Thursday, June 22, 2006

Best Associate Principal Evah!


I have only taken 3 days off work this year, if I recall rightly. One was a course I was sent on (about Media Studies - interesting stuff which will prove valuable later this year). One was the Monday after the 48. I now have permission to take another day off - moving house day. It will be awesome to have a bit of time to get unpacked and sorted on the day we move. One thing I really appreciate this year is that we have a wonderful gentleman as AP who is retiring at the end of the year. He's a very quietly spoken chap, very polite and friendly and all-round great. In fact, he's the kind of teacher I should quite like to be in a few years. One of the things that I enjoy about having him as AP is that he's very approachable, he remembers when you've done him a favour (like covering a class when there aren't enough relievers), and I don't feel like I have to be disingenuous when dealing with him. I wanted a day off to move, so I asked him a week in advance and told him the reason. He took a day or two to check how feasible it was, then approved. One of the reasons I like to get this sort of thing sorted up front is that I then have zero guilt about 'throwing a sicky', the school knows in advance and can get a releiver sorted, and it helps build my personal loyalty to the management of the school. The flip side of this I guess is that if he'd said no, and I threw a sicky anyway, it would have been pretty obvious and detrimental to my reputation and the working relationship. I'm not sure I would have asked if someone else was in his position - someone I didn't both hold in high regard and trust. On balance, it's clearly to my advantage to have such a person in the position. I'm not sure whether it's to the school's advantage: maybe more people take days off if they know the person they have to talk to is going to be a gentleman about it? On the other hand, I haven't heard many people grumble about being asked to help cover a lesson, and if the Ministry funds relievers anyway, it may not cost the school anything. I'm glad he's there, and am happy to have been given the day off. So I say hooray and huzzah! Note to self: check sick day allowance in PPTA contract. I've only taken about 6 sick days in the last 2 and a half years, moving included, so I'm sure I have a bunch left over, but it's nice to know exactly.

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Note that sick days and annual leave don't necessarily accumulate over time. they can be capped.

Matt said...

I seem to recall that it's something like X days in our first Y years. After 3 or 5 years the total number of allowed sick days increases. So from one December to the following January one could in theory go from zero remaining sick days (if they'd all been used up) to 10 or 20, or could (if unlucky) go from zero to zero.

Matt said...

Length of Service / Aggregate period for which sick leave on payment be granted during service:

Up to 3 months 7 days

Over 3 months and up to 6 months 14 days

Over 6 months and up to 9 months 31 days

Over 9 months and up to 5 years 46 days

Over 5 years and up to 10 years 92 days

Over 10 years and up to 20 years 154 days

Over 20 years and up to 30 years 229 days

Over 30 years 306 days

So that's 46 days for us! 40 left to use in the next 2 and a half years.