My mother subs. At one point (many moons ago, pre-children) she taught full-time. When my sister came into being my mother quit, and remained unemployed for a long time (by choice). Then when my sister and I were old enough to take care of ourselves and money was getting tight, she went back to work, but didn’t want to commit fully to A) get re-certified to teach and B) a full-time job - she liked the flexibility.
During the school year she gets called more mornings than not, usually by 6:30 or 7 AM. Also, if a teacher’s out due to something pre-arranged, she’ll get called a few days in advance. The longest job she’s ever had was a few months.
This past summer she started doing a thing grading standardized exams, mostly out of boredom. She also works as a ‘special advocate’ within the state foster-care system, so once a month or so she needs to go check up on her kid, go to court, etc. But luckily, my father (for the most part) enjoys work and makes enough money that my mother doesn’t have to work more than she wants.
I’ve worked as a substitute teacher for two years now. I originally intended to get a credential but never got around to it. They do like me as a sub because I’m fairly familiar with pretty much any subject I’m subbing- kids get rather surprised to have a substitute teacher that KNOWS the subject of the class. This is because unfortunately in my district there are quite a few substitute teachers that can barely rub two brain cells together let alone follow a teacher’s directions for running the class.
During the year, generally I can substitute as many days as I want. If I do it every single day of the week, then it becomes a pseudo full-time job (full time hours but no benefits ) the automated phone system calls me just about every day (with a particularly high volume on Friday and Sunday nights).
Sometimes I’ll sub 5 days a week but it gets exhausting, because besides generally working from 7AM-3PM I’ll have to go over to my tutoring job which is 4-8, and also 6 hours on Saturdays. During the summers I work 37.5 hours a week at my tutoring job (the maximum they’ll let part-time employees work there).
The upsides are the flexibility of working on a day-to-day basis which is great for job interviews, appointments, etc and the frequent ‘mental health day’ off when I get stressed out/sick. If I sub long-term I get paid more per day which is also nice since long-term assignments are generally easier (you get used to the routine and can build rapport with students)
The downsides are the pay in general, which is deceptive (they say $115/day but its actually an hourly rate, so if I sub Special Ed which only tends to have 3-4 classes I only get PAID for 3-4 hours of work even though I’m there the whole time; for a long time I simply assumed it was 115 minimum. Nope!) No benefits except a marginal retirement program, even though if you work 5 days/week you’re basically pulling a full-time job. It can also be really stressful if you get a trainwreck of a class. They also only pay subs once per month instead of every two weeks like most jobs.
I tend to go through cycles of working as many days as I can, and either getting sick or too stressed and taking a lot of days off, getting used to it and starting to go broke, then repeating the cycle. This year I decided to sub every other day (MWF or T TH) so I don’t get as burnt out. Hopefully I’ll be getting a full-time job soon and I can put it behind me.
It also makes a handy ‘emergency job’ since I can still be on their roster but not work; if I lose another job I can always go back to it so I’m not totally unemployed.
All the subs I knew when my mom did it were other moms with either school age kids or available child care. They didn’t want to work a lot, just a bit. They’re not the sole earners or anything.
Incubus, you are working for the wrong district, from the sound of it. While I suppose it might be true throughout California, I doubt it. Here, at least, you get paid a full day if you are in the building the full day, or a half-day if you are only there half the day. You get paid at the same time as the regular teachers (every two weeks).
Oh, and if you manage to put in enough days, you get a full year’s credit in the state teachers’ pension fund.
Of course, in Toledo, the going rate is $75 a day, less your pension contribution of 10%. The plus is that you aren’t living in the Bay Area, so a one-bedroom shack with outhouse isn’t $350K.
In my district, subs get paid by the hour, not by the class. If you are on campus and in a classroom all day, you get paid for all day. Our district at least pays everybody, from custodial and turf maintenence to District Administration, once a month. Classified on the last day of the month, certificated on the first day.
I subbed during the period between getting my credential and getting hired (6 months - credentialed in January, hired in July). I worked just about every day, in a district that is a war zone. The district that I student-taught in, and that I have worked in for 20 years, had a glut of subs, so I had to go where the jobs were: San Bernardino. I didn’t get shot, stabbed or mugged, which is the best I can say for the experience. But I worked every day.
My mom called subs for many years in our district (they do not have an automated system).
Among the other things already listed, some of the subs she called would be waiters/waitresses or bartenders at night (part time). It was sometimes hard for her to reach them at night since they’d be at work, but their schedules would allow for them to work during the day as a sub and work at night at their restaurant. Most likely these folks would have schedules that were flexible enough so that they didn’t end up working 16 hours a day, 7 days a week.
) the automated phone system calls me just about every day (with a particularly high volume on Friday and Sunday nights).