To feel awful for my sister, i don’t know how to help her?

[DurableMatts]

My sister is a primary school teacher. She has been Job sharing her post for the last 3 years (2days 1 week and 3days the next) she is now ready to go back full time from sept as her dd will be in school. ( and will be attending the school she teaches in) she is so nervous to notify her school because the woman who has been doing the job share with has had a really tough time lately and has had to leave her dh. Now I know this woman probably will be able to find another job but it will be a drive away and you guesses it (she doesn’t drive) she lives a short walk from the school. She knows this other woman is very emotional and has herself all worked up over how she will react to the news. When she renewed the job share last year the other teacher made a flippant comment about how after all this time she considered the job share a given. She is sick at the thought of it all kicking off this week and I’m so worried about her.
We are in Ireland and this is how the system works here, a job share usually is a post shared by someone who owns the full time post as such.

Well your sister just needs to toughen up. Would the other woman hesitate to take the job full time, if your sister was somehow indisposed? No she would not.

im not sure what you’re hoping for from the post. It is nice your sister isn’t heartless enough to not care about this lady, but her and her family need to be her priority. She can’t just not move jobs because it might cause her a problem. Be there to reassure her but she’s just going to have to get on with it.

This sounds like a shit deal for the secondary person in the job share - very insecure. Does this mean the main teacher can decide to go back to full time on a whim or will your sister need to wait until they renew the next contract?

What notice will the other teacher get?

So the other teacher is on a fixed term contract? If so this was inevitable, if not the school will have to find work for both of them

I’ve tried the “it’s not your job to be worried about her” speech etc. she has herself in knots over this. If she was off ill it would still be he job for some time as she would be on sick leave and so then the other half of the post would be offered to the other teacher albeit temporarily. But the other teacher wants a job share from what I can see. Which is what I don’t understand as she is aware the post is not “hers” the hours are my sisters and she can take them back any time!

Also these sort of things are so much worse when you are in the run up and worrying about doing them. Hopefully she’ll feel a lot better when she has actually told them and realises it wasn’t all that bad.

The notice is from this week for return to full time in September afaik

It is insecure I suppose but that’s the risk. Yes job share must be a minimum of a year I think.

Wow hopefully someone with better knowledge of schools in Ireland can give advice on this one. It seems very unfortunate that someone can be in a job share for 3 years and then kicked out if the original post holder changes their mind about their hours.
Is there the possibility that they would be able to take on another position in the school?

I agree that if this is the way it works then it isn't your sister's problem, but it seems like a really shitty system.

This cannot happen in English (can only speak for T & C here) - if you go p/t, that's your permanent contract going forward. And I'm glad it is.

It's not your sister's fault - that's the terms that job shares sign up to. It's unfortunate but the job was accepted on those terms and there's a lengthy notification period.

There's a lot wrong with the system but the terms are well documented and understood by those working in it.

Yeah the post is owned by the original post holder I don’t think there’s such a thing as a permanent job share although I could stand corrected on that.

Well this is quite enlightening as in England once someone drops their hours, that becomes their contract and if they decide they want to go back to full time then they can't just do that unless the hours are available.
What a harsh system in Ireland (although I do recall years ago someone saying it's hard to find teaching jobs in Ireland, they trained here and wanted to go back, but it was really competitive and tricky, maybe this is why!).

That sounds an odd system, but if that's the way it is in Ireland, presumably everyone is aware of the situation?!

When she renewed the job share last year the other teacher made a flippant comment about how after all this time she considered the job share a given

Considering how worked up your sister has got over this situation, it would have been very sensible and kind of her to have told the jobshare last year that she was planning on coming back full time in a year when her child was starting school. That would have avoided all this.

To be honest she wasn’t planning to, she was planning on having another baby but her dh is somewhat ill (although not life threatening) and the can’t conceive until he is finished his treatment (the medication can have an effect on his sperm) and that will be on and off for a year or so I think.

This is how it works. When you are job sharing with someone else, only the person in the baseschool holds the role. They are the one with the permanent job.

You choose to jobshare with this person knowing that its not your job and that person will return after at least 1 year. You do it for convenience...perhaps you want to work part-time yourself, perhaps its a stopgap, or a chance to suss the school. There is nothing stopping the secondary teacher from applying for another more permanent role in that school.

Yeah it’s a completely different system here tbf

When she renewed the job share last year the other teacher made a flippant comment about how after all this time she considered the job share a given.

The other teacher should not have said that. How odd. Does she not understand the concept of job share?

Yes this. Thank you @BoundaryGirl3939 ☺️ wasn’t sure if I was explaining it right

Is this the same sister you thought had won the lotto last week, but you were too scared to ask?! 😂

I think this other teacher, and this is just what my sister has told me is quite manipulative at times in an emotional sense. She turns on waterworks etc a lot and makes mountains out of molehills. I think she was hoping my sister would get pregnant soon so she could do that mat leave too? I don’t know if that would have got her on the panel for a permanent role then but the fact that she doesn’t drive baffles me as the permanent post she could end up being given could be miles away technically. Again I have a vague understanding of the system so I stand to be corrected.

No this is my other sister 🤣🤣 the baby

It’s not your sister’s fault but I think she could have preempted this by making it clear last year, where the woman she shares with commented about the job being a given, what her imminent plans were.

My brother job shared as a teaching assistant last year. Other teaching assistant held the post. He knew damn well that the offer of another job sharing year depended on whether or not she would re-apply for another year if job sharing.

It no longer suited him so he applied for a full-time teaching assistant post in another school.

Bit cheeky of that teacher to assume the job-sharing would last forever. Not fair to guilt trip your sister. Its not your sisters problem.

Sucks for the other person but you're both being a lot ott. Your title sounds like she's in mortal danger.