An Amazon Effect?

[Anonymous]

Before you flame me. I took today off (personal leave) to accompany DH to see a specialist. Your children just had office hours and I was still available by Zoom on my phone except the 15 min right before lunch when the doctor spoke with us.

I had an interesting conversation with the nurse in which she said we were so nice compared to the other patients so far this week. She said she was seeing “an Amazon effect” in how patients treated their medical care services and providers right now. People were irritated that the staff had set hours and asked for telehealth appointments at 8 pm or mid afternoon on a Sunday. They also were becoming very verbally abusive at being asked to experience any delay in response or service. It’s already caused a different staff member to leave their practice. I felt really bad for her and said so. I didn’t share this with her, but I recognize the same behaviors in some of my students and their families. Just the sense that education should be on demand, there should be 24/7 support, and the customer is always right. I haven’t hit my personal brick wall with it yet, but if this is the direction we are headed for public education, it might be time. It’s one thing if I chose to put in 14+ hour days. It’s another if a student feels entitled to a response from me at 10 PM on a Friday.

Can we just not treat education like those socks you ordered two days ago?

[Anonymous]

Not sure what you are after here. Schools already have scheduled hours. As a side note, while I am not abusive about it, if I have a scheduled appointment at my doctor's office, I don't appreciate showing up on time only to be asked to wait another 3-4 hours because they habitually overbook to maximize profitability. I'll just leave and find a doctor/dentist/therapist/whatever who doesn't do that. Like the doctor, if you want me to respect your time and consider your needs, you will have to do the same for me. If I email you at midnight, I don't think you are even going to look at it immediately, so don't interpret it as some horrible affront, that was just when I had time to write the email. Respond during whatever time you have to do that and I'll read it when I get time. That's why we have email (faster than a letter, less intrusive than a phone call)

[Anonymous]

That has nothing to do with Amazon. That nurse is really inappropriate.

[Anonymous]

I wouldn't attribute this to Amazon, I would attribute it to DL, WFH.

I've WFH for years and sometimes I work during business hours, sometimes at 10pm, weekends, etc. As more and more workers work from home at odd hours, they expect odd hours of service.

Although abusive people are just bad.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Not sure what you are after here. Schools already have scheduled hours. As a side note, while I am not abusive about it, if I have a scheduled appointment at my doctor's office, I don't appreciate showing up on time only to be asked to wait another 3-4 hours because they habitually overbook to maximize profitability. I'll just leave and find a doctor/dentist/therapist/whatever who doesn't do that. Like the doctor, if you want me to respect your time and consider your needs, you will have to do the same for me. If I email you at midnight, I don't think you are even going to look at it immediately, so don't interpret it as some horrible affront, that was just when I had time to write the email. Respond during whatever time you have to do that and I'll read it when I get time. That's why we have email (faster than a letter, less intrusive than a phone call)

Emailing the teacher at 10 pm is not a problem. Emailing a teacher at 11 pm to ask why haven’t you answered the email I sent an hour ago? That’s a problem.

[Anonymous]

There are tons of providers with 24/7 Telehealth - maybe patients don't realize that certain doctors keep it in house and can't offer those hours

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I wouldn't attribute this to Amazon, I would attribute it to DL, WFH.

I've WFH for years and sometimes I work during business hours, sometimes at 10pm, weekends, etc. As more and more workers work from home at odd hours, they expect odd hours of service.

Although abusive people are just bad.

Maybe the solution is to run separate schools that match the hours of those student’s parents? When I first moved to this area, I was surprised to learn that day care centers only operated M-F from 7 am to 6 pm. I had lived in many major world cities with daycare centers that were 24/7 and others than were overnight only centers from 3 pm to 7 am for shift workers or people who were in entertainment. Maybe a second set of public schools that are in session from 3 pm to 9 pm would be best for those families right now. Teachers who are night owls could volunteer for those positions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure what you are after here. Schools already have scheduled hours. As a side note, while I am not abusive about it, if I have a scheduled appointment at my doctor's office, I don't appreciate showing up on time only to be asked to wait another 3-4 hours because they habitually overbook to maximize profitability. I'll just leave and find a doctor/dentist/therapist/whatever who doesn't do that. Like the doctor, if you want me to respect your time and consider your needs, you will have to do the same for me. If I email you at midnight, I don't think you are even going to look at it immediately, so don't interpret it as some horrible affront, that was just when I had time to write the email. Respond during whatever time you have to do that and I'll read it when I get time. That's why we have email (faster than a letter, less intrusive than a phone call)

Emailing the teacher at 10 pm is not a problem. Emailing a teacher at 11 pm to ask why haven’t you answered the email I sent an hour ago? That’s a problem.

If it were that urgent, it would warrant a phone call an a lot earlier than 11pm. Set an auto- reply so they know it was received and you will eliminate that almost completely.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure what you are after here. Schools already have scheduled hours. As a side note, while I am not abusive about it, if I have a scheduled appointment at my doctor's office, I don't appreciate showing up on time only to be asked to wait another 3-4 hours because they habitually overbook to maximize profitability. I'll just leave and find a doctor/dentist/therapist/whatever who doesn't do that. Like the doctor, if you want me to respect your time and consider your needs, you will have to do the same for me. If I email you at midnight, I don't think you are even going to look at it immediately, so don't interpret it as some horrible affront, that was just when I had time to write the email. Respond during whatever time you have to do that and I'll read it when I get time. That's why we have email (faster than a letter, less intrusive than a phone call)

Emailing the teacher at 10 pm is not a problem. Emailing a teacher at 11 pm to ask why haven’t you answered the email I sent an hour ago? That’s a problem.

The teacher should respond the next day my work hours are from XX to XX and I try to respond at other times but if it is outside my work hours you can expect a response within 24 hours of the next business day.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Not sure what you are after here. Schools already have scheduled hours. As a side note, while I am not abusive about it, if I have a scheduled appointment at my doctor's office, I don't appreciate showing up on time only to be asked to wait another 3-4 hours because they habitually overbook to maximize profitability. I'll just leave and find a doctor/dentist/therapist/whatever who doesn't do that. Like the doctor, if you want me to respect your time and consider your needs, you will have to do the same for me. If I email you at midnight, I don't think you are even going to look at it immediately, so don't interpret it as some horrible affront, that was just when I had time to write the email. Respond during whatever time you have to do that and I'll read it when I get time. That's why we have email (faster than a letter, less intrusive than a phone call)

Emailing the teacher at 10 pm is not a problem. Emailing a teacher at 11 pm to ask why haven’t you answered the email I sent an hour ago? That’s a problem.

The teacher should respond the next day my work hours are from XX to XX and I try to respond at other times but if it is outside my work hours you can expect a response within 24 hours of the next business day.

Even if your work hours as a teacher are 8:30 to 4:30, that does not mean that an email sent at 4:20 should get a same day answer. We have a matter right now that involves 3 state agencies. DH and are both teachers and can’t make phone calls during our work hours. As soon as we are off the clock, we start dialing. No one answers the phones at these agencies after 4:30. Then the return our calls at 10 am while we are teaching. We’ll have to take a day off?

[Anonymous]

I feel that sometimes teachers are way too sensitive about what time parents email them. I am emailing you at 11:00pm because I work full-time, then I have to make my kids dinner, then get them to bed, clean up for a bit, and around 11:00 is the first chance I've had to sit down at my computer. I'm not expecting you to respond right away, this is just my life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I feel that sometimes teachers are way too sensitive about what time parents email them. I am emailing you at 11:00pm because I work full-time, then I have to make my kids dinner, then get them to bed, clean up for a bit, and around 11:00 is the first chance I've had to sit down at my computer. I'm not expecting you to respond right away, this is just my life.

This is because you aren’t emailing at 11:00 and then emailing again at 8 am angry that you did not get a reply. But other parents are. I can guarantee that right now, someone is emailing several teachers about her children’s failing grades and she will steam all weekend because no one has responded. All of that anger will erupt early Monday morning before teachers can read her emails and reply.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel that sometimes teachers are way too sensitive about what time parents email them. I am emailing you at 11:00pm because I work full-time, then I have to make my kids dinner, then get them to bed, clean up for a bit, and around 11:00 is the first chance I've had to sit down at my computer. I'm not expecting you to respond right away, this is just my life.

This is because you aren’t emailing at 11:00 and then emailing again at 8 am angry that you did not get a reply. But other parents are. I can guarantee that right now, someone is emailing several teachers about her children’s failing grades and she will steam all weekend because no one has responded. All of that anger will erupt early Monday morning before teachers can read her emails and reply.

Then that teacher should have some grace and patience with the parent and reply at his/her earliest opportunity.

[Anonymous]

Lets not blame Amazon or any other externality for the self-entitlement of others... Unless you under the age of 12, there are no excuses or phenomena to attribute poor behavior to.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel that sometimes teachers are way too sensitive about what time parents email them. I am emailing you at 11:00pm because I work full-time, then I have to make my kids dinner, then get them to bed, clean up for a bit, and around 11:00 is the first chance I've had to sit down at my computer. I'm not expecting you to respond right away, this is just my life.

This is because you aren’t emailing at 11:00 and then emailing again at 8 am angry that you did not get a reply. But other parents are. I can guarantee that right now, someone is emailing several teachers about her children’s failing grades and she will steam all weekend because no one has responded. All of that anger will erupt early Monday morning before teachers can read her emails and reply.

Then that teacher should have some grace and patience with the parent and reply at his/her earliest opportunity.

Nope. This isn't an on call job and my work email isn't on my phone for a reason. They get the auto responder and nothing else until Monday.

Many teachers are parents and they deserve weekends with their children.

If you need weekend help on demand, time to hire and pay for a tutor out of pocket.