Asked to do work on my days off

[blackbettybramblejam]

I work 2.5 days in one school and 2 days in another. Life is busy but I always get absolutely everything done and dusted from the first school on a Tuesday ready for the following week so that when I go to my other school I can just focus on that.

The first school have decided to employ a mix of TAs and a supply teacher for the last half of the week when I’m not there neither of whom have to do any of the background work just turn up and essentially babysit.

Last night (after a day at my other school) I received a text from my head of year at the other school asking for me to complete some (quite complicated) data entry ready for Monday but I have said no because I don’t have any time between now and then to get that done. She didn’t reply and now I’m worried that there is some kind of atmosphere between her and I.

What do you think about this?

Thanks for reading.

I think that’s reasonable. More teachers need to start saying no to ridiculous workloads, don’t get paid enough and the sector relies on goodwill (aka working for free) x

I’d had said “no” too. And explained that I’d have needed more notice that they would want this information from me, and I could give them the data by .... whenever you feel you could reasonably do it.

Thank you. Yes I did say I could try and get it done on Monday morning when I come in but not before.
I know it’s that she is receiving pressure from higher up but someone has to have boundaries or the job just eats me alive!

Ah well. Either she is disorganised to not let you know sooner (not your problem) or whoever’s pressurising her from higher up is disorganised (agree you may sympathise but still not your problem). Just do it as soon as reasonably possible, smile sweetly and say tat in future you’d appreciate more notice of requests like this.

I had this - I think it was through ignorance / not thinking rather than anything else, or at least I gave them the benefit of the doubt.
I worked at two jobs two days each week and free-lanced one day.
From my experience, the most important change I made was never to use the words 'time off' and to correct anyone who did 'I work at A then' 'That's one of my Job A days'.
When, like you, I was asked to do a task at late notice that would have to be done during non-work days for Job A, I actually emailed back saying 'I might be able to arrange it if Job B employers were amenable, so which time slot could I swap from my Job A hours the following week in exchange?' That made them realise they would not be happy with the opposite situation and they started being more realistic.
In practice, I do answer emails from either job on any day, so there is a fairness across the jobs, but if the question can't be answered quickly I write 'I will deal with this on Monday, which is my next Job A day'.
You do also have to watch for the fact that all part time education jobs in my experience push for more work than the expectation of the similar proportion of the full time job. So sometimes just saying 'I am not sure how this can be done within my 0.4 - can we talk about how you see this working with my other responsibilities?' does the trick to bring it back to a more reasonable level of expectation.

I suspect the OP's time will be respected more as she has another job on her days off, majority (I suspect) of part time teachers are looking after children on theirs and that is never credited as being "work".
Having said that, in the OP's case they aren't respecting her time commitments!
Unless this was a massive emergency (inspection starting Monday!) kind of thing you were absolutely right Op.

Thank you all. Still no reply from her so I’m expecting a frosty reception on Monday morning but hey ho! I can’t be in 2 places at once!

I agree with Scarby that it helps to think about the language you use.
Rather than "No" {full stop} , perhaps "I will have a look on one of the days I am working at {insert school's name}"

I also use the positive approach of "I'm happy to do {insert whatever task is the priority that week}, but if you need that information, can you let me know what you want me to leave this week as you are obviously aware you are paying me to do 0.4 of the full time job, so obviously I can't be expected to do all of .... {insert.....the data / reports / trackig / planning / parnts evenings / playground duties / assemblies / whatever }"

@blackbettybramblejam

Thank you all. Still no reply from her so I’m expecting a frosty reception on Monday morning but hey ho! I can’t be in 2 places at once!

Was there a frosty reception yesterday? I hope not!

Hmm. I did find out that it had been dumped on her on Thursday hence the last minute request. She is very young and seems to allow the school to push her around so there’s the rub, she’s my line manager but I have stronger boundaries around my non-directed time.
It was okay although I do have an interview lined up for this Thursday because the thought of going back there in September is making my stomach hurt!