Mental health maintenance is a valid reason to use sick leave, and getting out of town to have some fun is exactly what people need from time to time. Her union should hire her a good lawyer to tell the district to pound sand.
The issue in this case is that if was planned with some time in advanced and notified the same day/day before.
If a coworker has any kind of emergency (family, health, mental) and takes the day off, I will sympathize, regardless of how that impacts me. If it's planned but not communicated not so much.
Of course, I live in a country with 22+ paid days off + "unlimited" sick days and I in my role we usually are flexible with the time off. With very different conditions that might be more understandable.
When you live in a country where your vacation requests can be denied arbitrarily you might be tempted to just say 'fuck em' and let them know it's not optional the day before you skip work.
Problem is, no one admits that and lies about it. So here we are. A lawyer can only help so much when you lie about it.
And they wonder why it is hard to find teachers.
As an educator, I’m shocked … that they have the backup subs and/or a replacement teacher to justify losing a teacher over this.
In America, we act first, and deny the responsibility to acknowledge consequences.
Good for you lady. Life is short and teachers don’t get paid enough.
There won't be any teachers soon.
In the US, that's by design. But there will be theologists at private schools! And being private they can choose who attends.
Why is this in the news
So, this whole "article" is pretty light on any details here.
Was this her first offense? Did she have vacation time and chose not to use it? Did she use up all of her vacation time and then chose to take sick days? Did she have other offenses that led up to this termination call?
I mean when I used to have a job with vacation/sick leave, no one ever got sacked for taking a sick day or two to just have some time off, UNLESS, it was chronic, you had other performance issues, or you used up all of your vacation and decided to game the system and took like a week long holiday anyways and got caught.
Was this in the U.S.? If in the U.S., sick days are ridiculously limited. So you're damn right I'm going to use them all up through the year.
In Europe is different. They have protections for workers.
Most places I’ve taught in the US don’t have vacation days. You have sick days (10 a year, they stack), and personal days (3 a year, max of 5 before they turn into sick days).
That's funny because my kids' teachers all said no matter what we were actually doing, to just call the kids in as "sick". Even if it was something else that was an excused absence. Sick was always the right answer.
My dad said for time off work, always say "urgent personal business" and leave it at that.
There's this third party hotline we use to call in so it's kind of separated in that they may not know our actual policy. Regardless anyone that has personal time knows what it's for.
I called to use a personal day. "Hi I'm calling off for my shift tomorrow. I want to use a personal holiday."
"Ok, why are you calling off?"
"Because I'm using a personal holiday. I have 30 hours left I want to use 10 tomorrow please."
"Ok I have you for 10 hours personal holiday I just need a reason"
"I don't need to provide a reason. It's a personal holiday. As long as it's no less than 8 hours before my shift, I just tell you guys I want to use a personal holiday. I don't have to provide a reason."
"So you don't want to provide a reason?"
"No, thank you."
That was basically the end of the conversation but I was just like "holy fuck lady please just stop" at the end. No one gives reasons for vacation days and personal holidays. Sick days ( if you're lucky enough to have sick time) are implied. Even if I called off, didn't have time to use and ate points, are you going to give me less points if I provide a reason? No. We're not going to do that. We're just being fucking nosey.
I have a family member that is a teacher. She gets 2 vacation days a year. The school argues it’s fair because they get summers off.
Unless they are getting paid over the summer, it's not time off.
Most teachers get paid over the summer. Some districts allow you to get paid just during the weeks you work, but most spread the paychecks out over the year.
Another day on the internet where I as a European am horrified what Americans put up with. Here in germany teaching is one of the best paid profession and of course they get paid during holidays.
In Finland even more so: the social status of teachers there is higher than doctors and lawyers. And they are constantly topping international comparisons of education systems.
How did you guys not start a revolution yet?!!?
We have a lot of conservatives. That's kind of the root of a lot of our problems, really.
My wife is a teacher.
The problem with "summer holidays" is that you ultimately need to prep for your new classes, so you're starting before the kids get in. Alongside this, going on holiday is very expensive, since holiday prices are jacked up when the kids are out of school.
It's a very stressful job with few perks. With that being said, in the UK the pay isn't awful if you make it to a good level. It's still arguably low for the hours they put in.
They aren't being paid for summer though. Most teachers have a daily rate of pay for each work day. They then take that and divide it by 12 and pay the teachers once a month.
The paychecks received in June and July are for work done earlier in the year that are delayed so that teachers can budget easier and so the district can earn some interest on it.
No they don't, at least not in Texas. Here they get paid for the school year. Then they have the option to CHOOSE to have their pay spread out throughout the year. But unless they are teaching summer school, which is additional pay, they are not paid for the summer.
They have their paycheck spread out, they are not paid FOR that time.
Why is this news?
Washburn told several colleagues that she was attending a concert in Nashville.
Oops
If this is news then i should be a celebrity by now!
Not that i get fired a lot, but far more exciting things happen to me, than this!
TL/DR; Honest person penalized for doing something millions of people do dishonestly.
The continued rewarding of dishonesty shapes society.
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