How much ‘free’ work is acceptable in a Primary School

[Jaye12]

Hi Everyone,

I’m just after a bit of advice really..

I’m a School Business Manager at a Primary School, I’ve been there just over a year and on the whole I really enjoy it.

The previous School Business Manager before me was full time, 5 days a week, term time only. When she retired they restructured the job to 3 days a week (18 hours), term time only. The hours suited me well and with kids at home, term time only was ideal.

In her infinite wisdom, our Head teacher set up a WhatsApp group for all staff which goes off at all hours of the day/evenings/weekends/school holidays.
I do my best to mute the group on my non-working days etc but if I don’t respond, staff tend to phone me anyway.

I find myself having to answer queries on my non working days, there are demands on my time during the school holidays, supervising contractors etc for jobs that can’t be done when the children are learning during term time.

Today, (Saturday and in the school holidays) a teacher rang me to tell me that she couldn’t log on remotely to our school system to download something from her email and ‘could I go in to check the server’

Is this reasonable?

Staff seem to assume that as School Business Manager I’m paid a fortune but I only earn £14k a year as it’s part time, term time only.

It feels to me that the role is a full time role and the school have tried to save money by making it part time, but I am doing so much unpaid work that I am starting to resent it a bit.

Any advice on how I should proceed with this would be welcome.

Thanks for listening to my rant x

Archive the group and make it clear that you are unavailable outside your working hours.

I changed my status on my work phone on WhatsApp to ‘please note, I work X day to X day’. I also leave my phone at work on my desk (where my colleagues can see) when not on and not on call

This is all completely unreasonable. Don't reply outside of your working hours!

Find your inner 'No'. Set out your boundaries. Delete yourself from the WhatsApp group and tell the school they can reach you via email during your working hours only.

I think you need to tell them in the group, by email, or face to face in a staff meeting that you're not full time and while you'll try and help with reasonable requests, you won't always get to them straight away and that it's inappropriate to phone you about things outside your working hours if you haven't replied "fast enough" for their liking in the group, and you maybe also need to talk to your line manager about the possibility that the school might need to rethink this being a 3 day a week job. Everyone in a school pretty much is doing unpaid overtime but it sounds like you're being massively taken advantage of.
Also, stop picking up the phone to these people when they ring on your days off!

I meant to add - I am a full-time teacher and we are not supposed to even email colleagues outside of working hours, never mind Whatsapp them or ring them!

You have to be firm that you are not able to respond on your days off, however, I work in the Finance Department of a large secondary school, appreciate primary is different, our SBM is Full time 52 weeks and I don’t see how this role could be part time. The work load is enormous, I do Finance, HR and Facility Hire and work slightly longer hours than you and really struggle to fit it all in. Our FD is really supportive though in saying we shouldn’t have our emails on our phones etc and we should schedule send emails etc but it is tough.

There is just an expectation in schools I think and like you say the pay is very poor.

Sorry I haven’t really given you much advice just my sympathies really. Oh and I would leave the WhatsApp too.

Thanks Everyone, it’s helpful to have the support. My husband gets really annoyed with it. I thought he was going blow a gasket this morning when a teacher rang me to ask me to actually ‘go in and check on our computer system’ - I live approx 20 miles away from the school. I didn’t go in, I’ll hasten to add or reply even.

It doesn’t feel like the job can be done in 3 days a week, it always was 5 days before me, but saving money in the budget by making it 3 days now. There’s obviously quite a bit that needs doing around the school during school holidays as it’s easier to get this done when the children aren’t there but should I have to go in to supervise all this? I’m not paid for it, just seems expected.

I don’t know, it’s a great job but it’s tough to keep on top of. You are all correct, I need to be tougher and stricter about my time outside of my hours. No one is going to step up to help with contractors etc in the holidays though. Perhaps I need to put this back to my headteacher..

Our Facilities Manager oversees all the work that takes place in our school, although we work with him on budgeting, planning etc it is not our job to be in school when this is happening.

Do you have a site manager/caretaker? I know lots of primaries have cut these to save money too.

Leave the WhatsApp group and change your settings so nobody from work can add you to groups. Only check your work email on working days and put an out of office reply on.

The school used to have a caretaker but when he left, the school made the decision not to replace. There are no plans to recruit one.

Stop answering. Offer to do the odd day of overtime if they need (and you want to). Start saying you've taken on a class or have another responsibility on your day off if you need to.

You work the hours and no more. If the school needs more support then it needs to pay for it. As a school governor I know how much demand there is on this role and it is definitely not a part time role in our school.

Your school has a work culture problem.

Schools do expect work for free. So do lots of industries. This is taking the complete piss though. A few queries out of hours is one thing (and up to you if you respond to them, there should be no expectation).

A few extra hours around special events, or occasional twilight training, or missing breaks here and there, or an hour or so of overtime a week to finish things off properly - fine, no real issue with me. What you're describing though? Absolutely fuck that. I'd push back to zero extra out of contract, to get the head used to the actualities of the hours they've hired for. I would genuinely laugh if I was asked to come in unpaid in the holidays. Mute your work contacts until after the holiday and urgently discuss this with your line manager with the new term.

Schools have habits of 'forgetting' support staff have fixed hours, rather than 'hours needed to fulfil the role,' like the teaching staff, ime...

Do not do unpaid overtime.

Do not go supervise worksduring the holidays, and certainly not unpaid.

Cutting the facility manager job means that the headteacher does that job. Or hires a new one. Or pays you to do it. Which you'll need a new contract for.

This is unacceptable in any part time job! I’m NHS and work WhatsApp is banned and it’s a disciplinary offence if you set one up for work related communication.
Put a message out that, as your only part time this group is very intrusive on your days off when you’re very busy with other things.
Request all communication is via email and advise everyone of your days of work. Have an out of office on for your days off.
Don't answer your phone to any of them on your day off. They’ll soon get the message!

All school budgets are screwed, but you shouldn't bear the brunt of it. I'd archive the group when you clock off the for the week and say you're not available outside of working hours; you're not getting paid to be on call, and it's not unreasonable to draw boundaries.

This sounds like a ‘you’ problem because you’re asking if it’s unreasonable, which it completely is; the fact you don’t realise this and don’t have any boundaries around work, regardless of what people expect, is something you need to work on.

Wow, they are massively taking the proverbial.

This a completely unacceptable

I think I might be heading for divorce if I don’t get on top of it 😂 (just joking) - my husband reckons that I could earn the £14k at a supermarket and my hours would be set!

(he also reckons I’m setting a bad example to our teenager that this kind of thing is ‘the norm’ but that’s another thread altogether!)

thanks for pitching in everyone! Really appreciated

Make it clear to everyone, either tell them on the chat or in person, that due to other commitments you will only be taking messages or calls just one hour before and one hour after your normal working hours on your normal working days.

That’s fair..

Sounds like they want you to be a caretaker and business manager full time and get paid for part time. Completely unacceptable. Your free time is yours and unless your job description stated caretaker work/ being available 24/7 then just say no!!!

Next time someone contacts you, remind them that you work X hours a week on these days and times, term time only, and are unavailable at any other time without prior agreement. You will therefore respond to their query on your next working day.