The whinge thread

[clvrlad]

problem solved just been offered a better soloution
more hours=pay rise
better days off= can still go see my friends
on the phone= still no actual meeting
its not the best solution but itll work for now

[Bunnylump]

Ah well, at least there have been some good outcomes. I'm pleased for you about the wage rise, and that you have managed to negotiate the days off a bit. Shame they had to treat you so badly beforehand though.

[LAT]

sounds a definite improvement clvrlad. Very pleased for you.

[Bunnylump]

Started work at 8 15am, didn't finish until 6pm. Got paid for 5 hours. Exam period is here with a vengeance and it's pandemonium. We can't get enough staff and the powers that be have decided they can't pay anyone extra hours. Funnily enough though, they CAN pay for yet another senior leadership team person...mutter mutter chiefs / indians mutter mutter...

[MBH]

We can't get enough staff and the powers that be have decided they can't pay anyone extra hours..

I'm interested --- what is their rationale for either (a) not paying you for the hours worked, or (b) expecting you to work the hours when you know you're not getting paid?


Working where I do with the prospective / feared 'cuts' expected, I can see all the non-customer-facing management levels scrambling to justify why their work is so important

I don't think I'm breaking any confidences in saying that there is now a 'stop' on bringing people in from outside the Council to fill roles that become vacant. So if they lose a Library staff member, the rest 'spread out' a bit to cover until someone decides they fancy stopping being a gardener (for instance) and wants to be a library assistant instead.

This is all well and good when you have 90 (<- guess) library staff to 'spread out a bit' - but my assistant retired at the end of March and there's no sign of a job advert.... It is a 2-man project, and there is only so far I can 'spread out' [OK - the waist-line is donig it's best, but.....]

When I'm out doing a session on the bus - which is a 2-person job for health and safety reasons if nothing else - then I get 'cover' for that 2-hour stint from the pool of library assistants - BUT that doesn't remove the fact that it is at least a 1 1/2 person if not a 2 person project.

While I'm preparing reports or validating budgets, I haven't got a cover person cleaning and hoovering the bus [which John did].

While I'm sorting out the diary for the next 6-week block, there is no-one typing in the statistics or making sure the bus has fuel in it.

Due to my nature and background, this doesn't bother me - what gets done, gets done - what doesn't, doesn't. But I've got a nasty suspicion I'm going to have to defend my corner against those 'chiefs' that Bunny talks about - those that spend a larger proprtion of their time documenting why they are so important rather than actually doing the good things and not documenting them.

...............

WOW - where the heck did that come from? I didn't mean to type that lot, it just flowed out Guess it must have been on my mind

[gill216]

I suspect that Bunny isn't compelled to work those extra hours without pay and that she could leave at her specified time. Because she is dedicated to the youngsters she won't do so.

MBH- my OH is in a very similar position to you- except he knows that he will at least face partial redundancy around xmas time ( He has 2 part time contracts which equate to full time employment at the moment- one of those contracts WILL go). He has absorbed so much of others work and spread himself out so much that there is nowhere else for him to spread to.

For anyone in a similar position, arm yourself with facts. Ring ACAS- they will give free advice on what you are entitled to expect from your employers. Ring your pension fund if you have one, it may benefit you to take a reduced pension earlier long term -if you are at the right age. You can gain by doing so.

Beware taking voluntary redundancy- if you have mortgage protection insurance you may invalidate the policy, you may also forfeit your right to unemployment benefit.

I hope this may help anyone in a similar position, and if I can help anyone please shout up.
I'm no expert but I do have enough knowledge to make life easier in what can be a minefield.

[Bunnylump]

The problem is, MBH, that they don't appreciate the passion that you put into your job. It's only when problems start occurring (because you can't possibly do all this on your own) that THEY have to deal with that THEY will try to resolve them. Of course the danger is that if THEY could choose the lazy option of just stopping the project altogether.

In my case, no, there is no compulsion for me to work these silly hours. My problem is that I can't bear to do a shoddy / incomplete job, and, worse of all, if I don't do it, NO ONE ELSE WILL. And the net result is that all the hard work I've put in over the years to bring these pupils on could be negated by them not having the support they need over the exam period.

I almost feel like handing my notice in and getting a job at Sainsbury's or as a milkman or something. Then it would be a case of just doing a job which ultimately doesn't really affect anyone's lives, and if it didn't get done so what? I'm getting fed up with THEIR attitude that everything's fine as long as the results keep rolling in, but if anything goes WRONG then they're down on you like a ton of bricks. (I haven't actually experienced this yet, but plenty of other departments have). My other big moan is that although they can't, apparently, pay all the staff who work all these extra hours, they CAN find the money for a learning area leader for the arts specialism bid (because, of course they are high profile) who gets £50 000 a year. What they just don't get is that if it wasn't for people like me keeping the cogs whirring, the Senior Leadership Team wouldn't have the raw material to get their precious results and take all the credit for it.

I have to note that when we've had open evenings for prospective pupils, I have NEVER heard a parent say they really want their child to come to our school because of the fantastic Senior Leadership Team. I HAVE heard them say "I've heard that there's a really stong Leaning Support Department here" or "We've heard that this is a very happy school" or "We thought the teachers seemed really enthusiastic." We're losing three more brilliant teachers this September, BECAUSE of the negative attitude of those in authority, and because of the stress levels this creates. They'll never learn, will they?

OK I'll shut up now. Sorry for the rant.

[Bunnylump]

Sorry, but I just need to say
AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHH!

I've just been scribing for a boy (who has a SpLD but is otherwise very bright, A/B grade student) in GCSE maths (higher).

He managed, as well as I could judge, to correctly answer questions on
algebra (including simultaneous equations)
geometry (correctly applying Pythagorus etc.)
probability (completed a complicated probability tree)
Ratio
Distance / time graphs
Data handling (cumulative frequency / median, mode / upper and lower quartiles)
Rotational symmetry
Transformations and Enlargements

BUT
spent 15 minutes trying to calculate 4.5 x 32!!!!!!!!!

He was then totally unable to calculate 15 /1.5.

All I can say is BL***Y primary schools. What they do is to teach children SO MANY different ways to do the same sum that it confuses them. All the different methods get jumbled up and then the kids (even the bright ones) can't do basic sums.

Last year (when I was taking a year 7 bottom set) I took the approach
"I don't CARE what crazy methods you've been taught to do this sum. THIS is how we are going to do it, and you're going to practise it EVERY WEEK until you've got it."

It'll be interesting to see how they fare in year 11...

[clvrlad]

thats the problem
knowing the different ways is can be useful later on but to start with one way which is al lways used is much better

that said if they do use an alternative as long as it works i wouldnt complain

[Biscuit]

i had the same problem when teaching my children there were so many ways that they all get confused. and you try to do it the same way as the teachers.

when i was at school there were two methods to multiplication and as half the class knew one and the other the other the teacher used to show it one way and then ask the others to look away so they didnt get confused - then the same for the other half!! so we only got half as much done in class

Biscuit

[MBH]

That should'nt need 'calculation' - it's mental arithmatic as far as I'm concerned. Simple addition (15 plus half of 15, etc)

With computer techniques, I work on the basis of "If you have a way that works for you - every time - then use it, I won't confuse you. If you don't have a technique, then DO IT THIS WAY"

[Bunnylump]

OK I seem to live on here at the moment.

Subject: WHOEVER DESIGNS HOSPITAL CARPARKS AND DOCTORS' SURGERIES

I took my mum to the doctor's today. I parked the car on the one way, dual lane road with double yellow lines outside the doctor's surgery, which is conveniently on the wrong side of the road so that I ended up having to assemble a wheelchair in the path of fast oncoming traffic, and then get my Mum out of the car and into the wheelchair in the direct path of oncoming traffic. I then negotiated the kerbs, uneven pavement, parking barrier, potholes and steep slope into the surgery. None of the doors would stay open, so I ended up trying to negotiate Mum in the wheelchair into a door, uphill, whilst holding the door open myself. I then had to get in from the reception area by pressing an entry button (at the same time as pushing a wheelchair and holding the door open).

The nurse then tried unsuccessfully, three times, to get some blood from Mum's veins, two of which collapsed. She ended up massively bruised. The nurse suggested we should go instead to the path lab at what remains of the hospital.

So, I negotiated all the obstacles back out to the car, got Mum back in, put the wheelchair back in the car and drove to the hospital. Having negotiated all the delivery vans and four wheel drive vehicles with perfectly healthy people sitting in them which were taking up all the disabled parking spaces, I eventually got parked. Because whoever had "planned" it had decided it was really essential that there was a big brick flower bed (full of weeds) next the the disabled parking spaces, not one of them could fit a wheelchair next to the car. I then had to negotiate an ornamental cobbled border (next to the disabled parking spaces) and a grid to get to the door. Oh yes, and then pay £3 to park for the 10 minutes it took to get the blood taken.

Rant over. Sorry.

[Laura]

A one word whinge here.

MIDGES!!!!!!!!

[giraffe]

A two word whinge here:

Smoke alarms.

(Why do they keep going off at 1.30 am?)

[MBH]

Errrrrrr - a fire?

No use having ones that go off when they're not needed - it means they get ignored if they're telling the truth...

{Notice I have far too much respect for the intelligence of your kids to suggest anyone daft enough to be having a crafty fag in a stupid place }

[giraffe]

The kids slept through it, despite one being right outside their bedrooms.

They keep going off, and I feel like removing them, except then we'd all probably die in a fire. I think a moth must have got into it last night, because it went off briefly twice and then was fine. I did a tour of the house and checked nothing was on or smoldering. Because they are mains powered they bleep when there is a power cut, and they squeak when the batteries need changing and then they go off fairly frequently for no reason, and it's always in the middle of the night. Also because they are connected when one goes off the others go in sympathy, and if they start beeping to say the battery needs changing it's hard to work out which is the problem. Grrrrrr.

[Bunnylump]

Probably for the same reason my cat always brings live mice in at 3am.

[Laura]

How is that 'for the same reason'?

[Bunnylump]

I was replying to

(Why do they keep going off at 1.30 am?)

I think it's sometimes known as s*d's law.

[giraffe]

Mice in the smoke alarm?