#working conditions

[heartstringsduet]

Choose the one closest to what a full-time position would get and let me know the country and days in the tags if you want.

(Can’t alter the post but didn't think 0 was a thing. 🥲🥲)

aka, the poll I made, absolutely shocked hearing about US vacation days.

[popculty]

"It's been amazing to have this evidence that we didn't sabotage the movie by creating a more humane working environment. It helps me make that case. People say, 'We don't need to reinvent the wheel.' Actually, most of the time, you do."

-- Women Talking director Sarah Polley, on the film’s awards success. Due to its traumatic content, Polley implemented regular breaks, an on-set therapist, and 10-hr days (6 fewer than a typical Hollywood shoot day). [People, 3/13/23]

[squirrelstone]

“Omg Jenna Ortega is so dedicated and talented she learned German, the cello, stayed up for two nights in a row to choreograph a dance, and filmed all while she had Covid!”

No. All of that doesn’t make her dedicated and talented, it makes her a victim of abuse and poor working conditions. Is she talented and dedicated? Yes. But it’s not because she pushed her body beyond what it was meant to do while also suffering from a potentially deadly virus.

It’s Millie Bobby Brown passing out mid-scene all over again, and it’s continuing to be praised instead of looking at Netflix and holding them accountable for abusing their employees. Not to mention, if this is happening to the stars of their respective shows, what do you think is happening to the rest of the cast and crew who don’t have the star power to address what’s happening to them?

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

Is 6.5% enough- Part II

This is a bit of a follow up to the post I wrote yesterday about the 6.5% rumoured pay offer for teachers. In that post, I alluded to the fact that pay isn’t the only issue, and whilst I do think pay has a significant impact on recruitment, I don’t think low pay is the main driver of people leaving teaching.

Most teachers don’t leave because of pay, although pay you can’t afford to live on doesn’t help, and many schools in expensive towns struggle to recruit more than those in cheaper parts of the same local authority. Most teachers leave because of “workload”.

But what is “workload”? Many schools have taken real strides to address the problem of workload in the last 5-10 years. They’ve got rid of bizarre, excessive marking policies. They’ve centralized planning, so you hopefully aren’t planning from scratch, at least up to KS4. There haven’t been major changes to the exam spec recently, so we aren’t having to rewrite all our schemes of work yet again. I know there are schools which are the exception to this, but they aren’t the norm any more.

That said, teachers are screwed by a part of our contract which states that we have to work enough hours to discharge the duties of our job. Legally, there’s no such thing as an unreasonable planning or marking load, even if there is a (theoretical) limit on the amount of time schools can have us in meetings or parents evenings.

In many schools, a part of “workload” is covering for absent colleagues. These could be unfilled roles within the school, or people who are off sick, or on a planned absence, such as maternity. It is very difficult to find a teacher to take on a maternity cover these days, let alone a temporary position that only lasts for, say, a term. There’s a shortage of supply teachers, as well.

This affects teachers in a few ways. One, physically “covering” the class, i.e. supervising them during a “non-contact”. But, the bigger, more insidious way, is that the remaining teachers in a department often have to take on the planning and marking for these classes. In a large department, split between several of you, it’s a killer. In smaller departments, it’s almost impossible. And often, it pushes other people over the edge into leaving, putting the school into a downwards spiral.

The worst, though, is when the school can’t make cover work that day, and so the remaining three or four teachers are sent to the hall or the library, to teach 5 or 6 classes at once. This is incredibly draining, and worse, you know the students are getting nothing out of it, so it’s putting your classes “behind” as well.

In many schools, this has been happening for at least the past few years, and, combined with covid, means you have classes entering Y11 and Y13 with major gaps. Because teachers care about their students (and because poor grades can sometimes prevent you progressing up the pay scale) teachers often run revision sessions for students after school. This is extra work, extra planning, often involves buying extra resources, and then all too soon becomes expected. Whereas in the past it might be revision or a club, it can become “revision and a club and targeted intervention”- taking up three hours a week. Technically, you can say no, so it’s not included in “directed time”, but saying no to these things is very hard.

There’s also issues around lack of “support staff”. Support staff aren’t just the teaching assistants, who do an amazing job. It’s also people like the absence officer, who chases up students who haven’t turned up to school and their parents haven’t given an explanation. Or perhaps pastoral support workers, who help students with challenging home lives. And many of the duties these people might have done get pushed on to teachers, who now, after their teaching day is over, may be ringing parents to find out why their child wasn’t in school. Senior leadership always told me this was a five minute job, but they weren’t the ones ringing home and finding out that this family had been evicted, or this parent had been a victim of domestic violence, or that a grandparent had unexpectedly died. And all these phone calls would then generate an hour or more’s work trying to find appropriate support for the student.

The truth is education isn’t the only service in this country that is crumbling. But it is the only one where we see young people day in and day out. Councils can cut youth workers. The NHS can extend waiting lists for everything from mental health support to autism diagnosis. Social services can raise the threshold at which they intervene or offer support. Or, even in a crisis, just say no-one is available, because they aren’t the ones with a crying child who’s got nowhere to go in their office.

But schools and therefore teachers have been forced to take all of this on. Schools run food banks, wash the clothes of children who don’t have enough electricity at home, try to sort out social problems like homelessness. Schools have brought counselling services in house (with all the problems that involves) and try to manage students with undiagnosed special educational needs as best as possible. All of this creates extra work for people, and it also creates extra stress- especially when it goes wrong.

If we want schools to do all of this, and in some ways, it might make sense to make a school or college a one stop shop for all the needs young people might have- then it needs to be funded. It needs to be appropriately staffed. Because trying to be teacher and social worker and counsellor to young people is breaking a lot of teachers, and soon there will be no-one left, no matter how high the pay is.

[ouatpancakes]

Shoutout to Temple University’s Graduate Student Union for putting up the greatest and most convincing flyer I’ve ever seen:

(If you don’t know, a scab is a worker who breaks and interferes with the strike and accepts working conditions that the union has rejected)

TUGSA is fighting for fair pay, healthcare for dependents, longer parental leave, and better working conditions. If you can, please consider contributing to their strike fund!

[whats-in-a-sentence]

Not until the nineteenth century would anyone have any concerns that women and children were risking their safety and health in terrible conditions:

Women commonly worked underground in coal mines, primarily as part of family teams. While men worked the coal face, women carried or dragged the coal in sledges or tubs through the tunnels to the lifts, or on occasion even up to three surface . . . At lime kilns, women were employed carrying baskets of coal and chalk, while men broke the chalk loose, screened it, lifted the baskets onto the women's heads, and threw the chalk into the kiln. Both sexes helped hack the coal and chalk into small pieces and fill the baskets . . . Women were employed in the loading of slate onto boats in Devon (after it was quarried by men), where the work was described as 'immoderately hard' (by Richard Ayton, an observer in 1814), yet women 'accomplish as much in a given time as the men do.'

"Normal Women: 900 Years of Making History" - Philippa Gregory

[kdsburneraccount]

So the NFLPA released report cards for each team's working conditions that graded them based on polls from players, which I found pretty interesting but also a little depressing. You can read it here: NFL Player Team Report Cards | NFLPA

More thoughts under the cut since I was initially going to put my thoughts in the tags but I thought reading it was quite eye-opening.

The Bengals being graded an F- for nutrition... I'm not that surprised considering what former players have said about the cafeteria, but it's still pretty embarrassing. And those comments were from the 2000s. Not providing dinner, vitamins, or supplements to players is a little questionable, especially if players are going to be spending long days at practice. And the fact that they’ve had breastfeeding mothers sit on the floor of public restrooms to take care of their kids is… concerning. (This is a Mike Brown moment. Unfortunately. The “no indoor practice facility” jokes looking more and more true by the moment. Like I get he’s pretty poor for an NFL owner but your team made the Super Bowl two seasons ago invest in the facilities more have an actual food service on hand cmon man why are you proving Carson Palmer right)

I wasn't surprised looking at the Falcons' grading of their strength coach (by and large, strength coaches were graded exceedingly positively by the players, except for the Falcons and the Ravens. In the case of the Ravens it appeared that they had a strength and conditioning coach who was pretty disliked by the players, and that coach did get fired, so at least the team's aware of it), mostly bc the Falcons aren't very good at tackling 😭 hopefully they make a change in that regard because man. At least they think Arthur Blank is ok.

Haven't watched mid-season Hard Knocks so didn't really have an idea of how the Cardinals' facilities were, but... wow. Overall second to last behind the Commanders (who are, y'know, dysfunctional), which kinda surprised me but at the same time the Cardinals are kind of low-key dysfunctional now I think about that. Making players pay for dinner out of their payroll... don't like that! Oh yeah and their training facilities are apparently a health and safety risk (fun).

It is interesting to note that the rankings of the facilities didn't necessarily correlate with team success: the top-ranked teams in this survey were the Vikings, Dolphins, Raiders, Texans, and Cowboys while the bottom-5 teams were the Commanders, Cardinals, Chargers, Chiefs, and Jaguars (Bengals dodging this phew). This is probably because a lot of stuff that's surveyed here can impact team performance, but only if it's egregiously bad (ie Cardinals or Commanders). Was surprised by how the Chiefs graded out on their training staff considering they just won a Super Bowl but I would wager that's to do with Andy Reid and his whole system; works but isn't the nicest about it.

I thought that the way some categories were weighted were a little questionable, ie travel and treatment of families being abt the same level. Personally having younger players room with each other is whatever, not having a proper space for families is a bigger issue. But maybe that's me being unsympathetic (and there is the whole difference between a star player and practice squad guy to consider because their treatment would be different).

Overall, pretty good survey, I do hope it's able to enact some awareness bc the NLFPA isn't that strong, but they do seem to be doing their best as a union (working in the interest of players).

[slimethought]

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[if-you-fan-a-fire]

"THE MERCHANTS MAY PROTEST," Kingston Daily Standard. May 16, 1913. Page 5. --- They Want the Paving By-Law Passed. ---- Business Men Will Oppose Any Action Which May Interfere with Princess Street Work. ---- The work on the pavement on Bagot street was held up to-day by the wet weather. The men, however, will be on the job to-morrow, and it is expected that by Monday blocks will be laid on over half the work. It will take only a few days for the men to finish up the tract, and then they will be compelled to stand idle until the by-law ratifying the contract for the six blocks is put through council.

The merchants on Princess street will protest very strongly if by-law is not put through and the the work commenced. The general opinion expressed to The Standard is in effect that nothing must hinder the work of paving Princess street, and it is pointed out that if the awarding of the contract for the six blocks is further delayed it will be under consideration when the more important matter, that of paving Princess street, should be given full attention. There is very little likelihood, however, of the opposition to the award being carried so far as to block the by-law, thus throwing the Board of Works back to where they were two months ago.

According to the Windsor papers of recent issue, the asphalt block pavement will be used extensively in the paving of that city this year. Windsor is the home of the asphalt. block, the pavement being laid by Mr. J. F. Reid, and, according the papers, the municipality every reason to place confidence to has in the block as substantial wearing type of pavement. Mayor Rigney is out of town at present, and so far a special meeting of council has not been called, but a number of the aldermen are anxious that the by-law be passed as soon as possible, So that the contractor, Mr. Reld, will not be held up in the work. If the matter is further delayed, it is pointed out, that it may be dragged on all through summer into the fall, as it was last year.

[lifewithdedee]

[blueclearcloud]

https://www.vulture.com/2023/06/spider-verse-animation-four-artists-on-making-the-sequel.html

"And I do genuinely think it’s a good movie. But that being said, it’s been debilitating for a lot of the artists involved. Morale was incredibly low, and a lot of people reassessed if this was even something they wanted to be a part of. It’s this perpetual emotional give-and-take that’s very stressful; it absolutely affects people’s lives, sleep schedules, energy levels, their burnout. The frustrating thing is at the end of the day the work is good. There’s a lot of high praise that comes out of it. So there’s this rollercoaster of emotions where you go through hell but it makes people happy. And it makes you happy that people are happy. And you want to do it again.*

[woomycritiques543]

Glad I'm not the only one questioning how Spindlehorse releases HB episodes within 2-3 months. I just wonder how they get the animation to look kinda decent, I thought it would take longer than this. I hope nothing shady is going on, because I'm worried it'll bring false hope for anyone trying to do animation like this.

I feel you on that one anon.

There definitely should be a longer waiting period to give the creators, along with the other creators, more breaks in between.

The creators deserve better than to rush their projects out like this.

This cant be good for their health. Let alone for the others at Spindle.

It's like- Viv, this is a indie studio, not a whole company. Slow down! :(

[tooanxiousforthisht]

Is there anywhere we can show support to the animators in the spider-verse movies and fight to get them decent time for the third movie? Because the people who are making these movies as amazing as they are deserve good working conditions to make them

[lesbiansandgayssupporttheminers]

Seems like the Telegraph (and by extension the Tories) are going after the teaching unions. I guess this means that maybe they are scared despite all the restrictive rules in place, the NEU might actually manage to organise a strike over the new pay deal- which is interesting. The pay deal is good for new teachers, but less good in terms of retaining experienced teachers. And I’m not sure it’s good enough that it’ll make a real difference in terms of recruitment, especially for shortage subjects.

Meanwhile, on twitter, I keep seeing people saying they are struggling to recruit experienced staff. I mean, you do the maths?

I can tell you what’s already happening in some (a lot of?) English state secondary schools:

-Can’t recruit for a lot of subjects (Science, Maths, Computing are the big ones, but others too).

-So departments are left short staffed, kids are taught by non-specialists, unqualified teachers, cover supervisors, a rotating cast of supply...

-Definitely can’t recruit for roles that need a bit of experience, like head of department- which puts more pressure on the other staff within that department, and again, isn’t great for the students.

-OR leads to people being overpromoted too early on, which often leads to bad leadership and problems within the department, and/or burnout for the person who’s been promoted.

-Being short staffed means less flexibility in terms of cover- if people are ill, and you can’t get supply in, the school shuts, as we saw last term in a lot of schools.

-Long term, these pressures mean more teachers leave, either to move to other schools that are better off, or to a different sort of job within education, or leave teaching altogether.

-Inevitably, this impacts on kids behaviour, engagement and outcomes, and the school becomes a less desirable place to work. Maybe it gets a crap Ofsted. The whole thing becomes a vicious cycle, from which it’s difficult for a school to escape from- and kids who aren’t able to go elsewhere don’t get the education they deserve (yes, there are huge issues with our education system and the curriculum itself, but it’s still better when it’s being delivered by consistent subject specialists.

Now, you might be reading this and thinking this only applies to “sink comps” or “inner city schools”, but that’s very much not true. The hardest places to recruit teachers are those where rent/property prices are highest, so yes, especially just outside London where teachers lose out on the extra London pay. And yes, maybe Bristol, etc. But also, your leafy comp in the South East. Anywhere along the “M4 corridor”, even the more desirable parts of the South West (particularly places where second home owners have pushed rents sky high).

I’ve never taught in e.g. Manchester, but my understanding is that schools up there find it easier to recruit (although that doesn’t necessarily mean it’s easy).

And, increasingly, this is trickling down to primary, too- people struggling to recruit experienced teachers in certain schools or parts of the country. You can’t, despite what the DfE seems to think, run a school entirely staffed by ECTs.

Now, to come back to the original point, I don’t actually think it’s just about pay- as you get up the pay scale, teacher pay isn’t bad (although it’s low compared to what, e.g. maths grads, can earn elsewhere). It’s also about the pressure teachers have been put under over the last three years, about general working conditions, about schools wanting to own you during term time (and sometimes the holidays too). Being a full time classroom teacher isn’t sustainable for a lot of people in England, anymore.

But I will also say, it’s easier to manage in a stressful job, when you’re not also worrying about how you are going to pay the rent- when you don’t have to take on extra work at the weekends or holidays to pay the bills.

Anyway, my point is this- if the Tory government are making noises against teaching unions, trying to pit parents against teachers, perhaps that’s a sign they are nervous. But what they should really be nervous about is the education system collapsing in on itself.

[madfoolish]