Am I at risk of Redundency?

[CurlyTop1980]

For those that haven't read my boring previous posts, a bit of background....

I work in a private school- I am employed in a role that requires qualifications and a certain amount of experience. I am not a teacher. I have nearly 30 years of experience and all the qualifications. I have been at the school 4 years. 2 of my children are also on full bursaries at the school- which I was offerred to not leave (I had another job lined up, I was leaving as I was fed up with my line manager).

My line manager has been in the school for over 30 years; he has no qualifications and has worked his way up to be the manager of the group of schools in our area. All the schools have someone in my role. He oversees them. Except my role was vacant for quite a few years and he was filling my job as well as the trust lead role. I would say since I started, I have just been doing the bare minimum and not got involved in the broader role as he often just does it and doesn't include me. This is continuing.

I personally am not that bothered by redundancy. I am qualified and registered in a protected profession, and I can easily get a job elsewhere, but I am pissed off that I put my kids in the school. Basically, the head teacher's secretary informed me that enrollment is down significantly, and now they are going to review duplicate roles. She said that anyone not involved in the wider meetings or the running of the school and not doing face-to-face work will be at risk of redundancy. I think she said this without realising how this would impact me.

Now I feel sick. Before anyone says, 'Have you bought this up with him?' I have on several occasions, and nothing has changed.

WWYD?

It sounds as though you could be at risk of redundancy yes.

If your kids are on full bursaries, was that made subject to you remaining employed at the school? Do the terms of that award make any provision what happens if you don't leave voluntarily? Do your kids stand out in any way, top sports people or musicians or do you think the school would remove the funding as soon as they could?

You can dig in, start making the full job yours and make it more difficult to get rid of you but if its a role that is filled by other people in the trust set up you could all be put at risk of redundancy with the roles consolidated.

Lastly, you should start looking for a new role. Ideally you'll get redundancy and walk straight into a new job leaving the issue of school fees. Part of your exit terms should be that they complete the school year at least.

Thanks, the children could stay till the end of the school year if I am made redundant. I am regretting taking the full-time role in the school now.

I think you are being a bit fatalistic here. Your kids have already had 4 years [if they started when you started the job] and will have at least the rest of the year in what is presumably a good school giving you time to sort an alternative?
As bursary students, you can also presumably serve notice at any time without being liable for a terms fees? So you also have flexibility to walk away if they are offered a place in a suitable alternative which needs to be taken up quickly.

You sound like you have been coasting a bit, perfectly happy to have someone else do some of your role until you have now realised it's putting you at risk over others who may be more high performing?

You have the opportunity to talk to your line manager, to point out that he is excluding you. Document it carefully and put it in writing afterwards, noting that you have raised it before. You should identify things you'd like to improve and change, efficiencies you could create etc etc and to make yourself indispensable. People have remarkably short memories when it comes to selection processes like this and are quite likely to retain someone who is seen as adding value right now. Particularly if it stops more work landing on their own desks.

If nothing changes, escalate quickly to your Head Teacher.

Wow can’t believe the secretary has let this out, redundancy conversations are private, she could be in a lot of trouble for that.

Yes, the secretary shouldn’t know this information or let you know it. I’m a school secretary in private and if I heard anything I wouldn’t even dream of telling that person. TBH, I don’t really get told that side of things as it’s very cloak and dagger, as it should be.
I think I’m not immune from redundancy myself, but when I think about it, the amount of stuff I deal with. I’ve spoken to other private schools and they have 5 people in their office, I do 3 of those people’s jobs and there’s only 2 of us and the other schools have the same amount of pupils.
The Head’s PA however may know redundancy information as she is also the Clerk to the Governors.

Thanks for your post. I definitely have not been coasting. The department, when I started, was an absolute mess, as my manager didn't know how to do the job, as he has no qualifications. I have spent four years refining the front-line work and ensuring the systems are in place to ensure the students are safe. It's a huge school. As he is the trust lead, he leads on strategic stuff for the group of schools. But he won't allow me to lead on the wider organisational issues in the school I am in. He also doesn't really know what he's talking about. Basic information, such as abbreviations for commonly used industry terms.
My kids have only been in school for 6 months. Previously, they attended the local primary school.

Anyway we will see. Thanks for your comments.