Work-aholic colleagues......

[Ilivetosleep]

Hey,

Would this annoy you? I started a job about 2 years ago. It's in a school. My work contract is term time only. I'm not a teacher.

I have the same job as another person who has been in the organisation for over 20 years. She has been in lots of different roles over the years but the same as me for the past 5 years. She's a really nice and supportive person. But I feel like her commit to the job is causing me issues.

I have 4 kids and share custody of my niece with her father. Two of my kids train at a high level of sports and they need taking too and from training, matches etc each week. I also see my family regularly and friends. However my colleague sadly lost her parents a few years ago. She has no siblings and no cousins etc. She is fully committed to the job. She works over weekends. Comes in and covers shifts at the weekend for free for staff that go sick. She also works throughout the school holidays. Her choice. She's not contracted to do this. She gets involved in loads of stuff going on in the school which is not in our job role.

When someone approaches me to talk about something that is not relevant to my role. I'm polite and state that this is something that maybe the deputy head maybe able to support with. And they say, it's OK, I'll just ask XX to help me. Also if I'm not avaliable out of hours they go straight to her and she just deals with it and leaves me out of the loop. I'm starting to feel a bit redundant. She dies not need to do this. As there are educational safeguarding teams which work out of hours in each Local Authority with supports around them.

I can't leave as my youngest two are attending the school on bursaries so I have to stay for the next 7/8 years.

Just for context I am highly skilled and experienced in the sector I have been employed to work in. But I also believe in professional boundaries and my own well being.

What would you do????

If she has gone beyond her remit and its creating other risks and confusion you need to raise it each time with your manager. Front line SW is so procedure driven it must be hard to move to a role where its a bit different but I also think other agencies like schools are managing and making decisions about many incidents everyday which don't reach social care threshold and that's a different approach too. I think you both probably have learning to do. But generally as a long in the tooth SW you must've worked with colleagues that were hard work and were a liability, had more or less time to do extras or took work home with them. You just need to work in the way you are comfortable with .

I'd leave her to it. Bottom line, as much as she does, God forbid she drops dead tomorrow, she'll be replaced and life will go on.

She doesn't seem to have much else going on so obviously puts her absolute all into this role and this fulfils her.

I presume she's been this way for a good while, she didn't start overnight and other staff members are well aware of her commitment- they probably take advantage, at times too. If her meddling is causing issues though, have a word with your mgr.

I think do your job to the level you feel is appropriate for you and is required and try to stop thinking about how she does her job and how others might regard her.

Let her get on with it. She has nothing better to do.

Look she has little in her life to keep her feeling valued/useful but you want to take that away from her? If she wants to give up her time let her, yes, I think people will “use” her but if it makes her feel valued what’s the problem? If anyone is going to burn out it’s more likely you as you have so many commitments.

Personally I think because she can give all this extra time it’s annoying you, but be the “bigger” person and understand it’s loneliness that drives her, something with the people around you you don’t experience?

Let her do what she wishes and you do your job. Don't worry about her. My only thing I would stay late for is a Safeguarding issue that needs you to stay.

Lecturing your boss about burnout is very patronising. I'm sure she understands her own resilience and capabilities.

Discuss it with your manager/head teacher at your next performance review - or sooner.

Are you fulfilling your contract and doing a good job?

Clarify the metrics against which you will be measured for doing a good job.

Be clear with the school what your boundaries are.

Unless safeguarding is part of your role - express concern about areas of school life you're being drawn into, which are better dealt with by trained leads.

The well-being of the school is obviously important to you, as both your children attend. So that should be a given.

But why not look at the wider school and all other employees. How much of their personal time do they invest?

I would have thought that two financial bursuries for your children, on top of your salary, would make you fairly motivated to be on an average par with everyone else for commitment to the success of the school.

But if you're feeling redundant, there's a mismatch between what you were expecting to do and what is valued. Or maybe there isn't. But discuss with your manager/head teacher.

I work with a colleague like this. Like your colleague, she is a lovely person and I get on very well with her, absolutely no bad blood to be seen.

It doesn't annoy me per say, but it annoys me when people expect the same of me. Sometimes I will get sent a task 15mins before i leave which will take me about 45 minutes to complete. My colleague has the attitude of "Its got to be done, so i'll do it" whereas I have the attitude of "They shouldn't be giving a task so late in the day and expecting it to be completed so i'll let them know il pick it up first thing in the morning" but sometimes she takes responsibility for a task I have decided to leave and then I feel bad about it.

She also never takes all her annual leave every year and says she isnt bothered about it, which i also struggle to understand.

But i bust my guts out at my last job, did loads of overtime and favours, went above and beyond for the workplace, worked all through Christmas every year and they still made me redundant when they decided they didnt want full time staff anymore so ever since then I decided i would never again prioritise my workplace over my family and life to show loyalty to my employer.

Don't worry about her boundaries OP just stick to your boundaries, unless it actually affects you.

She's worked,and been allowed to work "unprofessionally " for many years.

Just protect your self.

You do you and she do her?

you clearly don’t want to do better. Are you gonna ask someone else to take the joy out of their life so you look less bad? What would your response be if another kids mom, who works and has other commitments (ya know, like you?), came up to you and asked you to stop being so supportive of your kid - because it’s making her look bad….

Do what you need to do.
Schools are usually full of people who go the extra mile and are very involved with the community.
As you have other priorities and commitments just try to do as much as you can in the time you can give 🌞

Help where I can