No contact from school

[Nicmummyteacher]

Hi all.

I have currently been signed off work sick due to stress and burnout for the last 5 weeks(including the holidays) and during that time I haven’t heard anything from my headteacher to see how I am or what changes can be made to help me come back to work. I also haven’t heard anything from our school’s well-being officer. The only person I’ve heard from is the school office manager as she handles my sick notes. I am actually quite shocked and disgusted by this. Is this normal to have no contact from the HT?

Yes, they are not supposed to contact you whilst you are signed off

Not normal. We usually invite employees in to a meeting within 4 weeks of long term absence as that is the policy.

Absolutely normal. Any contact could be construed as harassment. Your absence policy should tell you what the next steps are.

The only contact I’ve had is from our school business manager who I send my sock notes to. I can understand from a ‘don’t want to be seen as harassing you’ kind of thing but if the reasons I’m off sick is because of particular working conditions I was under, which they are aware of, surely they have a duty of care to contact to me to try and make changes to my working conditions to get me back sooner

Do you not have a back to work interview as part of the absence process?

Yes totally normal not to contact, having said that though, as a HT I like to check in on the wellbeing of the colleagues and I’ve been known to send flowers/small gift to colleagues that have been on LTS. All out of my own pocket.

good96 that’s a really thoughtful gesture. I bet your colleagues really appreciate the kindness. That isn’t something my HT would do. She likes to stay well clear of anything like this in case unions might be involved etc. she probably thinks that because it is a work related stress, I’m looking/applying for a new job. She’ll have written me off already. About a month before I went off sick, she had heard that I had a bit of a ‘wobble’ at school and when she came to see me, instead of asking what she can do as the leader of the school to help me, she asked if I was going to leave in July. Sad really

I think perhaps you need to be proactive here. As others have said, the school is not supposed to contact you when you are off sick, and they will be especially careful with work related stress.

If you would like to discuss your return to work, then I think the best thing to do would be to arrange a meeting with the head/your line manage and ideally your union rep too, to discuss the situation. Explain that you want to return to the school, but that will only be possible if certain working conditions change, and see what happens.

What are the working conditions, and do they only apply to you or are they part of a wider problem?