Coworker with longer commute

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You sound like you are not being fair. She is working, fulling her contract but just not up to your standard. She probably need to get home if she has child care issues, or homework/dinner/activities and bath. Plus, if she is commuting in with her husband, its not like they can split shift who takes the kids. If she were slacking off, its one thing, but she is doing work on her commute or at home, its just not the work you want her to do. You can talk to her, but you will probably piss her off and make things worse rather than better. Maybe you can shift the workload so she is assigned things she can do on the commute or at home rather than at school. You are not being reasonable to expect her to stay past her hours when she has kids and lives that far away.

So because OP lives closer it's reasonable for her to stay late and get their joint work done?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:You sound like you are not being fair. She is working, fulling her contract but just not up to your standard. She probably need to get home if she has child care issues, or homework/dinner/activities and bath. Plus, if she is commuting in with her husband, its not like they can split shift who takes the kids. If she were slacking off, its one thing, but she is doing work on her commute or at home, its just not the work you want her to do. You can talk to her, but you will probably piss her off and make things worse rather than better. Maybe you can shift the workload so she is assigned things she can do on the commute or at home rather than at school. You are not being reasonable to expect her to stay past her hours when she has kids and lives that far away.

Nope, it doesn't work like that. Teachers are not "on contract" or "off contract." We don't get overtime like the support staff. We are not hourly workers. There are hours that are designated as the work day, like any business. The expectation that we are only supposed to "work" a certain number of hours a day is absurd.

[Anonymous]

I think the commute thing is a total red herring. This is a division problem and quite possibly a resource/efficiency problem. Leave the commute out of it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I think the commute thing is a total red herring. This is a division problem and quite possibly a resource/efficiency problem. Leave the commute out of it.

+1. "Jane, we need to figure out a better way of doing business since we always end up scrambling. What are your thoughts on how to get things done while here at school and how we can equally divide remaining tasks that can be done either at school or at home?"

Have some suggestions of your own, but also be open to what she says. If she says things are fine, you can hopefully calmly point out that often you end up running around getting things done last minute and feel as if between the two of you things could be planned better. Try not to start with statements that come across as "I have to xx because you always yy".

[Anonymous]

Why make resources for her students? Make sure you have everything ready to go for your portion of the lessons, and leave her part to her.

I have co taught. I also wonder if you are more into planning etc than she is. I worked with someone who was very outhit and rigid once and disagreed with her opinion of what "had" to be done. Is that going on here?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Why does the planning have to be joint? Can't you just each take care of your own instructional planning and materials?

You aren't her boss, so you really have no place trying to manage her.

If the situation isn't working for you, then you need to go to an administrator and say that it is not working. Don't mention the commuting thing because that is irrelevant. Don't even mention what time she leaves every day, because that is irrelevant.

It isn't your job to police her hours worked. It is your job to meet your requirements, and if you are having difficulty doing that, then you need to tell the administrator that the joint/team relationship is not working for you.

It's possible that she is fine with the work that gets done. Maybe she has different standards/expectations. Maybe she thinks that you go too far beyond what is required.

And what is meant by the "contracted" hours? I think you are giving other PPs the impression that this other teacher leaves exactly when the students go home, but I'm guessing that isn't the case, that she still stays past when they go home but just not as late as you do (or leaves at a regular time).

Teachers have a contracted duty day when they need to be in the building. It is typically 30 minutes before the students arrive and 30-45 minutes after the students are dismissed.

In my school, dismissal begins at 3:05 and the teacher duty day ends contractually at 3:45. But by the time all the students are out of the building it's closer to 3:25, leaving a total of 20 "contracted" minutes to plan and prepare. That's when the real work begins.

The majority of teachers in my building stay much later than that and also come in early. There's no possible way to plan and prepare without working outside your duty hours, especially as all planning time within the student day has moved toward being collaborative or to conduct data chats and doesn't include time for actually creating the instructional materials you need to teach effectively.

[Anonymous]

do the higher ups know you are working longer in the office or contributing more to each and every project? I'd start there.
i'd also start backing off playing cleanup on every single project. if she's good she'll realize she needs to put in 1-2 hours late at night at home. If she's not, then you both need to push back on deadlines. You need to start drawing the line.

[Anonymous]

The real issue here is, of course, that you have more work that you can finish in your contracted hours. THAT is where your problem is, not with your co-worker. Lashing out at her is not going to solve it. If they fire her you'll still be sitting there after hours.

[Anonymous]

Tell your boss you want to get paid for overtime. Only the stupid work for free

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does the planning have to be joint? Can't you just each take care of your own instructional planning and materials?

You aren't her boss, so you really have no place trying to manage her.

If the situation isn't working for you, then you need to go to an administrator and say that it is not working. Don't mention the commuting thing because that is irrelevant. Don't even mention what time she leaves every day, because that is irrelevant.

It isn't your job to police her hours worked. It is your job to meet your requirements, and if you are having difficulty doing that, then you need to tell the administrator that the joint/team relationship is not working for you.

It's possible that she is fine with the work that gets done. Maybe she has different standards/expectations. Maybe she thinks that you go too far beyond what is required.

And what is meant by the "contracted" hours? I think you are giving other PPs the impression that this other teacher leaves exactly when the students go home, but I'm guessing that isn't the case, that she still stays past when they go home but just not as late as you do (or leaves at a regular time).

Teachers have a contracted duty day when they need to be in the building. It is typically 30 minutes before the students arrive and 30-45 minutes after the students are dismissed.

In my school, dismissal begins at 3:05 and the teacher duty day ends contractually at 3:45. But by the time all the students are out of the building it's closer to 3:25, leaving a total of 20 "contracted" minutes to plan and prepare. That's when the real work begins.

The majority of teachers in my building stay much later than that and also come in early. There's no possible way to plan and prepare without working outside your duty hours, especially as all planning time within the student day has moved toward being collaborative or to conduct data chats and doesn't include time for actually creating the instructional materials you need to teach effectively.

Right, but teachers I have known do a lot of planning and preparation AT HOME. They don't actually have to be in the classroom to prepare. It sounds to me like OP is type A, and her coworker is not. If OP didn't do the stuff she does to "help" her coworker, perhaps her coworker would be just fine and still be prepared enough for the next day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Why does the planning have to be joint? Can't you just each take care of your own instructional planning and materials?

You aren't her boss, so you really have no place trying to manage her.

If the situation isn't working for you, then you need to go to an administrator and say that it is not working. Don't mention the commuting thing because that is irrelevant. Don't even mention what time she leaves every day, because that is irrelevant.

It isn't your job to police her hours worked. It is your job to meet your requirements, and if you are having difficulty doing that, then you need to tell the administrator that the joint/team relationship is not working for you.

It's possible that she is fine with the work that gets done. Maybe she has different standards/expectations. Maybe she thinks that you go too far beyond what is required.

And what is meant by the "contracted" hours? I think you are giving other PPs the impression that this other teacher leaves exactly when the students go home, but I'm guessing that isn't the case, that she still stays past when they go home but just not as late as you do (or leaves at a regular time).

Teachers have a contracted duty day when they need to be in the building. It is typically 30 minutes before the students arrive and 30-45 minutes after the students are dismissed.

In my school, dismissal begins at 3:05 and the teacher duty day ends contractually at 3:45. But by the time all the students are out of the building it's closer to 3:25, leaving a total of 20 "contracted" minutes to plan and prepare. That's when the real work begins.

The majority of teachers in my building stay much later than that and also come in early. There's no possible way to plan and prepare without working outside your duty hours, especially as all planning time within the student day has moved toward being collaborative or to conduct data chats and doesn't include time for actually creating the instructional materials you need to teach effectively.

Right, but teachers I have known do a lot of planning and preparation AT HOME. They don't actually have to be in the classroom to prepare. It sounds to me like OP is type A, and her coworker is not. If OP didn't do the stuff she does to "help" her coworker, perhaps her coworker would be just fine and still be prepared enough for the next day.

But OP would not, as the coworker would not have her contribution ready to share. That is the crux of the issue.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If she's commuting with a spouse why can't she work while he drives? Or take the work with her and do it later in the evening?

It sounds like she's taking advantage because she knows you'll stay and finish the work. What has she said when you've previously brought this up?

It isn't taking advantage if she is working for what she is paid for. follow her lead and do the same.

[Anonymous]

This is not your problem, OP. BUT, you are making it your problem. If working with this teacher is not working out, then politely let her know you will take care of things for your students moving forward.

[Anonymous]

You need to start preparing just for the students in your room. This may mean you are doing what you think is 90% of your best in all content areas, but at least you won't be doing someone else's work for them. If you are set on continuing to "collaborate" then you should split up responsibilities between stuff that has to happen at school and stuff that can happen at home (laminating can get cut out at home, manipulatives divided into group sets, etc.) Maybe she can do some of your grading for you?

[Anonymous]

I'd also add that you seem to have higher standards than your co-worker, and complete higher quality lesson plans, etc.

Maybe it's just not worth trying to split subjects' lesson plans with her. You are bailing her out too much and she is giving you low quality deliverables in exchange for your higher quality ones and picking up her slack.

Time to make all your own lesson plans yourself? And tweak each year accordingly?