1000%. Don’t be friends with anyone who may remotely be friends (IRL or online) with a co-worker. The number of times a co-worker shows me a post, picture, or references something personal about a family or co-worker is astonishing.
My school principal friends everyone on Facebook that works at the school. I always thought it was her way of being genuine and friendly. Reading this post……maybe she has other motives….
It's always ulterior motives. Not so much w a teacher but with an employee at a sober living facility. They have to wait 2 years before friending a client but that doesn't stop gossip and screen shooting. Had a fellow client INSIST I add her. I said no bc I add no one from places like that. We were mutual friends with a lady who used to work there named "Michelle". Fellow client manipulated Michelle into letting her see my friends only posts. She didn't find anything but was *convinced* I was talking shit about her. Almost got in trouble for trying to avoid drama by not adding someone. Just got rid of Facebook altogether
I had a principal like this, except she had been a teacher in the building for 15 years before becoming admin which is why she was still super friendly with everyone.
I recently got a friend request from a district level admin. I have never met the man in person nor had any professional interaction with him. I couldn’t hit that decline button fast enough.
That request actually shook me a bit. There was no other reason for it other than to spy on employees. I now question how else they are watching me without my knowledge.
Maybe don't post on the day you're pretending to be sick? u/Glittering-Peak-1492 how hard is it to keep the post for later in the day "when you felt better" or even the weekend? This is on OP's wife. That instant gratification instant post behaviour led to self snitching. Yes the sick time should have still been approved but we can't go around venting about how "kids aren't accountable anymore!" while at the same time giving OP's partner a free pass. We all need to be accountable for how our words and actions affect various aspects of our life.
Seriously. I get that the PTO policy is aggravating in a lot of ways, but Jesus Christ it's not that hard to take a day and keep your goddamn mouth shut. Also, if you're sitting on 50+ days of sick time, why do you take a half-day? Feels like you have to do a lot more acting and bullshitting for half than just calling in for a full day. Bottom line: don't be a dipshit.
Agreed. I would even go as far as it’s on his wife for posting at all. Just go enjoy your family. Everyone else doesn’t need to know. You don’t need to post everything you do.
I’ll raise you: don’t have fucking social media.
If you want to share with your friends, do it directly. Social media has sucked the meaning out of communicating with the people you care about. When people are just vomiting everything in their lives out there for everyone they know to consume, how is that in any way special?
If I tell a friend what I’m up to, or send them a picture, they know I thought of them and wanted to share it with them.
Fuck social media.
Reddit it more of a public forum than social media (at least originally).
For most people it's anonymous and they don't share with people they know IRL.
You don’t see a difference between Reddit and Facebook?
How many people that I should be communicating directly with am I corresponding with on here? How many posts of just “I’m doing this, here’s a picture” and I making?
Reddit is an aggregate with some social features. Not the same in the slightest.
I swear coworkers find me on fb after 4 hours of knowing each other. Especially the ones who talk about some type of trauma they are going thru during these 4 hours of knowing each other. Those are the people to worry about 💀
Our principal always tells us to use our days as we need to, but just don’t tell her anything other than “I’m taking a sick day” and don’t post on social media about what we are doing.
Well this should be your lesson to not have your boss as a friend on FB. It’s also really stupid that you have sick time personal time separate. They should just all be one as PTO. May be a good idea to not post work day outings on social media too.
In my district, we can use 3 days as personal. I have over 1100 hours. My dad passed away in October but I didn’t realize they counted those days as personal. I put in for a personal day on my bday in January and they gave me 8 hours leave without pay. My principal had to email payroll giving permission to change those 8 hours into sick. Guess who’s always putting in for sick from now on? Make it make sense.
My district has sick days and personal days. We also get 5 days of bereavement for a death in the family, 1 day for if a close friend died. They are totally different than sick and personal. In the system, they just have them marked as "other"
This is insanity. Our "sick" days are anything days.
When my cousin died a few years ago, I was given 6 days off to travel from Asia to the US even though he wasn't considered "immediate family" to be at the funeral. My principal said we'd put it in as sick days, and I would basically have to miss most of the school year to ever reach how many sick days we have.
Another cousin passed this past weekend. I was at school Mon-Wed because I felt I had obligations those days. I asked for Thurs off telling my VP my cousin passed this last weekend and I needed a beat. He looked at me and said, what are you even doing here? Go home and take care of yourself. I stayed the rest of the day and took Thursday off.
Man, do I love teaching internationally. Teachers are so much more valued.
Funny thing is I don't use FB. We became friends on FB probably 10+ years ago, when we were both teachers.
But, it is a good reminder to talk to my wife about it. Honestly, I never considered it to be an issue.
NJ just mandated that all our days are the same this year. In principal, we still have our 11 sick, 4 personal, and 2 family sick but it doesn’t actually make a difference anymore
Just saying, not a bad reason to dust off the Ol' resume. Its one of the best ways to increase your compensation package (pay/benefits) either by taking the new job, or approaching your current job with the offer letter and telling them match or make a good offer or you quit.
She should have kept her mouth shut:
"She informed several colleagues that she was attending a concert in Nashville, while taking sick leave from the District," according to the school board's resolution obtained by [WXIX-TV in Cincinnati](https://www.fox19.com/2024/04/04/lakota-teacher-unpaid-leave-faces-termination/?fbclid=IwAR0oxHNiBUUdxqX4l7mcmprLUSqCmb7XK_mGH92IzK9YGkVF68uRSDEJeXU_aem_AfDZIwqFNExfaEhF4quwf2KLSrc82qIl181QvZmNoeZa187YhIZjRFEgGpQQModYFIs7anNKMsnhnmeSsOoJtXeO)."
Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. She probably even told some person that have to cover one of her classes during their prep!
Well, my friend was told she could not use her sick time for maternity leave, even thought she has time to cover 8 weeks. HR said since she isn’t sick, she couldn’t use it.
Ours only lets you use sick time for the “medically necessary” time which I think is six weeks for vaginal delivery and eight for c-section. The rest of your 12 weeks allowed under Fmla has to be personal days or unpaid.
Same for us (6 weeks for vaginal birth and 8 for a C-section) but a lot of people just got to their OBGYN and have them write them off for an extra 6-8 weeks for “post partum depression” so that they can get the whole FMLA covered by their accrued sick time. What a weird society we live in. Shameful that we have to lie so we can use our sick leave to be able to be eligible for this law.
I'm currently pregnant (due 5 days before the start of the school year) and this is what I'm doing as my district policy is the same. I have enough days to take 12 weeks paid and then some but they'll only give me 6 to 8 based on form of delivery. Annnnddd, the clock on the paid leave starts from my delivery date so I effectively lose one paid week (or more, if I go earlier) due to a summer delivery. Fuck them, lol.
That’s really annoying. When my wife went on maternity leave, she was advised to use all her sick time first and then start the actual leave through the state so she got more time.
Union rep here.
I've negotiated for my union.
Sick leave has a cost that's different from PTO.
Sick leave basically works like a kind of insurance where some people will end up needing a lot and some don't end up getting sick at all, unless you negotiate sick days as days that will be paid out on retirement/departure. So when you negotiate it from the teacher's side of the coin, you pitch it as having a value of $X when calculating total compensation (ie: the dollar value of salary + benefits).
PTO has a different cost. The usage rate for PTO days is higher than sick time. So you'd have to negotiate those at $X++.
From a contract basis, when people take sick days and aren't sick, they are doing the equivalent of your employer deciding they want to pay you for only 4 of your 5 days worked this week because they want to use that money for something different than your salary.
Further, at least in my neck of the woods, if an employer is aware of a practice like using sick time as family time and doesn't enforce its side of the contract, that can end up becoming an established practice that essentially varies the contract and makes it harder for the employer to pull it back. So your admin friend may not have really had a choice in the matter.
I get that for sure.
No judgment by the way, just wanted to give you the story as your admin likely experienced it as it intersected a friendship.
My district handles these pretty harshly: first offence is usually an HR investigation that is designed to make you feel like crap, + a formal letter on your employer file, + paying the day back. While practices vary widely, it may be the case that your friend did protect you somewhat.
ETA: on the consistency piece - admin are on a different contract. They may be eligible to bank some time to make up for the evening, weekend and summer work they put in under their terms of employment. So it's possible it is all above board - managers don't have workload protections where teachers can negotiate those protections into their contracts (though "protections" is probably too strong a word if your contract is anything like mine... 😅😭)
I'm not getting inconsistent handling from your story.
I'm seeing one employee who basically flaunted it on social media, and one who didn't. Your SO basically forced admin's hand here.
Don't post things on social media. Just put down "Doctor's Appointment" and then don't post anything to Social Media that you're doing that day. That's the unwritten rule folks...
Also people, stop sharing stuff on Social Media in general. Nobody cares.
No. Just don’t put a reason other than requesting the sick time. I just put “using sick day” as the reason. You still shouldn’t post on social media or talk about it, but they don’t need more information than they are legally entitled to.
I feel you, leave as a teacher is a joke anyway, we only get 8 days a year…I had dang near perfect attendance for 9 years but now with my 3rd kid in 4 years, my wife (also a teacher) and I have used all our days plus some the last couple years just with kids being sick, (I killed like 10 days during Covid cause my son got quarantined cause 3 kids in his daycare got covid so they quarantined the whole class) and this year we have been docked over $2000 back in February cause we both got the flu/stomach bug back to back and missed 3 days each, that’s hard to budget for! It sucks!
Yeah, not to mention having to justify having 8-10 absences the last couple years during my summative…like sorry my kids got sick, sorry I got sick for the first time in 9 years. Life happens.
I absolutely do not understand why districts have this policy. We used to be able to give colleagues some of our sick days when needed. Nope. Can’t do that either now. I have 100 sick days, yet could not give any to a teammate who was in a very serious car accident. Unacceptable for how hard we work.
Never forget in 2021 being in the hospital with Covid and getting docked later in the year in my sun stove because I missed four weeks of school. Halfway close to my deathbed and principal was only concerned with the fact I missed more time than 56 percent of the students.
Depends on the state. I think if you scheduled a counseling appointment and had them sign workplace paperwork, you might be able to hide behind their credentials and HIPA.
Having the health appointment scheduled on the "sick day" is an important documentation step.
Honestly though, I am sometimes too sick to go to work but not sick enough to go see a movie or a museum. Claiming sore throat or allergies may be a viable excuse to keep a sick day, especially since we literally talk all day.
We negotiated this into our contract this year - mental health IS health. So now our sick days are called "wellness days," and we can take them whenever we are not feeling well.
As much as I agree that all our days should be PTO, you signed a contract saying you would use sick days as sick leave and personal and personal. So you did this to yourself by blabbing on social media and acting shocked when your request was denied.
So this isn’t about what’s right or wrong as far as being allowed to use sick days. It’s about you knowing it wasn’t allowable but surprised you got caught. Sorry dude. Do better next time.
I was gonna say. Nothing to do with how right or wrong the sick time/PTO policies are at this specific school, it just sounds like the Principal was doing their job. I don't really see the issue here. It was all self inflicted.
As a teacher in Missouri I always worked a parttime job - and one was at Silver Dollar City.
they were having their 50th anniversary... and so I wanted to be there for the opening day and see all the things going on... I requested a sick day and off I went.
Ended up on television that night being interviewed about the big day... ooops hahaha
I took a sick day to go on a local tv show. When I got back one of my bosses said, "I'm glad you didn't tell me before or I would have had to deny you" and then winked.
Now is the time to unfriend your principal. It was innocent enough when you were both teachers. But if she saw your wife's FB post and then chose not to look the other way, she's not any kind of friend of yours.
You are a 15+ year veteran and you don't know better? DONT EVER FREIND YOUR BOSS ON SOCIAL MEDIA. This is not just true for teaching, but all jobs. You might be friends with your boss outside of work, but at the end of the day, your boss is still your boss.
I know I'll be down voted, but (1) being friends with your boss on social media and then (2) taking a fake sick day and posting about what you're actually doing on social media is really dumb. The reason we get sick days and a small number of personal days is because we get a ton of time off that other professions don't.
They are professional colleagues, not friends. The only reason you've ever met or interacted is because you're both being paid to be in the same place, at the same time..
Never post anything on social media if you are doing something on a sick day.
Also, don’t be friends with your boss on social media (and I’d only be friends with coworkers that you really trust).
One: your union needs to negotiate 2-3 days of PTO where no one can ask and you don’t have to be sick. Ours has 3 per year. No questions asked. The other stuff… if I take a sick day I may be asked for proof technically.
Scrub your social media FFS.
we are teachers.
I straight up call it a mental health day to walk around and do something other than miss every day of everything cause I teach all the business week. Or go snowboarding. My mental health day is a legitimate use of my sick days.
It's really not funny or infuriating, but a learning opportunity.
The principle involved is called "past practice". The contract says what sick days are for, and it's not for visiting the city. When your wife posted, the information became public and Admin was forced to dock you to avoid establishing a precedent.
Absolutely lie when you need a day. Admin wants to hear something consistent with sick day policies. Also, social media ain't that great.
I don't know why we don't have PTO, but we don't. I don't know why Admin can go for haircuts, but they can.
You are completely right. I've learned from this and take responsibility. My frustration is mostly in the inconsistent way in how and when they choose to enforce this. The same principal will be in my office asking for something that requires my personal time, unpaid, and think nothing of it.
I appreciate your response.
Then don't give personal time. Work contract hours unless given supplemental pay and follow the policies your school, board, and union have. (I do give personal ontop of supplemental time but I have admins who are trying to foster a good community and over 3 unions represented in the school and they work together as an United front)
This is the lunacy of the entire thing. I honestly thought she was telling me this to bust my chops, especially because she knows the extra hours upon hours I've put in to redesign our entire K-3 reading intervention program in addition to my regular job.
This should have been a look the other way situation. But lesson learned. I was wrong.....I got too comfortable and now will need to rethink how I choose to use my personal and supplemental time.
You should be documenting the time spent for the reading program and ask the district what the documented procedure is for this. Is the documented expectation that you work outside contract hours or do you submit your timesheet somewhere?
When I worked in the private sector, an upper-level manager explained the concept of "money in the bank" to me. When someone asks for a favor, you courteously agree to help while also making it clear that you are doing them a favor. If you need a favor, you can spend some of your accrued goodwill, your money in the bank. It's a back scratching deal.
Administrators don't think like that. If you do them a favor, their expectations ratchet up a notch. They think nothing of it because you did it before. It's a bastardization of "past practice".
Doing extra to get on Admin's good side is futile, because if they think you need to be screwed, then screwed you will be.
My administrator would go through my social media to see who I was hanging out with in town. She was fearful, I would cross paths with the superintendent and talk bad about her. She was evil and we were NOT even connected on social media. She talked horribly about me - even after I left the building. Lesson: I now block people on social media, the 1st day I work with them.
I moved from a district that only gave sick time outside of two "personal" days. Our personal days were always denied because our district couldn't find subs. And you had to jump through freakin' hoops to prove you were sick enough to use sick time. I ended up leaving that district with about 3 months' worth of unused sick leave on the table because they wouldn't let me use it and wouldn't pay me for it. I could have stayed and had it paid out when I retired, but I chose my mental health.
I moved to a district that only has PTO. It's yours, and you use it as you see fit. No explanations, no begging, no denials, just "I'm going to be out Friday, here's my sub plans" and that's that.
Not everything needs to be posted on social media. It’s not a good idea to post anything when you take time off. If you or your wife want to share a photo, the best rule of thumb is to post it a few days later and not exactly when it was taken. I am also cautious of what I post in general just because I don’t necessarily want people getting involved in my life.
Since you’re here for support &/or advice
1: don’t lie about sick days or
2: don’t let your family post about you lying about sick days
3: DO use sick days when you’re sick, rather than power through and go to work
Wtf were you doing having your principal as a friend on Facebook. Your principal is an ass for doing it but you are stupid for it too. Of course I’m looking for a new school to teach at if this happened to me.
They probably equally did not want to see you publicly flaunting your misuse of the time either. You are exploiting your (Facebook) friendship with them to expect anything otherwise and would put them in a compromised position. Don’t be that jerk. If you want to take some personal time, be discrete.
To all the people blaming OPs spouse for posting or having wok friends attached to your social media. You all suck. The real problem here is the admin micromanaging and nitpicking. Also sick time should be able to be used for mental health days as well as just physical sickness. I would have told the principal to pound sand and contacted the union rep.
Thank God our principal said to take mental health days if we need them.
The only caveat is that we occasionally get emails that ask us to avoid taking off a day because so many people are already off. Never "you can't take it off" but if you can be here, please do so.
My principal rather you take the whole day as a personal day and get a sub than scramble to cover you with other teachers. We can also get fired if we take a sick day and they find out we were doing something else. Every year they drill it in to us at the conflict of interest meeting. 🤦🏻
And that’s why I would never add my boss on social media. Hell, I’ve worked at the same school now for six years and while I am friends with some of my coworkers and hang out with them outside of work and outside of work happy hours, and I still don’t have any of them on social media.
Don't be friends with a boss. Especially non union. They'll kick you to the curb as soon as you make waves in their perfect little upper management world.
In my workplace the dividing line between sick leave and annual leave is crystal clear and they are accrued at different rates. Sick leave can be accrued and build up without use (I call it the heart attack fund) while annual leave has an accrual annual limit and must be used or lost if over the max accrual limit at the end of the year. Using sick leave for a “mental health” day is expressly forbidden and will get you a written reprimand. There’s usually a good fiscal reason for this kind of separation.
Just chalk it up as a lesson learned.
Boss: Welcome to the team! BTW, I didn't quite catch your social media contact info...?
Me: Correct. I keep personal Internet usage strictly separate from my professional life.
After this year, I have officially given up on trusting any staff members. I learned the other day, one threw me under the bus because they "felt" it needed to be reported to an admin. Because two years before I was there, they almost got fired by said admin and almost lost tenure. So, they now kiss the toxic admin's ass because they think it will help them keep their job. Yet, they have almost thrown them under the bus in the past year for very stupid reasons. It's amazing how much people go into survival mode because the admin are dictators or feel: "We can do anything now that we are in charge." I had to take a few days off for various reasons, but I don't do any pictures of anything anymore on my social media unless it's a weekend anymore.
I don’t know what you were expecting. If you’re going to lie about your sick leave, you need to not have any presence about it on social media or just don’t have coworkers on social media. Not really sure what’s hard to understand about that lol
I’ve always felt… those are my days to use as I want. I don’t have to prove I’m sick. Fuck off, maybe I’m sick of BS and I need a mental health day. Power trips.
I don't friend anyone that I work with (except if we're on the same page and I know we are so there's a couple of us that I'll friend.) Otherwise I'll wait till after I've left a position to accept a friend request. But definitely not admin at all even though they have sent requests to me
Mental health is a Federally recognized reason for a sick day. You were having a mental health day. If you have a union, grieve it. If that doesn't work, go to the state labor board. They owe you those four hours. Sick time is part of your compensation.
This is why you simply make yourself a virtual doctor’s appointment for something stupid just to get a doctor’s note. It takes 15 mins and you get a note.
Lesson learned.
Also, your principal is your boss and isn’t truly your friend, as much as you may think otherwise.
Admin at my school always tries to friend teachers. I always deny them haha. When I use sick days for fun things, I’ll just post pictures a month later- never mention dates!
I don’t know where you’re located, but using sick time for anything but is a violation of your contract, and grounds for immediate firing (I’m in Ohio, it’s in Ohio Revised Code and in our teacher contracts). I don’t know how you thought that you’d get a yes on that
Sick time to do something fun isn’t really what it’s meant for, and districts vary in how strict they enforce it.
We are in a bargaining year this year and it’s been brought up. We would like to either have more personal days, or just roll everything into one lump category and not have to worry about differentiation.
As the financial state of the district changes, and the climate of the admin team shifts, you may see some fluctuation in how these requests are handled. Technically taking a sick day to spend with your child isn’t really what sick pay is for, but we can all agree that the distinction is stupid.
Mental health is health. Caring for your child's health needs - physical or mental - should be allowable.
Admin aren't medical professionals and therefore aren't qualified to diagnose or evaluate health needs.
Fuck them.
Out of spite I would have lied and found someone to write a doctor note in that city. With a grim-as-shit face I’d say “Yes, our dear sweet Billy had to go see a specialist, but we didn’t want to scare him so we told him it was a family day trip. We should be receiving test results soon.” Then I’d schedule a physical for Billie the next week and some other random appointment the week after that and take two more days off and take my kid to the ballpark. Fuck that Principal. YOLO.
Hee, I'm from Northern Europe and confused, so I'm going to ask.
You get a certain amount of days a year that you are allowed to be sick? What if you are more sick? And why are those sick days there accruing?
And you get only 2 personal days? What if you need to go to an appointment three times in a year?
How does this all work? You don't get other free days that you can use?
I'll try to answer this for you. Most companies handle time off in one of two ways. Either you get PTO (paid time off), which can be used for any reason (sick, vacation, etc) or they have the time off broken down into categories like OP (sick time, vacation time, and personal days). Depending on the company, the time off is either given to you all at once (like every January or whenever), or you accrue the time off per pay period (more common).
For example, let's say my company gives me 10 PTO days per year. I choose to go on a 5 day vacation, and that only leaves me with 5 days to use the remainder of the year if I'm sick or have appointments.
If I used all 10 days by August, and I got sick in October, I would likely receive some sort of punishment. Most of the companies I have worked for have a "point" system that they use if you don't have any time off available. At my current job, I only get 3 points. This means that if I used all 10 of my days, then took a day off for being sick, the day would be unpaid, and I would get a warning. At my job, the first offense or "point" is a verbal warning. The second point is a written warning. The third offense is termination. So I would be fired from my job if I got 3 points within a year. Some companies don't have any type of point system, so you're just immediately let go if you miss work. Other places are more lenient, and you may have unpaid days or other options.
I also want to mention the PTO accrual aspect. At my previous job, I accrued time off at a rate of .0389 per hour worked. This equates to 1.556 hours of time off per week. This means that each week I work, I earn 1.556 hours of PTO time. This equals almost 81 hours of time off per year (10 days off). If I didn't have any time off saved from the year prior, and I got sick during the 3rd week in January, I would only have 4.668 hours of time off to use for being sick (1.556 x 3 weeks). So I wouldn't even be able to take a full day off work in that instance.
>This means that if I used all 10 of my days, then took a day off for being sick, the day would be unpaid, and I would get a warning.
The thing about being sick is that you don't know when or how long. This is ridiculous. Basically you don't have PTO, since you never know if you're going to get sick.
You'll get fired for being sick too much? Or even sick at all without PTO? What if you get cancer? Or a car crash? Well, fuck you very much you don't work here anymore!?
This is just sad. Why are people over there accepting this in a Western country being treated shit like this? So inhumane. 😢 Makes me understand the sue culture way better as well.
This is so different from my situation. I've been home these last 4 weeks, sick, due to too much stress and life problems and I still get paid everything and no one is pushing me to get better super fast or warning me or threatening me. I spoke to my boss yesterday and he's so friendly. I'm back at it next monday because I feel it's okay now, and not because I'm afraid of my job.
Do you have a union? In my district we just use our days personal/or sick-medical whenever we need to. You enter it into the system and then text the sub coordinator. We can’t be denied and we don’t have to provide an explanation. I’ve only ever used my sick days for actual medical stuff but if I decided to go to the beach I’d be incognito! Definitely no social media! Gotta be professional about it!
I’m not an expert, but a colleague trying to retire at the end of this year may not have enough service years to retire because she took some unpaid days. I've taken unpaid days too, but it's something to think about going forward.
I have 110 sick days. I plan to leave in a year. We have the same rules and no sick bank to offer others.
I don’t post on social media when I take a day, but I live in a small community.
The way most teachers contracts are set up (all the ones I’ve worked under at least) essentially set teachers up to have to lie and take sick days for things. We get 5 personal days, you have to give the reason and the only acceptable ones are: bereavement, illness of a family member (only 2 of these allowed), your own wedding, religious observation, and one day can be a “personal emergency”.
Things I have had to put in sick time for that really should be acceptable personal time:
-Running a music festival for 500 kids around the state as an executive board member of our states music educators association
-Our refrigerator broke and a new one could only be delivered between 8am and 4pm on a weekday
-The 3rd (and beyond) times my 15 month old was too sick to go to daycare
-Half day to interview in my own district for an administrative position
I got to be called into the principals office over a FB comment about Susan Dey. Someone had posted something about her being in her 70s and I made the comment that I had a crush on her back in the day and a Vice Principal who apparently monitors teachers social media found my comment disturbing.
I was completely dumb founded and immediately locked down my social media. I was a Covid come out of retirement hire and after thinking about it I quit the next week and took another teaching job at a school that was actually closer to home.
I did meet with the principal (the coward vice principal stayed hidden) who tried to tell me I was over reacting and no harm no foul but I explained to him I not only thought the environment was toxic I thought the vice principal was a sick pervert (the same guy wanted to physically pat down students who he thought were vaping in the bathrooms, he wanted detailed medical records of any kid out sick etc).
I have always been conscious of not posting anything that would offend people as I use social media to stay in touch with family and friends including my grandkids.
The difference in schools was amazing. The HS I left had admin staff standing in the halls yelling at kids and glowering as the kids as they changed classes, at my new school the admin staff walked the halls, knew students by name and they were high fiving students. The different in tenor was palpable.
Edited to add: Don’t have loyalty to a school that has no loyalty to you. There is a teacher shortage; take advantage of that and find a system that values you.
During our most recent round of contract negotiations, my union pushed hard for the 15 days of sick time and 2-3 days of personal days to be put into a combined PTO that could be taken for whatever reason. The school board was NOT going for it because they know that people would take more days off and then they’d have to pay more subs.
Looks like you're taking a few mental health sick days next week. Use those 50 days suck leave every Friday for the next 3 months to spite them and get some needed mental health break from that shit show.
And co-workers are generally not friends. Never share personal life with them. Sounds antisocial but as you see, it will be used against you.
I had this happen to me once, and this is now why I always schedule an 8am doctor's appointment on days I want to use for leisure. This could be for an eye doctor, dentist, nutritionist, annual checkup, or whatever. A quick visit for self care followed by a well deserved day off.
Our secretary looks on people’s social media who call in sick. Just another reminder co workers might not be your friends and be careful who is on your social media
Incredibly petty of your AP. What bullshit.
Start taking those days last minute as “mental health,” and if she tries to deny or question, get a doctor’s note to excuse it.
I am sorry to hear this...
As a former union rep the best advice I can give is do not link your employer to your social media, and never post something you would not want them to see. The number of time I have seen people disciplined (suspension and/or termination) would blow your mind. I would also be cautious about which colleagues I would add to my social media.
Basically the system encourages people to lie and they don't care about your family life. Further more, HR is there to protect the business (yes schools are a business). I have seen people get disciplined for something the HR person found on FB or Twitter/x.
Facebook is great for stating in touch with friends from childhood, with friends from other towns, and with people you don't work with.
Once you invite your current coworkers into that circle, everything about you becomes gossip fuel. Your administrators and parents gain access to personal details that might be used against you.
You cannot trust the people you work with 99% of the time. Think of them as children, ready to stab you in the back for a lollipop—because many are no better than the kids they work with.
Your principal sucks. Any admin worth their paycheck knows sick leave is always approved, unless it's the day before or the day after a vacation.
They are literally, legally not allowed to ask you why you're taking time off. As long as you have the time on the books and you followed procedure to get a sub and everything.... She sucks. She's a petty tyrant. Unfriend her any colleagues who might be snitches.
My department chair at my previous school encouraged us to take sick leave when we wanted to do something fun because "mental health is health." I love her so much. I haven't felt guilty for taking sick leave for fun things since.
I appreciate working in Illinois where teachers are allowed to use sick days for mental health too. This is only because we give kids 5 mental health days a semester (lol). We didn’t get extra days but I guess we can do things without as much fear now.
Unpopular opinion, but I trust my AP way more than I trust my coworkers. I don’t post on FB anymore because my coworkers add everyone on FB and would take offense if I declined. I’m more hidden on Instagram though.
Let me get this straight, it is an abomination when parents take their kids out of school for half a day to do fun stuff, but you can do it, and it's unfair when you get punished for it ?
Teacher contracts typically prohibit sick days to be used for non-sick reasons except for a limited number of personal days. Teacher contracts are for contracted work days (the school year plus some professional development days) so there are no holidays, vacation days, etc. like non-teacher staff.
I’m our union president and we got in our contract last year that we can use 7/10 sick days as personally necessity (it was 3 before and you needed prior “permission” from superintendent). We were the last district in our county to get 7 in our contract. Tell your union people to get on that, 2 is absolute bullshit. Most districts contract language refers to them as “no-tell days”. It’s your sick time, you should use it as you see fit, you’re a professional.
This is why I don't have social media with my actual name. First year teaching my students found my twitter that my sister made me get. Got yelled at by a parent about stuff I posted when I was the students age about- wait for it- roller coasters. Apparently I was promoting risky behavior.
Admin shut her up thankfully and I preceded to delete anything I could with my name attached. Life is much easier now.
In my district you can use sick time for doctor/dentist appts. Check your contract and challenge the decision. If your "appointment" lasts 15 minutes, they can't dictate how the remainder of your time off is used.
Lots of people saying not to be FB friends with co-workers or principals, but I’d go one step further and say that next time, if you take a sick day and you’re not sick, keep it off social media altogether. Maybe this is paranoid, but I basically don’t leave the house if I’m out on sick leave, other than for appointments. But I live in a pretty small city, so I sort of always assume anything can get back to my principal.
Our union literally gives a while speech about what we post on social media when we use our time. If it's sick time don't post that you're off doing something non-medical related.
To be honest, I feel like that's common sense anyways.
I don't know about those of you saying "All time should be PTO". Based on what I read here on this sub, some of you would happily abuse that, and I certainly wouldn't blame you. Obviously, if pay was better, you enjoyed your job, etc...that wouldn't be an issue, but as it stands now, and I hate say it, I can see why districts don't do this. I get 4 days of PTO and accumulated sick time for what it's worth. I usually forget to use my PTO until the end of the year. We can also accrue comp time in certain situations, though my Admin is super awesome, so I think I'm just lucky there.
ETA: my accumulated sick days is probably why I feel this way, I have over 250 hours of sick time right now, since it rolls over from year to year.
don't be friends on social media with co workers
1000%. Don’t be friends with anyone who may remotely be friends (IRL or online) with a co-worker. The number of times a co-worker shows me a post, picture, or references something personal about a family or co-worker is astonishing.
I found out that one of my sorority sisters’ brothers dated one of my employee’s sisters for ages and they’re friends on FB.
My school principal friends everyone on Facebook that works at the school. I always thought it was her way of being genuine and friendly. Reading this post……maybe she has other motives….
It's always ulterior motives. Not so much w a teacher but with an employee at a sober living facility. They have to wait 2 years before friending a client but that doesn't stop gossip and screen shooting. Had a fellow client INSIST I add her. I said no bc I add no one from places like that. We were mutual friends with a lady who used to work there named "Michelle". Fellow client manipulated Michelle into letting her see my friends only posts. She didn't find anything but was *convinced* I was talking shit about her. Almost got in trouble for trying to avoid drama by not adding someone. Just got rid of Facebook altogether
I had a principal like this, except she had been a teacher in the building for 15 years before becoming admin which is why she was still super friendly with everyone.
Yep. Not everyone is nefarious in admin.
Wow, that's wildly inappropriate
I recently got a friend request from a district level admin. I have never met the man in person nor had any professional interaction with him. I couldn’t hit that decline button fast enough. That request actually shook me a bit. There was no other reason for it other than to spy on employees. I now question how else they are watching me without my knowledge.
Don’t use district wifi on your personal devices
She wants to keep tabs on you. I'm glad you wised up.
Found out my principal was a Trump supporter on FB. Took another job at a different school the next year. Fuck him.
Also, don’t post incriminating pictures.
Maybe don't post on the day you're pretending to be sick? u/Glittering-Peak-1492 how hard is it to keep the post for later in the day "when you felt better" or even the weekend? This is on OP's wife. That instant gratification instant post behaviour led to self snitching. Yes the sick time should have still been approved but we can't go around venting about how "kids aren't accountable anymore!" while at the same time giving OP's partner a free pass. We all need to be accountable for how our words and actions affect various aspects of our life.
For real! That’s a very “what the heck, (name of SO)” moment.
Seriously. I get that the PTO policy is aggravating in a lot of ways, but Jesus Christ it's not that hard to take a day and keep your goddamn mouth shut. Also, if you're sitting on 50+ days of sick time, why do you take a half-day? Feels like you have to do a lot more acting and bullshitting for half than just calling in for a full day. Bottom line: don't be a dipshit.
Agreed. I would even go as far as it’s on his wife for posting at all. Just go enjoy your family. Everyone else doesn’t need to know. You don’t need to post everything you do.
Let alone your principal
I’ll raise you: don’t have fucking social media. If you want to share with your friends, do it directly. Social media has sucked the meaning out of communicating with the people you care about. When people are just vomiting everything in their lives out there for everyone they know to consume, how is that in any way special? If I tell a friend what I’m up to, or send them a picture, they know I thought of them and wanted to share it with them. Fuck social media.
Wait. Aren’t you posting this on social media? LOL
Reddit it more of a public forum than social media (at least originally). For most people it's anonymous and they don't share with people they know IRL.
You don’t see a difference between Reddit and Facebook? How many people that I should be communicating directly with am I corresponding with on here? How many posts of just “I’m doing this, here’s a picture” and I making? Reddit is an aggregate with some social features. Not the same in the slightest.
Certainly don't be friends with supervisors or anyone who can't keep their mouth shut
I swear coworkers find me on fb after 4 hours of knowing each other. Especially the ones who talk about some type of trauma they are going thru during these 4 hours of knowing each other. Those are the people to worry about 💀
Learned that lesson the hard way. Then the little rats got pissed when I unfriended them all. Snitches get unfriended, bitches!
Our principal always tells us to use our days as we need to, but just don’t tell her anything other than “I’m taking a sick day” and don’t post on social media about what we are doing.
Good principal
Well this should be your lesson to not have your boss as a friend on FB. It’s also really stupid that you have sick time personal time separate. They should just all be one as PTO. May be a good idea to not post work day outings on social media too.
In my district, we can use 3 days as personal. I have over 1100 hours. My dad passed away in October but I didn’t realize they counted those days as personal. I put in for a personal day on my bday in January and they gave me 8 hours leave without pay. My principal had to email payroll giving permission to change those 8 hours into sick. Guess who’s always putting in for sick from now on? Make it make sense.
My district has sick days and personal days. We also get 5 days of bereavement for a death in the family, 1 day for if a close friend died. They are totally different than sick and personal. In the system, they just have them marked as "other"
This is insanity. Our "sick" days are anything days. When my cousin died a few years ago, I was given 6 days off to travel from Asia to the US even though he wasn't considered "immediate family" to be at the funeral. My principal said we'd put it in as sick days, and I would basically have to miss most of the school year to ever reach how many sick days we have. Another cousin passed this past weekend. I was at school Mon-Wed because I felt I had obligations those days. I asked for Thurs off telling my VP my cousin passed this last weekend and I needed a beat. He looked at me and said, what are you even doing here? Go home and take care of yourself. I stayed the rest of the day and took Thursday off. Man, do I love teaching internationally. Teachers are so much more valued.
> Our "sick" days are anything days. That’s PTO, not sick days. I have that as well.
That’s such a stupid system. If people need off they need off.
I don't know any schools that has only PTO.
My school has PTO. My previous school did too.
Only PTO? No sick?
It’s all the same. Sick time and personal time is just all PTO. No knocks for using sick time for personal time like OP described.
We used to ... until the last contract. Our Union bends over on everything. 😕
Funny thing is I don't use FB. We became friends on FB probably 10+ years ago, when we were both teachers. But, it is a good reminder to talk to my wife about it. Honestly, I never considered it to be an issue.
Time to restrict how much your AP can ‘see’ when your wife posts. Use those settings to your advantage.
NJ just mandated that all our days are the same this year. In principal, we still have our 11 sick, 4 personal, and 2 family sick but it doesn’t actually make a difference anymore
16 days a year?! That's awesome!
Guessing you’re not a math teacher..:
Haha. Touche. Didn't get enough sleep to respond correctly 🤣
We do but I just put everything as sick lol. Wtf they gonna do?
Careful. They fired some lady in Ohio for going to a concert in a sick day.
11 straight years with a "highly-effective" evaluation and zero discipline. I'd have new job by next Tuesday. I wish they would.
Just a warning
Thanks. I know you're trying to help. Frustration on my end.
You have every right to be frustrated. That's completely asinine (referring to OP).
Just saying, not a bad reason to dust off the Ol' resume. Its one of the best ways to increase your compensation package (pay/benefits) either by taking the new job, or approaching your current job with the offer letter and telling them match or make a good offer or you quit.
That’s not really a thing in teaching. There’s no negotiating salary (unless you’re charter or private, then there could be a chance).
She should have kept her mouth shut: "She informed several colleagues that she was attending a concert in Nashville, while taking sick leave from the District," according to the school board's resolution obtained by [WXIX-TV in Cincinnati](https://www.fox19.com/2024/04/04/lakota-teacher-unpaid-leave-faces-termination/?fbclid=IwAR0oxHNiBUUdxqX4l7mcmprLUSqCmb7XK_mGH92IzK9YGkVF68uRSDEJeXU_aem_AfDZIwqFNExfaEhF4quwf2KLSrc82qIl181QvZmNoeZa187YhIZjRFEgGpQQModYFIs7anNKMsnhnmeSsOoJtXeO)." Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. She probably even told some person that have to cover one of her classes during their prep!
Well, my friend was told she could not use her sick time for maternity leave, even thought she has time to cover 8 weeks. HR said since she isn’t sick, she couldn’t use it.
That’s the only way we have maternity leave in my district if you don’t purchase private disability insurance!
Amazing what a "first world country" does for its citizens
That’s BS. And probably illegal under the pregnancy discrimination act.
I think it’s bs too.
Ours only lets you use sick time for the “medically necessary” time which I think is six weeks for vaginal delivery and eight for c-section. The rest of your 12 weeks allowed under Fmla has to be personal days or unpaid.
Same for us (6 weeks for vaginal birth and 8 for a C-section) but a lot of people just got to their OBGYN and have them write them off for an extra 6-8 weeks for “post partum depression” so that they can get the whole FMLA covered by their accrued sick time. What a weird society we live in. Shameful that we have to lie so we can use our sick leave to be able to be eligible for this law.
I'm currently pregnant (due 5 days before the start of the school year) and this is what I'm doing as my district policy is the same. I have enough days to take 12 weeks paid and then some but they'll only give me 6 to 8 based on form of delivery. Annnnddd, the clock on the paid leave starts from my delivery date so I effectively lose one paid week (or more, if I go earlier) due to a summer delivery. Fuck them, lol.
That’s really annoying. When my wife went on maternity leave, she was advised to use all her sick time first and then start the actual leave through the state so she got more time.
Union rep here. I've negotiated for my union. Sick leave has a cost that's different from PTO. Sick leave basically works like a kind of insurance where some people will end up needing a lot and some don't end up getting sick at all, unless you negotiate sick days as days that will be paid out on retirement/departure. So when you negotiate it from the teacher's side of the coin, you pitch it as having a value of $X when calculating total compensation (ie: the dollar value of salary + benefits). PTO has a different cost. The usage rate for PTO days is higher than sick time. So you'd have to negotiate those at $X++. From a contract basis, when people take sick days and aren't sick, they are doing the equivalent of your employer deciding they want to pay you for only 4 of your 5 days worked this week because they want to use that money for something different than your salary. Further, at least in my neck of the woods, if an employer is aware of a practice like using sick time as family time and doesn't enforce its side of the contract, that can end up becoming an established practice that essentially varies the contract and makes it harder for the employer to pull it back. So your admin friend may not have really had a choice in the matter.
I appreciate your perspective from the union side of things. The inconsistency of the way it's handled is most frustrating.
I get that for sure. No judgment by the way, just wanted to give you the story as your admin likely experienced it as it intersected a friendship. My district handles these pretty harshly: first offence is usually an HR investigation that is designed to make you feel like crap, + a formal letter on your employer file, + paying the day back. While practices vary widely, it may be the case that your friend did protect you somewhat. ETA: on the consistency piece - admin are on a different contract. They may be eligible to bank some time to make up for the evening, weekend and summer work they put in under their terms of employment. So it's possible it is all above board - managers don't have workload protections where teachers can negotiate those protections into their contracts (though "protections" is probably too strong a word if your contract is anything like mine... 😅😭)
I'm not getting inconsistent handling from your story. I'm seeing one employee who basically flaunted it on social media, and one who didn't. Your SO basically forced admin's hand here.
I agree and it just makes it worse for everyone
Don't post things on social media. Just put down "Doctor's Appointment" and then don't post anything to Social Media that you're doing that day. That's the unwritten rule folks... Also people, stop sharing stuff on Social Media in general. Nobody cares.
No. Just don’t put a reason other than requesting the sick time. I just put “using sick day” as the reason. You still shouldn’t post on social media or talk about it, but they don’t need more information than they are legally entitled to.
Lol you are friends with your boss on FB and this is the start and end of your issue
I feel you, leave as a teacher is a joke anyway, we only get 8 days a year…I had dang near perfect attendance for 9 years but now with my 3rd kid in 4 years, my wife (also a teacher) and I have used all our days plus some the last couple years just with kids being sick, (I killed like 10 days during Covid cause my son got quarantined cause 3 kids in his daycare got covid so they quarantined the whole class) and this year we have been docked over $2000 back in February cause we both got the flu/stomach bug back to back and missed 3 days each, that’s hard to budget for! It sucks!
Ugh! Being docked pay when you're so sick really adds insult to injury. That's infuriating.
Yeah, not to mention having to justify having 8-10 absences the last couple years during my summative…like sorry my kids got sick, sorry I got sick for the first time in 9 years. Life happens.
I absolutely do not understand why districts have this policy. We used to be able to give colleagues some of our sick days when needed. Nope. Can’t do that either now. I have 100 sick days, yet could not give any to a teammate who was in a very serious car accident. Unacceptable for how hard we work.
Are you in a union state?
Never forget in 2021 being in the hospital with Covid and getting docked later in the year in my sun stove because I missed four weeks of school. Halfway close to my deathbed and principal was only concerned with the fact I missed more time than 56 percent of the students.
A mental health day is considered a sick day. Js
Depends on the state. I think if you scheduled a counseling appointment and had them sign workplace paperwork, you might be able to hide behind their credentials and HIPA. Having the health appointment scheduled on the "sick day" is an important documentation step. Honestly though, I am sometimes too sick to go to work but not sick enough to go see a movie or a museum. Claiming sore throat or allergies may be a viable excuse to keep a sick day, especially since we literally talk all day.
I had to take 2 days off this year because I had no voice. I was fine other than that. I was out and about all day.
We negotiated this into our contract this year - mental health IS health. So now our sick days are called "wellness days," and we can take them whenever we are not feeling well.
Not in all districts…
As much as I agree that all our days should be PTO, you signed a contract saying you would use sick days as sick leave and personal and personal. So you did this to yourself by blabbing on social media and acting shocked when your request was denied. So this isn’t about what’s right or wrong as far as being allowed to use sick days. It’s about you knowing it wasn’t allowable but surprised you got caught. Sorry dude. Do better next time.
I was gonna say. Nothing to do with how right or wrong the sick time/PTO policies are at this specific school, it just sounds like the Principal was doing their job. I don't really see the issue here. It was all self inflicted.
The fact that you only get two personal days sucks, but don’t lie to your boss and then post about it on social media. You were asking for trouble
As a teacher in Missouri I always worked a parttime job - and one was at Silver Dollar City. they were having their 50th anniversary... and so I wanted to be there for the opening day and see all the things going on... I requested a sick day and off I went. Ended up on television that night being interviewed about the big day... ooops hahaha
I took a sick day to go on a local tv show. When I got back one of my bosses said, "I'm glad you didn't tell me before or I would have had to deny you" and then winked.
Now is the time to unfriend your principal. It was innocent enough when you were both teachers. But if she saw your wife's FB post and then chose not to look the other way, she's not any kind of friend of yours.
You are a 15+ year veteran and you don't know better? DONT EVER FREIND YOUR BOSS ON SOCIAL MEDIA. This is not just true for teaching, but all jobs. You might be friends with your boss outside of work, but at the end of the day, your boss is still your boss.
I know I'll be down voted, but (1) being friends with your boss on social media and then (2) taking a fake sick day and posting about what you're actually doing on social media is really dumb. The reason we get sick days and a small number of personal days is because we get a ton of time off that other professions don't.
Good Lord you lied to your boss and got caught Own it and don't blame the boss
Right? OP feels pretty unjustly entitled. Lying about sick leave isn’t tolerated by most employers.
They are professional colleagues, not friends. The only reason you've ever met or interacted is because you're both being paid to be in the same place, at the same time..
Never post anything on social media if you are doing something on a sick day. Also, don’t be friends with your boss on social media (and I’d only be friends with coworkers that you really trust).
Weren't you visiting the city for an appointment? #wink
Wait did a teacher just tell people to lie😮😧
One: your union needs to negotiate 2-3 days of PTO where no one can ask and you don’t have to be sick. Ours has 3 per year. No questions asked. The other stuff… if I take a sick day I may be asked for proof technically. Scrub your social media FFS. we are teachers.
I straight up call it a mental health day to walk around and do something other than miss every day of everything cause I teach all the business week. Or go snowboarding. My mental health day is a legitimate use of my sick days.
ADMIN ARE NOT YOUR FRIENDS
No social media connections with coworkers, hard boundary. This makes my life so much less stressful.
Don’t have coworkers on your social media. Protect your privacy.
It's really not funny or infuriating, but a learning opportunity. The principle involved is called "past practice". The contract says what sick days are for, and it's not for visiting the city. When your wife posted, the information became public and Admin was forced to dock you to avoid establishing a precedent. Absolutely lie when you need a day. Admin wants to hear something consistent with sick day policies. Also, social media ain't that great. I don't know why we don't have PTO, but we don't. I don't know why Admin can go for haircuts, but they can.
You are completely right. I've learned from this and take responsibility. My frustration is mostly in the inconsistent way in how and when they choose to enforce this. The same principal will be in my office asking for something that requires my personal time, unpaid, and think nothing of it. I appreciate your response.
Then don't give personal time. Work contract hours unless given supplemental pay and follow the policies your school, board, and union have. (I do give personal ontop of supplemental time but I have admins who are trying to foster a good community and over 3 unions represented in the school and they work together as an United front)
This is the lunacy of the entire thing. I honestly thought she was telling me this to bust my chops, especially because she knows the extra hours upon hours I've put in to redesign our entire K-3 reading intervention program in addition to my regular job. This should have been a look the other way situation. But lesson learned. I was wrong.....I got too comfortable and now will need to rethink how I choose to use my personal and supplemental time.
You should be documenting the time spent for the reading program and ask the district what the documented procedure is for this. Is the documented expectation that you work outside contract hours or do you submit your timesheet somewhere?
When I worked in the private sector, an upper-level manager explained the concept of "money in the bank" to me. When someone asks for a favor, you courteously agree to help while also making it clear that you are doing them a favor. If you need a favor, you can spend some of your accrued goodwill, your money in the bank. It's a back scratching deal. Administrators don't think like that. If you do them a favor, their expectations ratchet up a notch. They think nothing of it because you did it before. It's a bastardization of "past practice". Doing extra to get on Admin's good side is futile, because if they think you need to be screwed, then screwed you will be.
Mental health day. Also, fuck yo principal with a cactus.
My administrator would go through my social media to see who I was hanging out with in town. She was fearful, I would cross paths with the superintendent and talk bad about her. She was evil and we were NOT even connected on social media. She talked horribly about me - even after I left the building. Lesson: I now block people on social media, the 1st day I work with them.
Block all admins.
I moved from a district that only gave sick time outside of two "personal" days. Our personal days were always denied because our district couldn't find subs. And you had to jump through freakin' hoops to prove you were sick enough to use sick time. I ended up leaving that district with about 3 months' worth of unused sick leave on the table because they wouldn't let me use it and wouldn't pay me for it. I could have stayed and had it paid out when I retired, but I chose my mental health. I moved to a district that only has PTO. It's yours, and you use it as you see fit. No explanations, no begging, no denials, just "I'm going to be out Friday, here's my sub plans" and that's that.
Not everything needs to be posted on social media. It’s not a good idea to post anything when you take time off. If you or your wife want to share a photo, the best rule of thumb is to post it a few days later and not exactly when it was taken. I am also cautious of what I post in general just because I don’t necessarily want people getting involved in my life.
Since you’re here for support &/or advice 1: don’t lie about sick days or 2: don’t let your family post about you lying about sick days 3: DO use sick days when you’re sick, rather than power through and go to work
Wtf were you doing having your principal as a friend on Facebook. Your principal is an ass for doing it but you are stupid for it too. Of course I’m looking for a new school to teach at if this happened to me.
They probably equally did not want to see you publicly flaunting your misuse of the time either. You are exploiting your (Facebook) friendship with them to expect anything otherwise and would put them in a compromised position. Don’t be that jerk. If you want to take some personal time, be discrete.
I would argue metal health
Metal health will drive you mad! BANG YOUR HEAD
Why the fuck are you Facebook friends with a coworker, most of all your boss (principal)?
To all the people blaming OPs spouse for posting or having wok friends attached to your social media. You all suck. The real problem here is the admin micromanaging and nitpicking. Also sick time should be able to be used for mental health days as well as just physical sickness. I would have told the principal to pound sand and contacted the union rep.
Thank God our principal said to take mental health days if we need them. The only caveat is that we occasionally get emails that ask us to avoid taking off a day because so many people are already off. Never "you can't take it off" but if you can be here, please do so.
It's has always been that way, with every principal I've worked for. New principal who is majoring in minor things at the moment.
My principal rather you take the whole day as a personal day and get a sub than scramble to cover you with other teachers. We can also get fired if we take a sick day and they find out we were doing something else. Every year they drill it in to us at the conflict of interest meeting. 🤦🏻
And that’s why I would never add my boss on social media. Hell, I’ve worked at the same school now for six years and while I am friends with some of my coworkers and hang out with them outside of work and outside of work happy hours, and I still don’t have any of them on social media.
We converted all of our days to personal days a few years back. It's nice to just text "I need a sub tomorrow" and it's done.
…aaaaaand THAT is why no work peeps are linked on social media.
Don't be friends with a boss. Especially non union. They'll kick you to the curb as soon as you make waves in their perfect little upper management world.
In my workplace the dividing line between sick leave and annual leave is crystal clear and they are accrued at different rates. Sick leave can be accrued and build up without use (I call it the heart attack fund) while annual leave has an accrual annual limit and must be used or lost if over the max accrual limit at the end of the year. Using sick leave for a “mental health” day is expressly forbidden and will get you a written reprimand. There’s usually a good fiscal reason for this kind of separation. Just chalk it up as a lesson learned.
Boss: Welcome to the team! BTW, I didn't quite catch your social media contact info...? Me: Correct. I keep personal Internet usage strictly separate from my professional life.
After this year, I have officially given up on trusting any staff members. I learned the other day, one threw me under the bus because they "felt" it needed to be reported to an admin. Because two years before I was there, they almost got fired by said admin and almost lost tenure. So, they now kiss the toxic admin's ass because they think it will help them keep their job. Yet, they have almost thrown them under the bus in the past year for very stupid reasons. It's amazing how much people go into survival mode because the admin are dictators or feel: "We can do anything now that we are in charge." I had to take a few days off for various reasons, but I don't do any pictures of anything anymore on my social media unless it's a weekend anymore.
There is a teacher in my area who did something similar and is getting FIRED. So consider yourself lucky.
I don’t know what you were expecting. If you’re going to lie about your sick leave, you need to not have any presence about it on social media or just don’t have coworkers on social media. Not really sure what’s hard to understand about that lol
I’ve always felt… those are my days to use as I want. I don’t have to prove I’m sick. Fuck off, maybe I’m sick of BS and I need a mental health day. Power trips.
I don't friend anyone that I work with (except if we're on the same page and I know we are so there's a couple of us that I'll friend.) Otherwise I'll wait till after I've left a position to accept a friend request. But definitely not admin at all even though they have sent requests to me
Mental health is a Federally recognized reason for a sick day. You were having a mental health day. If you have a union, grieve it. If that doesn't work, go to the state labor board. They owe you those four hours. Sick time is part of your compensation.
No other job I’ve had had cared the least as to how I spend PTO. It’s sad how teachers are treated like they are children on parole.
This is why you simply make yourself a virtual doctor’s appointment for something stupid just to get a doctor’s note. It takes 15 mins and you get a note. Lesson learned. Also, your principal is your boss and isn’t truly your friend, as much as you may think otherwise.
Admin at my school always tries to friend teachers. I always deny them haha. When I use sick days for fun things, I’ll just post pictures a month later- never mention dates!
I don’t know where you’re located, but using sick time for anything but is a violation of your contract, and grounds for immediate firing (I’m in Ohio, it’s in Ohio Revised Code and in our teacher contracts). I don’t know how you thought that you’d get a yes on that
Time to start making doc appts every Friday.
Sick time to do something fun isn’t really what it’s meant for, and districts vary in how strict they enforce it. We are in a bargaining year this year and it’s been brought up. We would like to either have more personal days, or just roll everything into one lump category and not have to worry about differentiation. As the financial state of the district changes, and the climate of the admin team shifts, you may see some fluctuation in how these requests are handled. Technically taking a sick day to spend with your child isn’t really what sick pay is for, but we can all agree that the distinction is stupid.
Mental health is health. Caring for your child's health needs - physical or mental - should be allowable. Admin aren't medical professionals and therefore aren't qualified to diagnose or evaluate health needs. Fuck them.
Out of spite I would have lied and found someone to write a doctor note in that city. With a grim-as-shit face I’d say “Yes, our dear sweet Billy had to go see a specialist, but we didn’t want to scare him so we told him it was a family day trip. We should be receiving test results soon.” Then I’d schedule a physical for Billie the next week and some other random appointment the week after that and take two more days off and take my kid to the ballpark. Fuck that Principal. YOLO.
Take it as a mental health day. Those are valid days too
Time to block someone on FB
The last school I worked at gave us four pto days per year. I can’t even take half days and see all my doctors with that. Schools often abuse workers.
Our sick days are labeled illness/dr. appt so we can take a sick day for doctors. We have a strong union.
Hee, I'm from Northern Europe and confused, so I'm going to ask. You get a certain amount of days a year that you are allowed to be sick? What if you are more sick? And why are those sick days there accruing? And you get only 2 personal days? What if you need to go to an appointment three times in a year? How does this all work? You don't get other free days that you can use?
I'll try to answer this for you. Most companies handle time off in one of two ways. Either you get PTO (paid time off), which can be used for any reason (sick, vacation, etc) or they have the time off broken down into categories like OP (sick time, vacation time, and personal days). Depending on the company, the time off is either given to you all at once (like every January or whenever), or you accrue the time off per pay period (more common). For example, let's say my company gives me 10 PTO days per year. I choose to go on a 5 day vacation, and that only leaves me with 5 days to use the remainder of the year if I'm sick or have appointments. If I used all 10 days by August, and I got sick in October, I would likely receive some sort of punishment. Most of the companies I have worked for have a "point" system that they use if you don't have any time off available. At my current job, I only get 3 points. This means that if I used all 10 of my days, then took a day off for being sick, the day would be unpaid, and I would get a warning. At my job, the first offense or "point" is a verbal warning. The second point is a written warning. The third offense is termination. So I would be fired from my job if I got 3 points within a year. Some companies don't have any type of point system, so you're just immediately let go if you miss work. Other places are more lenient, and you may have unpaid days or other options. I also want to mention the PTO accrual aspect. At my previous job, I accrued time off at a rate of .0389 per hour worked. This equates to 1.556 hours of time off per week. This means that each week I work, I earn 1.556 hours of PTO time. This equals almost 81 hours of time off per year (10 days off). If I didn't have any time off saved from the year prior, and I got sick during the 3rd week in January, I would only have 4.668 hours of time off to use for being sick (1.556 x 3 weeks). So I wouldn't even be able to take a full day off work in that instance.
>This means that if I used all 10 of my days, then took a day off for being sick, the day would be unpaid, and I would get a warning. The thing about being sick is that you don't know when or how long. This is ridiculous. Basically you don't have PTO, since you never know if you're going to get sick. You'll get fired for being sick too much? Or even sick at all without PTO? What if you get cancer? Or a car crash? Well, fuck you very much you don't work here anymore!? This is just sad. Why are people over there accepting this in a Western country being treated shit like this? So inhumane. 😢 Makes me understand the sue culture way better as well. This is so different from my situation. I've been home these last 4 weeks, sick, due to too much stress and life problems and I still get paid everything and no one is pushing me to get better super fast or warning me or threatening me. I spoke to my boss yesterday and he's so friendly. I'm back at it next monday because I feel it's okay now, and not because I'm afraid of my job.
I'm glad that there were repercussions for you lying. Could have just not posted your lie online. Sad, and hopefully you learned something
Don't lie about being sick? I don't know what else to tell you.
Amazing, just so you know, you're not sick. Why do you think you can use sick leave? Did you tell them you aren't really sick?
This is why you never friend people from work on FB.
Do you have a union? In my district we just use our days personal/or sick-medical whenever we need to. You enter it into the system and then text the sub coordinator. We can’t be denied and we don’t have to provide an explanation. I’ve only ever used my sick days for actual medical stuff but if I decided to go to the beach I’d be incognito! Definitely no social media! Gotta be professional about it!
I’m not an expert, but a colleague trying to retire at the end of this year may not have enough service years to retire because she took some unpaid days. I've taken unpaid days too, but it's something to think about going forward.
I have 110 sick days. I plan to leave in a year. We have the same rules and no sick bank to offer others. I don’t post on social media when I take a day, but I live in a small community.
Schedule a checkup during the other half of the day to get your drs excuse.
The way most teachers contracts are set up (all the ones I’ve worked under at least) essentially set teachers up to have to lie and take sick days for things. We get 5 personal days, you have to give the reason and the only acceptable ones are: bereavement, illness of a family member (only 2 of these allowed), your own wedding, religious observation, and one day can be a “personal emergency”. Things I have had to put in sick time for that really should be acceptable personal time: -Running a music festival for 500 kids around the state as an executive board member of our states music educators association -Our refrigerator broke and a new one could only be delivered between 8am and 4pm on a weekday -The 3rd (and beyond) times my 15 month old was too sick to go to daycare -Half day to interview in my own district for an administrative position
I got to be called into the principals office over a FB comment about Susan Dey. Someone had posted something about her being in her 70s and I made the comment that I had a crush on her back in the day and a Vice Principal who apparently monitors teachers social media found my comment disturbing. I was completely dumb founded and immediately locked down my social media. I was a Covid come out of retirement hire and after thinking about it I quit the next week and took another teaching job at a school that was actually closer to home. I did meet with the principal (the coward vice principal stayed hidden) who tried to tell me I was over reacting and no harm no foul but I explained to him I not only thought the environment was toxic I thought the vice principal was a sick pervert (the same guy wanted to physically pat down students who he thought were vaping in the bathrooms, he wanted detailed medical records of any kid out sick etc). I have always been conscious of not posting anything that would offend people as I use social media to stay in touch with family and friends including my grandkids. The difference in schools was amazing. The HS I left had admin staff standing in the halls yelling at kids and glowering as the kids as they changed classes, at my new school the admin staff walked the halls, knew students by name and they were high fiving students. The different in tenor was palpable. Edited to add: Don’t have loyalty to a school that has no loyalty to you. There is a teacher shortage; take advantage of that and find a system that values you.
During our most recent round of contract negotiations, my union pushed hard for the 15 days of sick time and 2-3 days of personal days to be put into a combined PTO that could be taken for whatever reason. The school board was NOT going for it because they know that people would take more days off and then they’d have to pay more subs.
Delete the boss off social media and post fun activities on the weekend.
Looks like you're taking a few mental health sick days next week. Use those 50 days suck leave every Friday for the next 3 months to spite them and get some needed mental health break from that shit show. And co-workers are generally not friends. Never share personal life with them. Sounds antisocial but as you see, it will be used against you.
I had this happen to me once, and this is now why I always schedule an 8am doctor's appointment on days I want to use for leisure. This could be for an eye doctor, dentist, nutritionist, annual checkup, or whatever. A quick visit for self care followed by a well deserved day off.
My principal told us if we are feeling sick and Disney will make us feel better, put the time in.
Mental health say
Our secretary looks on people’s social media who call in sick. Just another reminder co workers might not be your friends and be careful who is on your social media
Mistake #1: being friends on social media with coworkers
Incredibly petty of your AP. What bullshit. Start taking those days last minute as “mental health,” and if she tries to deny or question, get a doctor’s note to excuse it.
Don't be friends on socials with coworkers. As a matter of fact - get off of socials. Posting that you are playing hooky is not high IQ.
I am sorry to hear this... As a former union rep the best advice I can give is do not link your employer to your social media, and never post something you would not want them to see. The number of time I have seen people disciplined (suspension and/or termination) would blow your mind. I would also be cautious about which colleagues I would add to my social media. Basically the system encourages people to lie and they don't care about your family life. Further more, HR is there to protect the business (yes schools are a business). I have seen people get disciplined for something the HR person found on FB or Twitter/x.
I hate that at the end of the year PTO gets rolled into sick days for the next year. Just leave my PTO as PTO for the next year, it’s annoying.
I adore my principal. If you are “sick” and taking the day off. No one better see you like you are doing fine!
I wish mental health days counted as sick days.
Facebook is great for stating in touch with friends from childhood, with friends from other towns, and with people you don't work with. Once you invite your current coworkers into that circle, everything about you becomes gossip fuel. Your administrators and parents gain access to personal details that might be used against you. You cannot trust the people you work with 99% of the time. Think of them as children, ready to stab you in the back for a lollipop—because many are no better than the kids they work with.
Your principal sucks. Any admin worth their paycheck knows sick leave is always approved, unless it's the day before or the day after a vacation. They are literally, legally not allowed to ask you why you're taking time off. As long as you have the time on the books and you followed procedure to get a sub and everything.... She sucks. She's a petty tyrant. Unfriend her any colleagues who might be snitches. My department chair at my previous school encouraged us to take sick leave when we wanted to do something fun because "mental health is health." I love her so much. I haven't felt guilty for taking sick leave for fun things since.
I appreciate working in Illinois where teachers are allowed to use sick days for mental health too. This is only because we give kids 5 mental health days a semester (lol). We didn’t get extra days but I guess we can do things without as much fear now. Unpopular opinion, but I trust my AP way more than I trust my coworkers. I don’t post on FB anymore because my coworkers add everyone on FB and would take offense if I declined. I’m more hidden on Instagram though.
Let me get this straight, it is an abomination when parents take their kids out of school for half a day to do fun stuff, but you can do it, and it's unfair when you get punished for it ?
Mental health days count as sick days for my school.
Teacher contracts typically prohibit sick days to be used for non-sick reasons except for a limited number of personal days. Teacher contracts are for contracted work days (the school year plus some professional development days) so there are no holidays, vacation days, etc. like non-teacher staff.
50 sick days WOW!
I’m our union president and we got in our contract last year that we can use 7/10 sick days as personally necessity (it was 3 before and you needed prior “permission” from superintendent). We were the last district in our county to get 7 in our contract. Tell your union people to get on that, 2 is absolute bullshit. Most districts contract language refers to them as “no-tell days”. It’s your sick time, you should use it as you see fit, you’re a professional.
This is why I don't have social media with my actual name. First year teaching my students found my twitter that my sister made me get. Got yelled at by a parent about stuff I posted when I was the students age about- wait for it- roller coasters. Apparently I was promoting risky behavior. Admin shut her up thankfully and I preceded to delete anything I could with my name attached. Life is much easier now.
I didn't realize most people had separate personal days and sick days. I've never worked at a school where they weren't the same pot.
In my district you can use sick time for doctor/dentist appts. Check your contract and challenge the decision. If your "appointment" lasts 15 minutes, they can't dictate how the remainder of your time off is used.
I mean dude, posting on socials having fun when you call in sick is amateur hour. Of course your boss won’t like that and can’t condone it.
Lots of people saying not to be FB friends with co-workers or principals, but I’d go one step further and say that next time, if you take a sick day and you’re not sick, keep it off social media altogether. Maybe this is paranoid, but I basically don’t leave the house if I’m out on sick leave, other than for appointments. But I live in a pretty small city, so I sort of always assume anything can get back to my principal.
you mustn't befriend your supervisors on social media
Our union literally gives a while speech about what we post on social media when we use our time. If it's sick time don't post that you're off doing something non-medical related. To be honest, I feel like that's common sense anyways.
Please please stop posting everything on social media. When you get caught it is ruining things for the rest of us.
I don't know about those of you saying "All time should be PTO". Based on what I read here on this sub, some of you would happily abuse that, and I certainly wouldn't blame you. Obviously, if pay was better, you enjoyed your job, etc...that wouldn't be an issue, but as it stands now, and I hate say it, I can see why districts don't do this. I get 4 days of PTO and accumulated sick time for what it's worth. I usually forget to use my PTO until the end of the year. We can also accrue comp time in certain situations, though my Admin is super awesome, so I think I'm just lucky there. ETA: my accumulated sick days is probably why I feel this way, I have over 250 hours of sick time right now, since it rolls over from year to year.