I work for a GTA as an English Tutor. I am part of a team of English and maths staff, who all have the same contract. There is 1 member of staff who has a slightly different set of responsibilities, as such he has a different contract and slightly higher pay.
When I started 4 years ago, all tutors had the same work load. We all shared responsibility for covering each other equally. This changed 2 years ago when the new English and maths manager started.
We work within other vocational departments in pairs, offering English and Maths tuition to their learners. In my department, the company have been struggling to recruit and retain a maths tutor. We had a really lovely guy in the role for 5 months, but the company had various disagreements with him and he was asked to leave 4 months ago. Prior to him, we had some supply for the odd week but no permanent member of staff for over 2 years.
I applied and interviewed solely for an English job, in the department I work for when I started.
Because of the difficulty with maths I have been told to cover the classes. I hate maths and I’m not very good at it. There are other maths tutors who could cover, but they don’t want to work for my department as it is a bit challenging. I asked for maths training but I was just sent some power points to use with the learners, which went over my head. I was very anxious about teaching maths and I paid for a private tutor to improve my skills. I was determined to try to help the learners as best as I can.
I have now been covering maths for 20 weeks alongside teaching English. This is possible as we only have a small number of learners at this point in the year. I haven’t been able to take any holidays while there has been no maths tutor because the other tutors do not want to cover for me. I have covered them for holidays/illness but they do not cover me back. I am also expected to cover within the department I work in. No one else in the maths and English team provide cover for the department they work within. Just me.
Now the colleague who is on slightly higher pay is leaving. Once again they have not recruited. I have been told they will alter my timetable to cover his classes, on top of my English classes and maths. I have been told this is for another 8 weeks.
By the time this is over I will have covered for 29.5 weeks since August. The way they get me to cover is by combining my classes with the cover classes, even if they are doing different things. As we have been working remotely, class size is not an issue.
I have bipolar disorder, which the company are fully aware of. They know that, as part of my needs, I require support with change as it causes me a lot of anxiety. I am extremely anxious about covering another role again, but work say as there is no cover policy, it is tough and I have to do it.
I feel it is very unfair that, despite having the same contract as the other English tutors, I am doing a lot more cover. The next largest amount of cover is 6 days. I also feel it is hard for me to take holidays because no one in English and maths will cover me and I’m asked to hold off having time off while there is a shortage of staff, but other English and maths tutors are not. I feel a bit disappointed that, despite being the top performing English tutor and trying really hard to manage my illness, the company continually put me in a position where the workload is very hard to manage and makes me very anxious. We have ‘welfare meetings’ but these are essentially 5 minute chats where I’m repeatedly told that I need to meet the needs of the business.
I’ve been to my union, work said they have no bargaining agreement with them. I would quit, but when I’m not being asked to continually cover, this is the best job I’ve ever had, it is local, I love the people I work with, the hours fit well with being a parent, it makes me really happy. I truly love it. Until recently it was perfect. I am willing to let holidays go, I’m willing to cover maths, but I don’t want all the cover to fall permanently on me all the time. When other tutors have their quieter periods they can catch up on admin or planning or marking. We don’t get school holidays, so that time is essential. I haven’t had that time for 4 months, and my workload is going to increase again. With holidays, I’m now almost too scared to ask when I can be off. I loved this job because I used to be able to take my holidays as and when and with a young ds, that works really well. But now I get most of my holidays declined for business reasons.
I just don’t know what to do. If I say something work will just say “tough”. If I don’t say anything I can’t help but think I’ll just be the company dogsbody forever. They may also blame me for not speaking up if the additional stress does affect my mental health and I go off. It’s really making me miserable and it’s causing my bipolar to destabilise.
I’m so sorry it’s so long. I don’t know where else to ask for advice. If anyone can advise me I’d appreciate it. Am I right to raise an issue with the parity between myself and others, especially with regard to cover? Or is it just a suck it up situation?