Interfering with cover staff whilst on maternity leave - General - HR in Schools and Academies

3 Interfering with cover staff whilst on maternity leave

6 Jul, 2017 12:59

Has anyone ever had to deal with a situation where a teacher who is on maternity leave is still getting too involved?

I have an employee who is currently on maternity leave. She is the Head of Year and another teacher is Acting Head of Year in her absence. It has recently come to light that the Acting Head of Year has been told not to do certain things, like report writing, when in actual fact she should have done these jobs. It turns out the Head of Year told her not to do them. The lady on maternity leave has also asked to be copied into all of the emails that the Acting Head sends to she can keep up to date with what is going on. It seems that most of what she is doing is detrimental to the school.

Can we tell her not to communicate with the Acting Head whilst she is away?

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Elizabeth Divver | 0 Posts

6 Jul, 2017 14:33

Hi Laura

Does the Acting Head of Year report to the Head? Would it be possible for the Head to intervene? I can understand the Acting Head thinking ahead to when the Head of Year returns and not wanting to be on the wrong side of her at that time. It is not clear to me how this behaviour is detrimental to the school. It's clearly detrimental to the Acting Head who must feel she is not trusted to put one foot in front of the other without direct supervision. How did this come to light?
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Keith | 0 Posts

6 Jul, 2017 14:40

Think a "no communications" edict may well be a step too far at this stage. Sounds like a quiet word from someone important, maybe as part of a KIT day or catch up session about "stepping back" and allowing the acting HoD to get on with things sounds like the order of the day. If that doesn't work you can of course escalate and even impose your exclusion order but better to tread softly etc and keep everyone on side

BTW how long into her ML is the HoD? Has baby been born yet? Or is it soon time to come back? Both will impact what you should do
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Robey | 0 Posts

6 Jul, 2017 15:08

As with the others, I'd be more inclined to make this a topic of conversation rather than an edict. It's in the AHoY's (great acronym, there) interests to be able to perform the role with interference for their own career development, but it might be helpful to the AHoY to know that the HoY on mat leave would welcome occasional calls for advice and guidance. Perhaps some KIT days could be scheduled at regular intervals so HoY knows she's got a chance to catch up with matters.

It's in the HoY's interests, meanwhile, to allowed to relax as much as her maternity will allow her and it is unlikely to be to baby's advantage if mum is still stressing about work.

Only if HoY shows a total inability to step away that is interfering with AHoY's job should a clear direction to back off be issued.

I wonder if HoY is worried about being undermined, overshadowed or otherwise have her employment put at risk? Perhaps she suffered a detriment in a previous mat leave, or this is simply a manifestation of her anxiety about parenthood if it's new to her.

A supportive and open dialogue is going to be more helpful to everyone in the long run than having to put your foot down.
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