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Career change is difficult for anyone, I was just explaining why it gets particular difficult for a teacher about 7-8 years into teaching. One of the roots of the problem is that the 403(b) is such an incredibly horrible individual retirement account. Annuities are already tax deferred. There is no point in putting your money into tax deferred annuities that you don't even have custodial control of.
Although, SS Windfall now only applies to government workers (and federal workers and most workers on local pensions are exempted as well, so generally only government workers on statewide pension systems).
Essentially, the work-to-rule contract states that a teacher does not have to do one thing outside the contract. Show up to school on time, go home on time, and that is it. Basically saying, "Outside of the contract, we're doing nothing".
I have only heard of this for assembly-line workers, and all other hard-core union workers.
In the private sector of professional workers, if rules like this were passed, either the company would go out of business, or all the employees would be laid off.
The only losers with a contract like this are the students (and taxpayers), and the only winners are the teachers.
Work to rule is usually only imposed when contract negotiations are at an impasse. The purpose is to illustrate to people, such as yourself, how much and what teachers do outside the contracted day.
College recommendations don't appear out of thin air, nor do lesson plans, handouts or papers being corrected. Take the off the clock hours away and those other things come into better focus.
Essentially, the work-to-rule contract states that a teacher does not have to do one thing outside the contract. Show up to school on time, go home on time, and that is it. Basically saying, "Outside of the contract, we're doing nothing".
I have only heard of this for assembly-line workers, and all other hard-core union workers.
In the private sector of professional workers, if rules like this were passed, either the company would go out of business, or all the employees would be laid off.
The only losers with a contract like this are the students (and taxpayers), and the only winners are the teachers.
Work to the rule is a strategy meant to highlight how ridiculous teacher contracts are because they spell out hours that are completely ignored by the school district every day. If teachers actually worked the hours on the contract the school would basically implode.
Teachers don't actually want to work to the rule, they just want some recognition of the fact that their contracts don't reflect reality. In my school, administrators scheduled meetings and professional development after school hours so frequently that teachers had to stay until 9 or 10pm to get their own preparations done. Any planning time we had built into our day was taken up by administrator-directed activities that were mostly a waste of time.
When teachers did work to the rule campaigns, it was to try to get back control of our out of school hours, so required activities that weren't really meaningful wouldn't take up all our free time, leaving us to do meaningful things like preparing lessons late at night or on weekends. I worked up to 70 hours a week while teaching in that school! It was crazy.
Worse, work to the rule campaigns were so ineffective because it just meant that everyone had to do three times as much work the week before so they could leave on time during the work to the rule campaign. Most teachers who managed to actually leave on time ended up just taking everything home with them and doing it there.
It's so sad that these campaigns end up sending the opposite message that they are meant to.
Work to rule is usually only imposed when contract negotiations are at an impasse. The purpose is to illustrate to people, such as yourself, how much and what teachers do outside the contracted day.
College recommendations don't appear out of thin air, nor do lesson plans, handouts or papers being corrected. Take the off the clock hours away and those other things come into better focus.
I work in private industry, as a professional, and am on salary. (The SO also is). We are paid for the job, not how long it takes. If I can do my job in an hour, fine. If it takes me 84 hours a week, fine. As long as I get my job done, and do a good job, that is how I am evaluated and get paid.
Quote:"The purpose is to illustrate to people, such as yourself, how much and what teachers do outside the contracted day."
I have two teachers in my extended family. I know exactly how much work they do outside the classroom time.
You should see the work what other people do outside the the standard business day.
Quote:"College recommendations don't appear out of thin air, nor do lesson plans, handouts or papers being corrected. Take the off the clock hours away and those other things come into better focus."
From what I can tell about this contract, you don't have to do ANYTHING outside the school day. If you so choose to do so, kudos to you. If you do, at least someone is trying to make the school system better. Can't say the same for the teachers union.
Correct papers during your lunch hour. I get a lot of work done during that time, as there are few interruptions.
You should come and work in my field (or SO's field) for a week.
If you did, (and you are married with kids), I hope your SO is a good cook, as he will be doing all the meals, shopping, running the kids around etc. Also, I hope you don't feel that family time has any value. We didn't have any kids, because we didn't want them to be mostly raised by someone else (though my sister took that route). The only hired help (for living things) I have is a sitter for the dog, every day, because I didn't want to leave her alone for 14 hours a day. Now try going to conferences all over the world. You are away from your family, and you don't get paid for that, it just goes with the job.
The 'off-the-clock' time spent falls on deaf ears here, as many, many people do it, and don't need a union to tell them how they have to work.
Newflash Sport, I have worked in industry, in management, on a salary. And the
"long hours" meme gets tiresome. That just shows inefficiency if you have to do it on a regular basis. And, in management, there's such a thing as comp time.
Question for you: do you leave anytime prior to the end of the day? If so, there's your comp time.
I see you feel teachers should give up their lunch 1/2 hour.
Most studies show that people who work through lunch are generally the least productive.
My sister in-law is a French teacher just north of Toronto - she has great benefits..a substantial yearly salary - but strangely enough she can not carry on a conversation in French...If a student gives her a hard time - she conspires with the rest of the loser teachers to stick the kid on meds to shut them up. Teachers now adays are not as dedicated to a better world - they like to dominate kids - and they like the money...end of story.
Work to the rule is a strategy meant to highlight how ridiculous teacher contracts are because they spell out hours that are completely ignored by the school district every day. If teachers actually worked the hours on the contract the school would basically implode.
Teachers don't actually want to work to the rule, they just want some recognition of the fact that their contracts don't reflect reality. In my school, administrators scheduled meetings and professional development after school hours so frequently that teachers had to stay until 9 or 10pm to get their own preparations done. Any planning time we had built into our day was taken up by administrator-directed activities that were mostly a waste of time.
When teachers did work to the rule campaigns, it was to try to get back control of our out of school hours, so required activities that weren't really meaningful wouldn't take up all our free time, leaving us to do meaningful things like preparing lessons late at night or on weekends. I worked up to 70 hours a week while teaching in that school! It was crazy.
Worse, work to the rule campaigns were so ineffective because it just meant that everyone had to do three times as much work the week before so they could leave on time during the work to the rule campaign. Most teachers who managed to actually leave on time ended up just taking everything home with them and doing it there.
It's so sad that these campaigns end up sending the opposite message that they are meant to.
Quote:"Work to the rule is a strategy meant to highlight how ridiculous teacher contracts are because they spell out hours that are completely ignored by the school district every day."
People who are salaried, are paid by the job, not the number of hours they work.
I would take home work every night (and often work on weekends). I would get to my email around 9PM, and would be done by 11 (that time range is when I was least interrupted).
Quote:"Worse, work to the rule campaigns were so ineffective because it just meant that everyone had to do three times as much work the week before so they could leave on time during the work to the rule campaign."
Well then, the union that was supposed to protect you just screwed you.
Quote:"When teachers did work to the rule campaigns, it was to try to get back control of our out of school hours."
You are paid by salary, so whatever it takes to get the job done, you do it.
The old 9-5 timecard jobs (except for many blue-collar workers) went out with buggy-whip makers and coopers.
Quote:"It's so sad that these campaigns end up sending the opposite message that they are meant to"
The only message it sends is that the students and taxpayers end up as the losers.
Newflash Sport, I have worked in industry, in management, on a salary. And the
"long hours" meme gets tiresome. That just shows inefficiency if you have to do it on a regular basis. And, in management, there's such a thing as comp time.
Question for you: do you leave anytime prior to the end of the day? If so, there's your comp time.
I see you feel teachers should give up their lunch 1/2 hour.
Most studies show that people who work through lunch are generally the least productive.
Quote:"That just shows inefficiency if you have to do it on a regular basis. And, in management, there's such a thing as comp time."
May I inquire as to how many start-up companies you have been involved with and managed? These types of companies are rampant here in the greater Boston area. Elementary terms in management are 'time to market' and 'limited budget'.
And for the 'comp time' thing... suuurrreee there is, and (as I said in another post), the likelihood is the same as you getting a job as a buggy-whip maker or a cooper.
Quote:"
Question for you: do you leave anytime prior to the end of the day? If so, there's your comp time."
If, for some important reason, I have to step out from work during the day, I end up making it up.
What I hate most about taking vacations, is that if I take 3 days off, when I come back I am 3 days behind. The least I do when I am on vacation is to take my laptop, so in the evenings I can get caught up on at least what is going on, or clear obstacles that others are having.
Quote:"I see you feel teachers should give up their lunch 1/2 hour."
I don't give up my lunch hour (I often eat in my office and complete work undisturbed, or we have management meetings where everyone brings their lunch to a conference room). I am not giving up anything. Maybe I could go to the cafe and talk about politics, how everyone's kids are doing. NOT. (To be fair, I do go occasionally, to keep my finger on the pulse of what is going on in my organization, so you could say I am still working).
Four nights a week, I would order in food for the engineers, at 7PM. Chinese food 2 nights, Indian food 1 night, American food 1 night. True, it would cost about $100K a year for that, but to get the teams (typically 50 or so of the team would stay), I recouped the cost in employee time in about 3 weeks.
Quote:"Most studies show that people who work through lunch are generally the least productive."
Then you must consider all of us in upper management the least productive. Geez, I wondered how we pulled off that multi-billion IPO? Maybe we spent too much time on the golf course.
Correct papers during your lunch hour. I get a lot of work done during that time, as there are few interruptions.
Teachers lunch hours are generally 1/2 hour and they are not uninterrupted. Often the lunch hour is when kids get tutored or lesson plans that need to be changed because a class is falling behind get done.
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