AIBU to think the teacher sickie story is not newsworthy?

[Imdefonotmaddona]

A teacher pulled a “ sickie “ to attend a stag do.

so he told them he was vomiting but instead went to Portugal for a stag do.
but despite lying was not banned from teaching.

this has been on on social media and news like BBC.

I get he did wrong but am I the only one a bit confused why it’s news worthy 🤣

I feel a little sorry for him. I understand he done wrong but surely this it not the level of misconduct that needs to his face splashed over the news ?

Agree. Slap on the wrist appropriate for this if just a one off.

I agree. It's not career ending worthy.
Bloke pulls a sickie to go to a party. Big fucking deal 🙄

I said this to my husband. You'd think he'd just have been fired from the school for gross misconduct - I'm surprised it went further. If he's done it once, is that any worse than people who are constantly off throughout the year with dubious reasons? Is going on a stag inherently worse than staying off cos you want to sort your house out or have a lie in or whatever?

I think it'll actually help people realise that teachers are never allowed to take time off in term time. Some seem to think that they can on top of having school holidays! They have no flexibility- parent or child funeral seems to be about the only circs in many schools. Most couldn't take a day for a friend's wedding for example, no matter how far in advance they knew about it.

So obviously he shouldn't have done it, but the attempts at teacher bashing might actually backfire this time.

There needs to be more flexibility in teaching, surely that's the story?

It might retain teachers.

I haven't seen this story but I'll hazard a guess it's most prominent in the Mail and Express, the raison d'etre of which is to get dim people spluttering with rage into their cornflakes about anything vaguely public sector or 'left wing'. Nobody sensible will think it's a big deal.

Only in teaching would this be an issue 😂 let a man live. The amount of staff I have off on long term sick rn, shows the culture of the school if he didn’t feel able to ask for those days unpaid and also another member of staff he’s obviously friendly with telling on him?!

If you’re destroying legal documents to cover your lies in a safeguarding role then it’s not great is it

But you’re here giving the story more oxygen!

What else would he be willing to falsify to ensure he doesn’t get into trouble? Not the sort of person that should be a teacher

I work in elderly care. If staff pull sickies then those elderly people who were relying on staff to get them up, fed, toileted, clean and dry have to now wait far longer for that same help. And the colleagues have to run around non-stop to make up for the shortfall. And do you know what? It’s a f*ing job. Everyone pulls sickies from time to time (admittedly I never have, but still…) and the company just has to deal with it and have alternatives in place. It shouldn’t fall on the colleagues and the service users shouldn’t be affected. If you run a care home, a hospital or a school it’s your job to have contingency plans. A teacher should not he held to some astronomically high standard and essentially struck off for not going into their job one day. That’s ridiculous.

I did wonder why it was in the news, not news worthy at all but why would some one inform the media in the first place. Very odd.

I mean, he probably was vomiting.

Surely this highlights how rigid the teaching profession is?

Teachers often aren’t allowed to attend any personal occasions such as their children’s/grand children’s sports days/assemblies/sharing afternoons. They can’t attend weddings of close people that are on a week day. Even funerals are frowned upon unless it’s a close family member.

There’s no flexibility. I know someone who went to a football match abroad (massive game for their team) and lied about it so they could go.

Another person I know had to miss a prestigious event that their partner was attending to receive an award. They were told they couldn’t attend as it wasn’t their husband (!) and they were leading assembly that day.

What people don’t realise is that more and more teachers are leaving due to the inflexibility, the need to put other people’s children ahead of your own, the fact that calling in when generally sick is frowned upon etc. Then parents moan about the lack of decent teachers and how they all keep leaving.

I personally feel that teachers should get a few days flexi to be able to be normal human beings.

All that's happened here is that the school has outed itself as a terrible place to work for referring the case in the first place.

Teachers need to be given some flexi days so that they can live normal lives. Otherwise we're never going to be able to fully staff schools.

Very true. I never saw any of my children's day time productions, sports days etc.

Funerals were problematical. I was ok - relatives thoughtfully died in holidays and for others my school was generally supportive.

Many colleagues were not popular if they had medical + dental appointments during the school day.

Technically - he could have been vomiting - just the order of events/anticipation of vomiting was wrong.

My, teacher, daughter gets 1 per year. Soon lost to medicine/appointments etc.

In my last but one school I got 1 day every 7 years - and that was after 14 years!
The thing was no one was counting!

I agree, obviously he’s done wrong, got found out and should face disciplinary action. But why it’s made the news is a mystery to me. It’s not like he hurt one of his students, embezzled school funds or anything truly serious. Having his face splashed across the media seems disproportionate to the ‘crime’.

I also feel sorry for him. You can just imagine it all happen. His friends telling him to pull a sickie, him knowing that he definitely won’t get the time off. Then some fool puts in on facebook!

I once worked at a school where every member of staff could have one day off a year and it was covered internally.

The right wing press are on a mission to discredit public sector workers and any profession that requires any degree of intelligence.

Fascism 101.

Teacher of 26 years.

I wasn't allowed UNPAID time off for best friend's weekday wedding - I was supposed to be a bridesmaid.
I wasn't allowed UNPAID time off for my uncle's funeral.
When my child was in hospital, having emergency surgery to save her life, I was allowed one day UNPAID.
I could go on...

People talk about the amount of time off we have- most of which is unpaid - but, in reality, we have no flexibility. I know some schools will allow time off, but it most certainly isn't all.

I don't blame him for lying. There are many times that I wish I had.

Teachers are being held to the most ridiculous standards, along with having an insane workload. Given the amount of burnout and also teachers on long term sick, requiring the extensive use of supply teachers there's probably a call for teachers being able to book a couple of days off across the school year, as long as it doesn't clash with the never ending cycle of testing and exams.

I hope he had a fantastic time.

I’ve read in comments that the teacher has since been diagnosed with MND.

Had a colleague who called in sick for Glastonbury. I didn’t care - she worked rly hard and still had to create all the cover lessons. Teachers don’t get to do a lot of things due to the job so I don’t see the harm for one off occasions…

I was given a voucher by headteacher fir half a day off during the year, but then was never allowed to actually use it! 😅