall.

338's representative is also demanding to see the CEO right now because the industry wide regulatory body's decision regarding contracted hours do not apply to them and in any case, it's not their fault that holidays during the contractual leave periods are more expensive and they should therefore be able to take additional leave without it affecting their remuneration package, key performance indicators or final review.

All the current supervisory team want to do is hold the training, meetings and some teambuilding activities so that everybody makes it to the end of their contract term with the best summative appraisal results they could possibly have. Oh, and maybe occasionally have a day of their unpaid, uncontracted employment time that doesn't involve working or thinking about what further nonsense is awaiting them either in person or via electronic means.

If this about being a school teacher perhaps you could be lax on all the ridiculous rules whilst the children are in your classroom. They will pick up on it and appreciate it.

Then you and a few reasonable teachers campaign for better fairer rules for everyone.

Thank god my school only had basic school uniform rules and didn't make us freeze or boil to death with dumb blazer rules. I couldn't cope with this nonsense for me or any potential children of mine. Absolutely unnecessary to have these rules and doesn't teach kids anything about the real world.

team member 2 now swinging on his chair asks "why do we have to have a meeting about this, it's a load of bollocks anyway, my Mum says I don't have to do it if I don't want to".

Can I steal this line the next time I'm invited to a completely pointless meeting? 😂

I’m a retired teacher. I feel schools need to be allowed to concentrate on the academics with less other stuff and less pointless paperwork. I retired early because of that and workplace bullying - those things together caused burnout.

@Suedesofblue someone's hitler hat is becoming too tight for them!!!! illegal to make employees work without breaks so stop havering a lot of rubbish!!

@Suedesofblue this whole thread is a lot of drivel! who says it is a lot of school pupils???

But not, apparently, illegal to do same to school kids. Which is point she is making. As a teacher of 25 years I am with Op.

So where does OP make that clear?!

@Suedesofblue but where does she state that it is schoolkids she is talking about? why call them a team??

Satire