Log onto the website and fill out a sub request. Takes about 2 minutes.
Call the secretary and give her a heads-up. Takes about 1 minute.
Write two pages single-spaced of excruciatingly detailed sub plans, rearranging things so that I can be confident a sub can teach the plans (which means taking out things like phonics instruction, new math concepts, etc.). Takes about an hour.
Go to school and make all the copies I’ll need and arrange all the copies and manipulatives and read-alouds and attendance sheets and lesson plans in a logical order in one place. Takes about 45 minutes.
It’s a tremendous pain in the ass to do, but it’s very difficult to have generic sub plans in place that aren’t just a total waste of students’ days. Last year there was a day I was so nauseated I could barely stand up–so I got my wife to drive me in and spent far too long staggering around the building (literally holding onto the wall at moments) until I felt I’d done what needed doing for the sub.
Combine that with the 50,000 square foot petri dish comprising an elementary school, and you’ve pinpointed one of the least appealing parts of the job.
I send a text or e-mail to my boss and a team member (the team feeds my fish when I’m out). I have to log in and put the days off in an HR system. I’ve never been out on an unplanned sick time that’s more than 1 day, but I think company policy says if you’re out more than 3 consecutive days you should have a doctor’s note. Generally I come in, and in rare cases I’ll work from home if I’m sick.
Huh. It’s not about strict policies, it’s about having some basic expectations for what the kids learn. I know what can happen when there are no plans, and it’s generally not pretty.
Do you call in and talk to an actual person or a machine?
We have an automated hotline for calling in sick but we can also do it online. After you submit your request you are supposed to call and talk to a manager as well, but when done online you can forego the actual phone call if you do it early enough. It isn’t the end of the world though if you do it at the last minute just so long as they have at least an hour advance notice. Otherwise there will be some confusion and scrambling to rearrange the lineup to make sure all the important areas have coverage.
Is it a difficult process?
No, but it is annoying when the actual phone call has to be made because the managers are always butt hurt and calling in sick just makes it worse.
3. How many days can you be sick before you need a doctors excuse?
After 3 days you have to have a doctor’s slip or put in for a Leave of Absence. Otherwise you are in big trouble and probably not employed anymore.
That was certainly my experience in the same timeframe. They’d often try to tackle the next few pages in the book, but not with any real vigor. And no notable success.