Call me heartless, but I seriously feel that people need to think about responsible pregnancy. Difficult first trimester and difficult third trimester can affect other people working around you, not just you. It is really irresponsible if you just take that time away to 'just rest'. You can always set aside 30 min per day of your leave to clear overdue work (and not leave it to someone else). If you've always been weak and you get weaker when you are pregnant, seek medical help. Covering for two pregnant women is no fun...it's not helping that people assume that i'm the most free since I'm single. Maybe I really should get married and get pregnant (and keep getting pregnant!)
p.s. once again, something that i can't post on fb.
Wednesday, October 5, 2011
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I think I have said this before.
ReplyDeleteWell like what you said it is up to the individual who have to take up the responsibility. It is human weakness to take the easy way out, so when the situation arise ie sickness, pregnancy, injuries it's easy to find excuses and skyve especially since its officially they are off work.
Note: However if one teacher take the lead, she would be a role model for her peers and level up in the eyes of the higher ups. Dun really care about office politics: 'If you dun want to behave professionally, dun blame other who are'
On the other hand many women are crying foul play by the company (especially in private sector) when they return from their maternity leave only to find their job taken over by someone else.
It is harder to solve human nature but rather school should think out of the box and hire help during period of womanpower shortage (being puny here but i wanted to put teacher but male teachers dun get pregnant, they get FAT). Stacking all those extra work on those remaining teachers sounds irresponsible.
Perhaps you have to talk to your remaining peers and share your troubles. For all you know, they are just as loaded as you are now and they are NOT single. Sometimes are just trapped in our self-centered view to truly empthatize what others are suffering... this is speaking from personal experience.
Anyway we all have been thru this and I personally have to take over jobs of people who are pregnant AND people who have just quit. Hey I still managed. Afterall I only have a pair of hands and if the boss wants it to be done pronto, you have to understand your priorities! Sometimes they also dun have a clear picture of what you are currently on and would need a bit of reminder.
Ultimately they would appreciate it if you make the right decisions on how to handle the extra work and put in the effort to play as a team. You should jolt this down and during time of review, use it to garner more 'favor points' for yourself.
Remember people tend to forget the good things you have done, more importantly you shouldn't. You need to remind them of that :)
If someone is going on long term leave of any sort, the school should have hired someone on a temporary basis to cover most of the work. That said, I expect that there is some work that cannot be done by tep staff for various reasons.
ReplyDeleteAnd if they have blown their budget for temp teachers or the ppl who should have requested the extra resources did not..........the Cat's advice is golden
I hear you. Sometimes you just need to vent, yeah?
ReplyDeleteCat: this is a good 'harvest' year in my school and it affects almost every dept. But somehow, other dept heads go all the way to hire extra help, even dipping into dept funds to pay someone just to conduct remedial. It's just my Head. We all know his pattern: he wants to show that the dept can manage without external help. Even things like relief *cough*babysitting*cough* when there are teachers on MC, he will send in a teacher from my dept into the class (even if the absent teacher is not frm my dept). His reason being: "the best way to not waste curriculum time is to teach my subject so that the results can improve". If I'm teaching that class anyway, I really appreciate the extra period...I really do. But if it's someone else's class...that's just too much.
ReplyDeleteBtw, my sister wanted to sue her company coz she lost her promotion. She just came back from maternity leave. When she complained to me about it, I told her straight in the face that if she were to get promoted after coming back from ML, a lot of pple will be unhappy. I mean, if such unhappiness can happen in a 'politically safe environment' like my school, I'm sure it'll be worse in the private sector. She tendered and refused to stay longer (they dared to offer her a higher salary) to train someone to take over her work. Now they kept calling her for help.
Penguin: Yes, I really really need to vent. One came in today to offer to mark my class' papers (45 scripts of Paper 2) in addition to hers. Now I feel so much love towards her. Will be very surprised if the other one offers to mark half of my Thursday's papers (4 x 40 scripts of Paper 2) since her EDD is sometime next week.
Well simply put, your Head is a slave driver. Perhaps it is time to look elsewhere for greener pasture. With your experience, I am sure there are plenty of opening in other better school/tuition center.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you can check with any fellow teachers-friends for lobangs? Ie ask them how is the XXX department in their school, how is the head like?
For your sister case, not knowing the full story, I would not say too much. She should not be denied the promotion since it is an evaluation of her performance over the years. ML should not be the obstacle regardless of what other feels. Since there is always someone who feel unhappy over this and that... Does it stall the company operation?
You know your sis can actually lodge a complain to MOM regarding her ex-company.
Cat: At least, in my current school, he's the only slave driver. My previous school's big head, head and small head are slave drivers. I think it's the air in the west.
ReplyDeleteCould be the water too. Maybe something jump into the resevoir in the west :P
ReplyDelete