#school staffing shortages

[covid-safer-hotties]

Alabama still demanding people pay back COVID unemployment: ‘it’s just been horrible’ - Published Aug 13, 2024

For Spencer Johnson, memorizing three Japanese writing systems has been easier than deciphering Alabama’s unemployment system.

“The most confusing thing I have ever done,” he said of trying to negotiate with the Alabama Department Labor, a group whose bungled handling of pandemic benefits will wind up in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in October.

Johnson, 30, is studying Japanese at the University of Alabama and has launched a business to help English and Japanese speakers broach the language divide. He plans to finish his degree in Japan. But, like many in Alabama, he’s still trying settle an old unemployment dispute, as the state wants him to give back $4,000.

Many Alabamians who got unemployment benefits during the pandemic, both the state money and the extra $600 from the federal government, have received notices over the last four years that they were overpaid and owe money back, often thousands of dollars, in many cases due to errors in the department’s clunky computer system, small mistakes in their applications or missing information.

Expand article logo Continue reading When COVID hit, Johnson was in his last semester at Coastal Alabama Community College. He got hired to work for the Census for the summer and was going to Tuscaloosa to start UA for the fall of 2020. He started onboarding for the job and was immediately let go because of COVID, so he applied for unemployment. After a few months, when school started, Johnson said, he voluntarily quit getting benefits.

A couple of years later, the department told him he owed all of the money back.

He said he doesn’t have his parents to fall back on and he’s living paycheck to paycheck.

“And then having like, ‘Oh, by the way, you owe $4,000 to the state.’ There were times when I’m just like, ‘What am I going to do? Where is the light at the end of the tunnel?’ Because right now there is nothing.”

The Alabama Department of Labor did not respond to a request for comment. In the past the department has said it cannot comment on ongoing litigation.

During the pandemic, the department of labor had staffing shortages and technological problems that contributed to a significant backlog in processing applications. According to the Century Foundation, delays continue. By 2024 Alabama had the slowest rate of processing appeals of any state at an average of 752 day delay. In contrast, other states are processing appeals within 10 days. In 2024, Alabama has the highest rate of denying unemployment claims of any state. In 2024 Alabama’s denial rate was 377 %, more than three times greater than the second highest state, Nebraska, according to the foundation, which notes that rates can be over 100 percent if decisions are delayed.

In 2022, Governor Kay Ivey called the situation “outrageous.”

Johnson doesn’t know if or when his case will be resolved. He has gone through multiple attempts to appeal. After the first, the department decided in his favor and asked for a repayment of just $700, a smaller amount than he was told he owed initially. But it didn’t seem to matter. In the spring of 2022 he got another overpayment letter, once again saying he owed $4,000.

“I called them and said, ‘Hey, I’ve already had an appeal. They awarded in my favor. Why is it still saying I owe this money?’ The woman looked up my (account), she said, ‘Oh yeah, you’re right. They did award it. This seems to be an error. I’m going to take care of this. You don’t have to worry about it. Have a good day.’ And I’m thinking, ‘Okay, wonderful.’”

But that didn’t work either. A month later he got a notice in the mail telling him he still owed $4,000. What was even more confusing, he said, none of the 60 or 70 pages of communication he had received by that point explained why he owed the money. At that point, he sought out a lawyer. He felt it was a matter of principle that he not pay back the money. He said it often seemed that what he heard from the department staff contradicted what he read on the website.

“It has completely shattered my faith in the Alabama Department of Labor, completely shattered my faith in any sort of government bureaucracy. It makes me not want to buy into a system that I feel like everyone should want to buy into.”

He learned later that he could have asked for the overpayment to be forgiven but because he appealed, he lost the privilege to do that. But he said the website only directed him to appeal.

“So all they tell you is, ‘Oh yeah, you can appeal here.’ So by going with the first thing that they suggest I do, I end up disqualifying myself from just being able to ask, ‘Can you forgive this?’”

Read the rest of the report at either link!

[galadae]

there has been some form of major staffing issue or shortage come up for every single week this month and it's only the first week. can I just give the staffing part of my job to someone else please. My boss was like "have the entire month scheduled ahead of time" well what's the point if the employees don't know their schedules bc sometimes they don't get all the info for school or their other jobs before the month starts 🫠

[catdotjpeg]

More than 100 students walked out of Westlake Middle School on Wednesday to protest the cancellation of a meeting that Bay Area labor groups had planned to host at the campus over the weekend in support of Palestine. The demonstration, planned by Westlake’s Black Student Union, is the latest action by students and staff who are dissatisfied with the district’s handling of events and discussions related to the war in Gaza.  Bay Area Labor for Palestine, a coalition of local unions, had reserved Westlake for what was billed as a “mass organizing and teach-in” meeting on Sunday. OUSD allows the public to reserve and rent space in its facilities through an online platform. On Saturday, organizers said they received notice from the district that their event could not use the campus because of staffing shortages.  OUSD did not respond to a request for comment about the meeting cancellation or the student walkout. Westlake students were joined by representatives from Bay Area Labor for Palestine—a coalition that includes the Oakland and San Francisco teachers unions, Arab Resource and Organizing Center, ILWU Local 10, Jewish Voice for Peace Bay Area, and others—who viewed the district’s action as censorship. Timothy Killings, the advisor of the Black Student Union at Westlake, said his students came up with the idea for the walkout after he told them about the canceled meeting.

“We pride ourselves on this being a safe space for organizations to talk about the dynamic and the genocide, to be frank, that’s happening in Palestine,” said Killings, who also serves as Westlake’s community school manager. “I’m wholeheartedly for public debate and I tell my BSU that—let the ideas flow and let the community decide what’s right.”

[...]

Students left Westlake around 11:30 a.m. and walked through downtown Oakland chanting slogans in support of the Palestinian people. They ended at Frank Ogawa Plaza, where they were joined by students from Envision Academy, a charter school in downtown Oakland. As students led the crowd in chants, Killings took groups of students to the nearby Black Panther Party Museum exhibit about the Oakland Community School. 

-- From "Oakland middle school students hold walkout and rally for Palestine" by Ashley McBride, 28 Feb 2024

[beardedmrbean]

A Boston liberal arts college admitted that the recent anti-Israel protests on campus have contributed to low enrollment for the upcoming academic year which will necessitate possible staffing cuts.

In an internal message this week, Emerson College president Jay Bernhardt pointed to "multiple factors" prompting a "significant" shortage in the incoming freshman class, including the protests and the press generated by them.

"We want to share with our community that the size of our incoming first-year class for Fall 2024 is significantly below what we had hoped," Bernhardt’s statement declared this week.

"We attribute this reduction to multiple factors, including national enrollment trends away from smaller private institutions, an enrollment deposit delay in response to the new FAFSA rollout, student protests targeting our yield events and campus tours, and negative press and social media generated from the demonstrations and arrests."

Bernhardt disclosed that the school would be looking to implement layoffs and budget cuts to account for the lost revenue. Tuition for the 2024-25 school year is listed at $55,200, and room and board costs are more than $20,000.

"We will limit our staff and faculty searches next year and carefully review existing programs and offerings for future savings," the college said. "Finally, we will need to eliminate some staff positions, both vacant and filled, and potentially reduce some faculty positions."

Emerson College saw a wave of anti-Israel protests on campus this spring that resulted in clashes with Boston police and arrests. 

During one demonstration in April, more than 100 protesters were arrested for not vacating their encampments that were in public access areas on campus.

In the struggle to remove agitators, multiple officers suffered minor injuries, a police spokesperson told Fox News Digital. 

At the time, Bernhardt released a statement about the demonstration that led to the arrests, stating, "Emerson College recognizes and respects the civic activism and passion that sparked the protest in Boylston Place Alley in support of Palestine while also holding and communicating concerns related to the numerous ordinance violations caused by their encampment. We also understand that clearing the encampment has significantly and adversely impacted our community."

Emerson’s Student Government Association slammed the president’s conduct in regard to these protests. 

As a local NBC affiliate reported, Emerson College SGA President Nandan Nair stated, "He has routinely sent out insensitive emails, that have not only portrayed the facts accurately but also, failed to express empathy and failed to support the students that have been traumatized and affected by these events."

Emerson did not immediately reply to Fox News Digital’s request for comment.

[rothjuje]

Truth. I am feeling done with my SAHM days. I don’t know if it’s having twins (one deeply feeling kid and the other on the spectrum). Or just that I started staying home with my kids as a foster parent in 2015 (so managing extreme toddler emotions full time for 8 years). There are also other lifestyle changes that contribute, living somewhere without ‘help’ (my neighbor in TX used to come keep me company for two hours every morning, it was more companionship than actual help but it meant a lot to my sanity), and also that my husband has been traveling twice the amount that he did in TX.

We got an email saying there was a severe staffing shortage of paraprofessionals in our school district, especially in the special ed classrooms at the elementary school. A friend told me they would cover full-time tuition for the twins’ preschool, which would be perfect and the hours are the same as a school day.

I immediately applied and haven’t heard back. The man who sent the email, who is doing the interviews/hiring, is unfortunately the same man I had to write the email to this summer when I pulled George from ESY. My email was polite (I am a people pleaser) but it did not make friends and the head of special ed is not nice to me when I bump into her in person (her boss is the one I sent the email to).

Justin thinks it’s a no-go, and it could be. They’d have to put Gen in a different class (because her class is strictly part-time) and they would have George all day (which I don’t think would be a staffing issue with their current setup). I know they have previously scheduled interviews for next week, so maybe they want to get through those first before contacting me, who knows. My friends think I shouldn’t stress about not hearing back because it’s the first week of school/they’re crazy busy.

But also, if they know they have a “severe” shortage of staff, why do they wait to write an email begging for people to apply once school has already started?

Anyway. My plan is once the twins are in school (George in the mornings for a total of 12 hours a week, Gen full days twice a week for a total of 10 hours, so only 5 hours intersect/so 5 hours kidless) to finish my real estate classes and get that ball rolling, because it would be flexible enough to do while they’re still in school part time. Although in reality 5 hours kidless a week isn’t enough time to do much of anything.

My friends don’t get why I don’t just find a full time job somewhere, but I don’t understand how that would work. In Texas, things are designed for that (longer school days, longer aftercare). Here preschool is 9am -2pm, so 5 hours. You can pay a lot of money to drop them off an hour before school starts, and pick them up an hour after school ends, but still you would have to leave your work day at 2:30 to get there in time because there are no jobs out here or in surrounding towns (country living).

Also, summer. I have a kid on the spectrum, I can’t just ship him away to camp. And camps for 3 kids is $$$. I don’t think I’ve really thought about what you do with your kids in the summer while working full time until this very moment. I mean most people do it so it’s doable but wow, stressful..

[iamyelling]

ranting about the state of the "job market" and "the economy" to my dad over text today, here's what i said basically:

so i remembered seeing that a bunch more people got laid off in the games industry and i looked it up today and found that 8,100+ people have been laid off just in 2024 so far.

what are these 8100 people going to do? that’s a lot of people! like lol are there other industries that are willing to hire people with totally different experience backgrounds? no, because every job has hundreds of applicants, so they can pick someone who does have experience in whatever that hiring company does. i mean, i don’t know that much about games world, but it seems like .. bad !

like are these unity engineers going to fix the hiring and staffing crisis in healthcare and education and childcare??? that’s the way people talk about things, the job market, “the economy”. they’re like oh well layoffs are ok bc there are sectors that can’t find anyone to work! and it’s like… you’re going way to vague. these are totally different people with completely different education and career history and experience and resumes!

do the Big People In Charge seriously think it’s all the same workers? like that it’s totally interchangeable exchangeable? it feels like.. on a whole other level of out of touch to me. i just. the degree of complete overhaul of how the entire system works, from education to hiring practices and norms to training would need to be. so out there as to be unthinkable and impossible

i saw a headline recently that was saying that "underemployment is good news for staffing shortages", or something very similar to that. it made me so mad when i saw it a few days ago i scrolled away without clicking. i can't find the article now, which is a bummer.

When an industry is ~strong or growing, layoffs or shutdown in a portion aren’t as rough - there are other jobs. But it seems today nobody is hiring so this is different than other eras.

i’m like oh i’d be happy to do all sorts of work! but i have the wrong experience so im not even gonna apply. they’re desperate for workers, but they need someone with very particular experience and qualifications and certifications and education and the pay is low and the working conditions very unpleasant. it’s a huge disconnect. Many companies have no idea how to find, recruit and hire people. They are so unsure that they don’t make decisions or make bad decisions.

like, there’s no “childcare certification bootcamps” lol. no “education cert courses” or if there are it’s not public knowledge. but they’re not getting people trained to get into the field, they’re just asking magical perfect workers to pop up into their inboxes out of nowhere. and all for $20/hr! lol!

it’s apples to oranges. there’s hella tech workers! soooo many! lots of office workers! but how are we going to get these people to fill all the vacancies in totally different industries? is it even realistic to expect people to shift like that? the expectations and standards are extremely high and there’s no room for error or imperfection. the trades and blue collar is staaarting to do training and certs and education courses

all the companies are cutting their workforce. there is now a pool of thousands of extra workers with no openings for them in their field but! there are openings in different fields

my question is how do people expect that gap to be bridged? people need work, desperately. certain industries are in crisis. essential industries! but the pool of unemployed is not matched to those jobs there’s thousands probably a million other people like me. with office job experience and education and qualifications, looking for office jobs. and there’s a million job openings for completely different work. like in schools, hospitals, construction and trades, childcare, food and dining, infrastructure. plus the money isn’t there, so those positions are lower pay, less cushy, also require certain certifications and education and qualifications and abilities, and they’ve been in crisis and understaffed for ages so the shifts are long, the schedules are chaotic, and management is toxic.

i guess my hot take is, if these places really want workers, they should hire laid off office workers and just set up on-the-job training. it’s that simple. people need to eat and pay rent and pay for their kids and things. just do paid training. not free, not scholarship, not low-cost. just hire and train for the first couple months or however long

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

Teachers on twitter are playing a fun game of how many jobs are advertised in my subject on TES right now.

Bear in mind it's the Easter hols, which is traditionally not a time when there are loads of teacher job adverts out. And this is only the schools that are advertising on TES (which charges a lot of money).

Over 1000 science jobs, nearly 1000 maths jobs, over 500 geography jobs, nearly 400 history jobs (traditionally not a shortage subject). I'm sure the list goes on.

Last year, all the science trainees in my area had jobs by February. Some of these jobs won't get filled.

I've posted about this on twitter too, but it's easier to explain long form. This is what happens when a department in a secondary school isn't fully staffed.

The school tries to get in long term subject specialist supply, who's willing to plan/mark. This is a big cost for the school, and often it isn't available. This teacher can leave with no notice when something better comes up.

At some point, probably before October half term, the class end up being taught by day supply- so teachers in the department are asked to write cover work and mark work for classes that aren't on their timetable. This is a massive chore, and often the cover planning needs to be done daily. This creates excessive workload for teachers.

Someone goes off with stress or is ill or the school can't get day supply, so then teachers get asked to do cover. In theory, there are rules about when teachers can be asked to cover, but it's very hard to say no to the "just this once" pleading. This further increases workload, because you lose your PPA/non-contact so get behind with planning/marking etc.

Maybe, if you're lucky, another medium term solution is found. Say this is before Christmas and the classes involved are already on their second teacher of the year. The teachers who were doing extra work breathe a sigh of relief and try to catch up with their own stuff. The teacher who's picked up the classes finds they're behind, maybe their behaviour isn't great etc etc, maybe the class try to test them because they're feeling rejected.

The teacher likely finds a new job for after Christmas, maybe a permanent role, or maternity cover, something that seems a bit nicer than what they're dealing with now. So it's back to point two again. Except everyone's more stressed and more goodwill has been lost. Teachers within the department consider looking for jobs elsewhere.

If you're very lucky, and the school's in a MAT, at this point they may try bringing in a teacher from another school to fill the gap (on a temporary basis). So this is the 3rd teacher, maybe by February half term. Maybe it's agreed they will see the classes through to exams (because yeah, exam classes are being impacted by this too).

That teacher probably has a long commute and is in a difficult situation. The department is potentially burnt out and can't support them. Often they don't last, and at this stage, maybe someone else has gone off sick, or found a new job. Maybe the school can't get day supply this time. You end up at a bit of a crisis point, teaching multiple classes together in the library or the hall. Hopefully this only lasts for a day or two, and then at least you can get supply in.

Teachers from the wider school are getting pulled in to cover etc, so this is potentially negatively impacting everyone.

The school is still trying to recruit, maybe now they've got two roles to fill for September. No-one is applying, because teachers get twitchy when they see a job advert hang around for too long. Other teachers in the department think the grass may be greener and go on a job hunt...

Timetabling decisions are made for next year which aren't made in the best interest of the subject or the kids, but are instead based around "what can we staff"? Subjects lose curriculum time at KS3. Options subjects get offered in less blocks. Things like science and maths do weird timetabling set ups, which means no-one in Y10 or Y11 can move groups (which often means students are limited to foundation/higher paper rather than being able to move between classes). Non-specialists get timetabled for KS3. Potentially SLT get timetabled for more teaching hours. This means you have to do things like re-write the scheme of work, or do more resourcesing etc.

It's now about May half term. 2 of the department have found other jobs. No vacancies have been filled. So now you're short staffed by 3 instead of 1 for September. Paying for supply all the time is expensive, so the school decides you can take on a new class in your gained time. This is the final straw, and in September you start looking for another job.

You can see, hopefully, how this puts departments, schools and students on a real downwards cycle. In some subjects, there simply aren't enough teachers to fill all the vacancies. And it can be simple bad luck that puts a school in this position (although I do think other factors are involved).

In order to staff schools, teacher wages and conditions have to be attractive- it really is that simple. The tories don't give a fuck about state education, they don't care if kids in state schools have 5 science teachers in a year. They don't appreciate the knock on impacts of that, either.

Something has to radically change.

[mariacallous]

Since March 2020, economists have warned of potential long-term losses in economic productivity and opportunity that could result from extended school closures. The World Bank predicted that the lifetime incomes of school children at the time could decline as much as $17 trillion worldwide, and significantly increase the share of families living in poverty.

In the U.S., where schools stayed closed longer than in most developed countries, the pandemic wiped out the progress made in student learning since 1980, new national test scores show. National Assessment of Educational Progress results from late 2022 show the largest declines ever recorded in fourth- and eighth-grade math, and reading scores that have regressed to levels not seen for two decades. Low-income and minority children lost the most instruction during the pandemic, their scores dropped the farthest, and gaps between the lowest- and highest-scoring students have widened. This raises the possibility that a smaller number of students will exit the K-12 system prepared to make their own way in the economy.

These urgent academic needs are more worrisome when paired with our latest research findings at the Center on Reinventing Public Education at Arizona State University, which suggests the quality of classroom instruction has declined in districts serving high numbers of disadvantaged students. Top leaders of five school systems we’ve interviewed regularly since 2020, who speak to us candidly in exchange for anonymity, said they’ve made little to no progress carrying out targeted academic recovery efforts. Their instructional focus now, they said, has shifted to tending to gaps in adult skills, which includes re-emphasizing the basics of high-quality teaching and centralizing curriculum materials to keep everyone on track.

In our fourth and final report on these districts’ day-to-day recovery efforts, system leaders said that students with different needs were not actually getting tailored instruction, additional learning time, or high-quality tutoring to backfill their gaps.

“It’s difficult to point to a model classroom at this point,” one top leader told CRPE researchers, after visiting a number of schools.

Teachers’ skills appear to have slipped for a variety of reasons. Educators often had to give up planning and collaboration time to manage staffing shortages. A lack of substitutes prevented teachers from attending trainings on recovery strategies. And an uptick in teacher resignations resulted in a wave of younger and less experienced new hires. District leaders worried that many senior teachers’ skills and focus have eroded and that the newer teachers are far from ideally prepared.

“The pipeline is so much smaller that we’re taking risks and bets on potential teachers that are not always working out,” one school system leader said.

The fact that some districts must shore up teaching before they can effectively help students recover learning comes amid troubling news that third through eighth grade U.S. students are learning at a slower pace than before the pandemic. The results of progress tests taken by 6.7 million children last year and analyzed by assessment company NWEA suggest that the average student needs an additional 4.1 months of instruction to catch up in reading and an additional 4.5 months of instruction to catch up in math.

Of course:

Learning acceleration didn’t happen. Our series of reports on these five school systems shows that when buildings reopened, many pledged to help kids make up for lost learning time via a strategy called acceleration. All students would attend classes taught at grade level, and those who had missed key ideas or skills would get immediate help. Districts first delayed adopting this strategy because of inconsistent student and teacher attendance. Later, many dropped acceleration in favor of strengthening traditional one-teacher, one-classroom instruction. They did this because acceleration requires diagnostic and intervention skills many teachers lack, and districts were unable to provide necessary training. Acceleration also requires more differentiated teacher roles and more minute-to minute adult collaboration than teachers are used to. Districts exhorted teachers to pay attention to differences in kids’ needs and levels of preparation, but they could do little to bring about the changes required for acceleration.

Expectations for students have stayed too low. During the pandemic, most districts and states dropped their testing programs and stopped issuing low grades regardless of student performance. Many also lowered requirements for grade promotion and waived high school graduation requirements, especially for completion of the “hard” math, science, and English courses that hang up many students. Despite many studies documenting serious learning loss and predicting big declines in high school and college success, most parents still think their children are making acceptable academic progress. It’s understandable that educators sought to ease the load on students, but these actions may have made urgent work in school appear to be unnecessary.

School attendance declined and many students disappeared. Though many students attended school as soon as they opened, attendance rates at every level declined. Majorities of children who needed extra learning time did not enroll in new district programs designed to help them recover key skills. Some parents kept children home because they feared COVID-19; some may have feared growing school violence. Some parents that began at least nominal homeschooling haven’t re-enrolled their children in districts; others haven’t been able to get their kids to school regularly.

Schools have resisted changing teacher roles and responsibilities. School districts that have struggled to manage staffing shortages and spikes in teacher resignations are largely ignoring ways to make teaching more attractive. A recent CRPE study shows that districts often focus on recruiting more teachers, instead of on improving working conditions to make the job more attractive. Schools should experiment with workforce redesigns such as teaching in teams, hiring subject matter specialists from other fields, creating personalized instruction roles for teachers, and offering more pay for specialized skills in math, science, and special education. Those strategies are rarely on the table as districts negotiate with unions over changes in pay and class size. “We spent a lot of money on retention bonuses and ‘please stay’ payments,” one system leader told our researchers. “You might as well burn that money because it didn’t bear out. People left anyway.”’

Political controversies have distracted school leaders. Political disputes over how schools handle cultural issues related to race and LGBTQ+ concerns have disrupted teaching and learning, leading to spikes in discriminatory incidents and also declines in achievement, new studies show. Conservatives have threatened educators and inundated school offices with public information requests, while progressives have pressed for “dismantling white supremacy” in mathematics. The time administrators have spent managing adult concerns helped propel the current teaching crisis because it distracted them from the normal business of helping teachers assess student progress, differentiate their instruction, and rally behind a vision for student success.

After the stresses of the pandemic, a desire for normalcy is understandable. But school and district leaders need to shout louder about the needs of students and staff. And policymakers, community leaders, parents, businesses, and philanthropists need to listen and collectively figure out solutions without picking partisan and ideological fights about them. The experiences of these districts align with other new research that suggests the influx of federal pandemic school aid (most of which has already been spent or allocated) has not been sufficient to cement the kind of large-scale recovery programs necessary to address the magnitude of learning loss. States, districts, and communities must consider new ways to help students still tracking significantly behind. They could explore other avenues for extending tutoring efforts. And they could better engage historically marginalized parents in the search for solutions to best help support traditionally disadvantaged Black and brown students who, as NWEA describes, “remain furthest from recovery.”

The short-term consequences of doing nothing for students most in need are easy for many people to dismiss. But passing through an entire cohort of young people with very large gaps in academic knowledge and vastly under-developed emotional skills would be a mistake.

The moral, economic, and social consequences of that much lost adult potential have yet to be tested. We urge communities to collaborate and find solutions that would avoid making that gamble.

[idontevenknowwhatislife]

i don't read flower shop au's because i'm pretty sure people don't actually know what working in one is like. even then, i'm writing a flower shop au right now from the perspective of the florist, and i've been consuming any info about flower shop happenings like a starved man at a buffet. can you expand more on the crazy shit you've been through as a florist and/or what you and other employees do on a typical workday? tysm

I am. So happy. To be asked this question. Yes, yes I absolutely can expand.

SO the happenings of a flower shop are different based on the volume of people it serves, so just a disclaimer I can only speak to my own experience, which is mostly in large, high volume city areas. I am also located in the USA so this is all US based.

Here’s some important things to know:

In a full service shop (one that does every day flowers and event flowers) anyone who does event work has special training for it that other employees might not have. This is because while mistakes happen everywhere, it is extra important to be careful with large and expensive orders that can’t be rescheduled or remade. It also involves a lot of coordination with the client and any other businesses they’re working with, which is its own beast.

Wire-out services are a thing. This is when people order flowers from you that have to go somewhere really far away, so you take the order and then push it off onto another florist. They are an absolute bitch and a half and (in my and many others opinions) have no place in the digital age where you can just call or order online from a florist in the delivery area. The issue with them is that there’s no way to guarantee that your customer is going to get what they want from a florist half way across the country, and there is an extreme lack of accountability there. Because now if that other florist fucks up, it’s still your problem to deal with.

Always verify funeral orders (time, address, etc.) against an obituary. You’d be shocked how many people get it wrong.

In most shops, flowers are bought either from wholesalers or growers. Regardless, they come in at least twice a week, sometimes more.

It is a common misconception that roses are expensive flowers. They are actually very affordable (about $2.00/stem where I’m located) compared to tropicals, peonies, and anything out of season

We do get material shortages, especially when a particular crop gets a new growing season. It can happen with anything, but is especially common with greenery and bulb plants, which are more likely to be field grown (where the weather can cause problems). Many others are grown in greenhouses, which are much more stable

The busiest seasons are the days leading up to Mothers Day and Valentines Day (we’re talking 10-12 hour shifts even in the most well managed fully staffed shops). December and anything with local school dances are also notable

Flower coolers are specialized refrigerators that are between 33-35°F, and have a relative humidity of at least 80%. Anything colder and you’re looking at freeze damage, anything warmer and your flowers open up too fast. This temp/humidity works because it basically slows down/pauses the flower life cycle

Lots of shops also sell little trinkets or giftware. Some sell plants instead, or a combination. Either way, most are not 100% flower, more like 80%

Everyone smokes weed here

Customers to worry about

LOTS of people come in thinking that they know how flowers work. They do not. Many of those people really like asking me to make “fresh” versions of the premade arrangements already in my cooler, not knowing that any extra flowers I have are probably older than the arrangements themselves.

There are lots of people who come in and are either retired florists or had some minuscule experience in a shop growing up. They think they know everything. They are wrong. Floristry has very distinct trends that are important for shops to catch up on and adjust to from time to time. Someone who designed a fashion show in 2005 would struggle now. Someone who last worked in a flower shop in 2005 would struggle just the same.

In weddings, 9 times out of 10 the mother is far worse than the bride

There’s always that one customer that comes in for peonies in August (their season ends the first week of July) or some other thing like that who just. Cannot fathom that flowers are seasonal.

In my shop specifically, first shift gets in a 6:30am. We don’t open that early, we just need to unpack the flower shipment that came in the night before and process it (rehydrating, proper water levels, preservative, etc.). There’s always that one customer who thinks they can come and shop just because the lights are on. No.

Many hospitals and funeral homes have accounts with us. This is fine, but the danger of doing close business with someone for so long is that they can start to get bold/demanding. We have a funeral home right now that keeps ordering casket sprays for the same day. This is very difficult in a high volume shop, because they are large and sometimes difficult to make. Big stressor for everyone involved

People like to share their whole life story at the register. That’s true of a lot of retail work, but it’s extra true when they’re buying flowers to give to the woman who stopped them from committing suicide (real interaction I had this summer)

Prom moms are some of the worst people. Imagine the worst Karen you’ve ever met, except this one thinks you can change nature for her.

I once had a man come in and ask me to make a huge arrangement for him that very second, because he wanted to save his marriage. He was going to sign divorce papers THAT DAY

Important vocabulary

A bouquet is wrapped in ribbon, paper, plastic, or another material. No vase or container

An arrangement is in a vase or container of some sort (or are otherwise held by something)

All of these are designs

Generally, flowers will be designed either loose in water (like you’ll see in a glass vase) or in a special type of foam, called floral foam or Oasis (brand name). Typically, we just call it foam, though some use Oasis (regardless of the brand. Like Kleenex for tissues). A full block of foam holds up to 2 liters of water

Flowers that go on caskets are called couch or casket sprays. The most common form is a “half couch” which covers half of the casket lid

Corsages can be for the wrist or pinned to the shoulder and are generally associated with women

Boutonnières are pinned to the left lapel of a jacket (or left side of a shirt) and are generally associated with men

Both of the above are sprayed with anti-transpiration spray (often called Crowning Glory, brand name again) to keep them from losing water

And just like any job that deals with the general public, we are tired all the time, but we really like to have fun.

This definitely covers the basics and some of my own personal experiences, but I’ve been doing this long enough to have a lot more to say if you ever have any specific questions. I also have a special POV as I have a degree in this field, which is not very common in the US, so I have some extra in depth knowledge to share if you are interested.

[187days]

Day One Hundred Five

Okay, well, I wrote on Friday that a teacher had resigned, and now I know why. I'm probably not supposed to know, but it's hardly the first time that's happened. Obviously, I'm not going to write all about it here, but it's bad. It'd be less bad if we could find a replacement quickly, but, of course, there's a nationwide teacher shortage, so that's unlikely. Rescheduling students is a nightmare that makes me very thankful I'm not a school counselor right how.

I also wrote a politely annoyed email to The Principal about something totally unrelated, but he probably won't have time to address it for a bit, which is... also annoying? There's nothing for it, though. Again, it's the joys of being short-staffed.

I sometimes wonder if it's clear to people in my life (or readers here) how hard it actually is. I mean, I don't want to dwell on it all the time in conversations I have in real life or in these blog entries because that's just depressing and unproductive, and my day to day teaching life is pretty good, for the most part.

Like, today was totally fine. I mean, it was a little bit rocky in APGOV because half my students were absent due to Covid, sports, or something else. But I still did test review as planned: the students who were there could ask me anything they wanted to. Once they had no more questions, I let them study on their own, or do whatever else they felt like doing (a couple girls started planning a "Galentines" party since their boyfriends won't be out of Covid quarantine in time for Valentine's Day). In Global Studies, my ninth graders shared what they'd learned about child soldiers from the research they'd done on Friday, and then we discussed the DDR process and how it works (because I want them to understand major world issues, but also the efforts to solve them). That discussion was particularly deep in the two afternoon sections; they really got into the level of global commitment it takes to make a difference.

So yeah, good stuff happened in my classroom today. It's the stuff that happens outside of it that is tough to deal with sometimes.

[shituationist]

Across Alabama, a sprawling and partially interconnected network of suppliers and staffing agencies, many Korean-owned, exists to serve the Hyundai brands. Hyundai operates an assembly plant in Montgomery, the state capital. Kia builds cars across the state line in West Point, Georgia. Both states, so-called “right to work” jurisdictions whose laws allow workers to reject unions and thereby undercut the power of organized labor, have attracted numerous automakers and follow-on investments, as recently as this year, granting them billions of dollars in tax breaks and other incentives along the way. A key element of Hyundai’s supply network is its ability to provide “just-in-time” delivery of parts, a staple of modern manufacturing meant to minimize stockpiles of materials. To avoid halting assembly lines, Hyundai can fine suppliers – sometimes thousands of dollars per minute – for any delay, according to people familiar with its operations. Pressure to deliver, several current and former employees at suppliers told Reuters, intensified in recent years because of the labor and supply shortages that crippled manufacturers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The struggle to meet demand, labor law experts say, has increased chances that employers cut corners to keep assembly lines staffed, whether employees are legally allowed to work or not. “It seems like the stage was set for this to happen,” said Terri Gerstein, director of the state and local enforcement project at Harvard Law School’s Labor and Worklife Program. “Plants in remote, rural areas. A region with low union density. Not enough regulatory enforcement. Use of staffing agencies.” The shortage of labor across manufacturing, and the low pay offered by some plants and agents for factory jobs, often attract job candidates most pressed for work – particularly undocumented migrants and minors. “When you have workers who are desperate for jobs and they’re not empowered and you have a lot of competition, you often see a race to the bottom,” said Jordan Barab, a former deputy assistant secretary at the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, the federal workplace regulator.

[liam-and-co-ideas-universe]

Arcastein's Unique citizens

List of people who live here.

Name: Katherine Tate

Age: 40

Family: Alcyon Tate (Daugher)

Likes: Her daughter, her company.

Dislikes: Her husband.

Weakness: Stressed out a lot sometimes.

A single mother who kept the blimp company after the divorce when Alcyon was a baby. Her ideas were successful in the company while her husband’s ideas were unsuccessful. She saw that her husband’s ideas were purposefully ruining her company. She had to take care of Alcyon all by herself that way. She lacks proper staffing, so she pilots the blimps herself. But due to being a single mother, she had to take Alcyon with her along as well. She was one of the sparks that made Alcyon want to pilot in the first place. After an accident, She suggested that Alcyon goes to flight school so that the accident wouldn’t happen again and that she would be an official pilot. She knew that she raised her daughter successfully.

Name: Alcyon Tate

Talent: Ultimate Blimp Pilot

Personality: Kind-hearted

Likes: The sky, Her mother, Joyrides, Calm weather, Clear weather

Dislikes: Descending very fast, Punctures, Crashes, Storms of any kind

Weakness: Shy, scared of falling.

Age: 21

Raised by a single mother, she always had to be at her mother’s job where her mother worked at her company where her mother sells blimps. One day where her mother was absent, she always wanted to pilot a blimp for herself, so she decided to borrow one of her mother’s blimps and took a joyride. Her mother was very worried about her daughter and the missing blimp. Good thing she was able to land it very safely. Her mother then suggested for her to go to flight school to become an official pilot so that the same scenario wouldn’t happen again. Alcyon was able to handle different types of aircrafts especially during unexpected emergencies.

Name: Eliza Henrietta Bray  

Age: 24

Personality: Kind, sweet hearted, sometimes a bit clumsy while she is in the air

Likes: Liam Bourgeois, Her Airship, Nicholas, Sky.

Dislikes: Punctures, Crashes, The Blimp Mercenaries, Anne

Weakness: Emotionally weak, crybaby.

Eliza Henrietta Bray was one of the many misc characters that Liam have created. While no one is looking around, Liam secretly hugs this character sheet for long period of hours and thought of going on adventures with her. Because of his thoughts and feelings, she had developed a crush on Liam and would sometimes randomly hug Liam out of nowhere. Also, due to her airship getting lots of punctures, she has developed a hobby of sewing.

Name: Nicholas Hunter

Age: 20

Occupation: Pilot

Likes: Sky, Couples, Valentine’s Day, Being in the air

Dislikes: Terrorists, Blimp punctures (Especially while in the air),

Weakness: Hard to focus sometimes.

Bio: Nicholas wasn’t very much social at a young age, He found Sky while he was running away while Sky was commissioning a blimp order. Nicholas started to study all about air travel to become a pilot at a young age. Nicholas likes couples because he can help them with dates.

Name: Sky

Age: 40

Occupation: Blimp constructor

Likes: Nicholas, Smoking, His job

Dislikes: Terrorists, supply shortages, Deflated blimps

Weakness: Lack of emotion expressing.

Bio: Sky is the owner of the Blimp construction company. He inherited his money from his rich parents after they died. He wanted to make people interested in air travel. He sometimes took care of Nicholas when he was at a young age. Sky rarely rides a blimp with his friend Nicholas. He also repairs and builds blimps as well.

Story: When Nicholas finally became a pilot, Sky had an excess number of blimps that weren’t sold so he helped Nicholas start a blimp yard to help sell the blimps. Eventually, Nicholas started to offer blimp rides to people who want to ride in one but can’t afford one for themselves. Eventually, the two both became very close friends.

Name: Jeremiah Hawkins

Age: 24

Occupation: Air Pirate (Rebel)

Likes: Caring people, innocent people,

Dislike: Corruption,

Separated from his brother, he used to work at Sunken Reef Lagoon from the most infamous air pirate in that area but not on their airship against his will. He was taken there at a young age. He then decided to rebel against them by stealing an airship from that area and got away undetected. Now he is hunted by the people of the Sunken Reef Lagoon. He lives in his own airship with his younger brother.

Name: Nathaniel Hawkins

Age: 21

Occupation: Mechanic

Likes: His own brother, traveling.

Dislikes: Bad weather, separation from his brother

Nathaniel was separated from his brother when he was young. being not detected by evil air pirates, he didn't know what to do afterwards but he looked around and someone taught him about engineering. With his brother reunited years later, he decided to help his own brother with any repairs to his airship.

Name: Alice Wood

Age: 22

Likes: Exotic objects, exotic flowers, cards

Dislikes: Corrupted monarchs

Alice didn't had a thing for monarchs since she had worked in the Xuissedora Empire, working for The princess there. From an incident that changed her luck forever while on the princess's blimp being attack by the most infamous air pirate that lived in Sunken Reef Lagoon and survived the fall that left her in Arcastein. She now own's an airship with the interior fit for a maid.

[sniffanimal]

Going insane thinking about the state of public education rn (and probably private but I don't rly care abt private Ed lmao) and teacher burnout/shortage and covid and how society is structured around 9-5 M-F hours so education workers can't get important things done like doctors appointments without having to take time off work, and with the staffing shortages it spreads everyone thinner

This isn't the case at my school, probably because we have a lot of non-teacher staff (paras, office aides, etc) with teaching certs, but it seems like a common practice that if a school's got a teacher absent and can't get a sub, they have the Sped teacher sub and the paras watch the sped classroom, which is honestly illegal? Kids on IEPs have required legally minutes of teacher instruction time and having them lose 5-6 hours of teacher time is illegal but also it's just ableist? Like sure take the teacher away from the disabled kids they won't care 🙄🙄🙄 I'm just

I got a raise this month which is honestly gonna help a lot but it still puts me below living wage. Like after taxes I make $1,700 a month. The only way I can afford this is by having a roommate and not driving a car (tho I put gas in my roomies car sometimes). Some of my coworkers have families! One has 8 kids, one of which is severely disabled!!! I can only hope their spouses make bank bc I can't fucking fathom having a family on this wage

Anyways I just needed to yell into the void as I get ready for bed. I was trying to schedule my covid booster and there's no times available at any of the locations around me and it made me go insane that we're just expected to work like normal even though covid is ripping up our school right now. We don't have covid leave any more, we never got hazard pay in the first place. We don't even test students who are visibly sick, we just send them home only if they have a fever. Hello can anyone fucking hear me

[beardedmrbean]

The technologically savvy older brothers of a slain Texas college student handed over data extracted from social media accounts later used to secure convictions in the case. 

Zuhyr Hamza Kaleem, 22, was shot dead then buried in a premeditated killing by former classmates in 2019, prosecutors said.

Jose Varela, now 24, was sentenced last week to 45 years in prison in the death of 22-year-old Zuhyr Hamza Kaleem. Eric Aguilar, now 25, was sentenced to life in prison on capital murder charges last November. 

Austin Walker, also charged with capital murder in the case, pleaded guilty and is scheduled for a presentencing information hearing on Thursday, Harris County District Attorney's Office Community Outreach Coordinator John Donnelly told Fox News Digital.

A fourth man, Gannon Gotlieb, was charged with tampering after admitting to burying and burning Kaleem's body on his property in Grimes County, per the office; the status of that charge is unclear. 

Varela, Kaleem and Aguilar grew up in the same area near Houston, where Varela and Kaleem were classmates at Cypress Lakes High School near Houston. 

Kaleem agreed to meet at Varela's home in Katy to buy two pounds of marijuana on April 27, 2019, per court documents. After closing the garage door, Varela restrained Kaleem and Aguilar shot him, prosecutors said. 

"This was a premeditated murder that left a family questioning what happened to their loved one for more than a year," Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said in a statement. "With help from the victim’s family and great police work, we were able to get justice in this horrible case."

CRIMINAL ENTERPRISE FLAUNTS AI IN CREEPY 'FRAUD-FOR-HIRE' COMMERCIAL MEANT FOR DARK WEB

The recovery of Kaleem's body and the group's arrests, nearly a year to date from the murder, were achieved in part due to the investigative work of the victim's older brothers. 

Baffled by the Lone Star College student's disappearance, software engineer Umayr Kaleem, 31, told Fox News Digital that his family did not "have the option to just turn the other way and quit" when their brother and his car disappeared. 

"We're brothers. We've always been hardworking, ambitious – that's how our parents raised us," he said on Tuesday. 

Brothers Umayr and Uzair, a software engineer and mechanical engineer, respectively, learned from a close friend that Kaleem intended to buy marijuana the last day he was seen alive.

After he uncharacteristically failed to return their calls and texts, the brothers accessed his Snapchat account to see with whom he was last in contact. 

Valera, saved in their brother's phone as "Jose Cylakes Bayliss Long Hair" – referring to the high school that both attended – was the last person Kaleem had spoken with before his activity on the messaging app came to a halt. After reading a message that was no longer viewable, per court documents reviewed by Fox News Digital, Valera deleted Kaleem as a contact. 

AUSTIN POLICE ASK ROBBERY VICTIMS TO CALL 311 AMID STAFFING SHORTAGE, CRIME CRISIS

The brothers accessed Kaleem's phone contacts via his laptop, found Valera's phone number and began researching.

"From there, we started asking around, looking on Facebook, Googling him," Uzair, 27, told Fox. "We found a Facebook profile and it was clear that this was the last person Z talked to – we gave that information to police."

It was "pretty evident," Uzair said, that his brother's killers "tried going into Z's phone to wipe it completely," per notifications on the slain college student's MacBook. Although they "knew they were trying to do some weird s--- on their end," their family "wasn't going to let that happen."

The day after Kaleem vanished, his missing vehicle was observed crossing the border into Mexico from Hidalgo, Texas, per court documents. Almost 10 hours later, Varela crossed back into the United States on foot, police said. 

Call records obtained by police showed that Varela had communicated with Walker that day. Snapchat messages between the two pulled by police showed that Varela had asked Walker to bring him clean clothes. 

After his arrest on April 24 last year, Aguilar claimed that the gun went off accidentally after Kaleem pulled it out in an argument during the drug deal – but prosecutors argued that the killing and subsequent robbery had been planned over a period of weeks based on harvested text and call logs. 

Moreover, the brothers told Fox News Digital, Gotlieb testified that, as he buried the man's body, he noticed Kaleem sustained a bullet wound to his hand as though he had raised it in defense.

"These defendants thought they had gotten away with murder and had moved on with their lives, but they had not counted on the victim’s brothers and law enforcement relentlessly pursuing Kaleem’s whereabouts," Assistant District Attorney Tiffany Dupree said in a press release. "This family went an entire year, pining away, praying for their loved one to come home only to find that his remains had been burned because of some marijuana and a couple of hundred bucks."

Uzair and Umayr told Fox News Digital that Valera's sentence – 45 years in prison with parole eligibility in 2033 – "didn't make any sense whatsoever."

"I think everybody in that courtroom was absolutely shocked," Umayr said. "Even just the prosecutors, there were tears in their eyes. The family is horrified. This person pleaded guilty to premeditated murder. [But] he'll be... on parole less than 20 years from today. He'll be right back on the street."

In light of the "absurdly light" sentence, he said, it's "incredibly hard to be happy." 

"The worst prison in the world is a home full of pain – that's all there is, just pain," Umayr said. "We go to birthdays, we try to celebrate things as a family, but it's always awkward. It's been years but that awkwardness, that pain is still there."

Uzair told Fox that his brother intended to transfer to the University of Houston and study business. The courtroom in both Aguilar and Valera's trials, he said, was "packed" with his brother's friends and family. 

[grits-galraisedinthesouth]

By the way, Florida currently has the highest teacher and staff shortage in the country. Thousands of vacant positions that will not impact the DeSantis kids who attend a private school.

Billionaire money manager Ken Griffin, who was ready to bankroll Ron DeSantis’s presidential run in 2022, now says he is “on the sidelines” in the GOP race, with the Florida Governor having failed to impress.

“So we’re… now through the first debate, and I’ll tell you what, I’m still on the sidelines as to who to support in this election cycle,” Griffin said.

“I don’t know his strategy,” Griffin blasted about the Florida Governor’s increasingly embarrassing campaign, which has been plagued with staffing issues, overspending, and links to both establishment RINO figures and politically extreme incidents. Recently, his national spokesman Steve Cortes appeared to imply a Trump vs. Biden rematch was “inevitable,” while his own staff are trying to reframe expectations in Iowa, where DeSantis languishes in a distant second despite his PAC spending five times more than Trump’s.

“It’s not clear to me what voter base he is intending to appeal to,” Griffin told CNBC.

“First-term governor – just a phenomenal job,” he said of DeSantis’s record. “But that hasn’t been how this last few months has played out.”

Griffin abandoning the DeSantis camp comes as the Governor is polling at 10 percent nationally and 23 percent in his home state, with Donald Trump far ahead on 57 percent and 59 percent, respectively.

[wow-its-me]

I can see Future! 2012! Donnie and Mikey working at a high school together

They got their degrees through online colleges, starting a few years after they decided to reveal themselves to the world (which I believe is inevitable for the 2012 universe)

They both apply to work at multiple schools, but only one will accept them despite their mutation (most likely due to extreme teacher staffing shortages- but we don’t need to get into the government of it all)

Donnie teaches AP Bio and/or Chem and runs a Robotics club

Mikey teaches Gym and Coaches basketball

They Coach track and field together in the spring