<p>Ah, when you said “working for the gov’t in Mass” I assumed that meant the Mass State gov’t, not a local gov’t.</p>
<p>You could always take the 7.65% that would be the FICA tax and invest it yourself in a Roth IRA or some other investment. You’d most likely come out ahead of the 0% return that SS will bring.</p>
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<p>No, my job requirement is to write lesson plans, grade papers, and deliver instruction within the contracted hours of my workday. It is not a part of my job requirement to tutor students, write recommendations, sponsor clubs, chaperone dances, or anything else on my time.</p>
<p>I do all the above because I want my students to be successful. I am happy to do them all but they are not a part of my salary. </p>
<p>My salary is for teaching, planning, and grading student work for the 7.5 hours per day I am contracted to be there.</p>
<p>When teachers work to contract it is not to “put students in the middle” of contract disputes, rather it is to remind the public of all that we do for our students above and beyond our contractual obligations.</p>
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My salary is for doing whatever my employer tells me to do, where he tells me to do it, and the expectation is for way more than 7.5 hours/day. And if that means traveling on my own time to places far from my family, that’s how it goes. When was the last time you had to be away from your family for a week because your job required it?</p>
<p>In addition to my salary, I get 15 combined vacation/sick days per year, no pension, am actually held accountable for what I do, and have the ability to be fired at any time for any reason or even no reason (a.k.a. “laid off”, and this has happened to me 4 times).</p>
<p>You cannot convince me teachers have it rough or are underpaid.</p>
<p>I’m not trying to convince you that I have it rough. I LOVE my job! I LOVE working with kids. But you will never convince me that teachers or teachers unions are the bad guys.</p>
<p>I am not currently working to contract. I have done so in the past. When I have I still wrote recommendations. It may have taken longer to do it within the confines of my contracted day but I found a way to get it done. </p>
<p>But I will not apologize for refusing to have what teachers do on a daily basis taken for granted.</p>
<p>I remember working at the VA as a grad student. I had an armful of charts and couldnt open the door. I asked a male nurse if he could kindly get the door for me. He looked down his nose at me and said “I am on break”. That kind of attitude just slays me.</p>
<p>We had dinner with friends tonight-- wife is a former teacher from LI. She commented that the school system she worked in did not have a union, and people clamored to get jobs there. She claims that they were told they had unlimited sick days. She asked how that could be, and was told that basically the teachers didnt use them unless they really needed them. They said that in the other county if the teachers were told they had 10 sick days they took all ten- otherwise they felt they were working for free. Her words, not mine. Don’t shoot the messenger.</p>
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There is a difference between being taken for granted, and disagreeing with a union and its membership for making outrageous demands, especially when they use children as a bargaining chip.</p>
<p>IMO though, if “working to contract” is not adequate to meet the needs of the school, then whoever negotiated that contract for the town did a bad job and should be fired.</p>
<p>Most job descriptions end with something along the lines of “and all other duties as assigned”. Like notrichenough, most employees do what they are asked to do. Hourly employees have a right to be paid based on time. Salaried employees do what is needed, and are not usually prone to having a shift-worker mindset.</p>
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H’s company has the same policy. They don’t have a formal allotment of “sick days.” If you’re sick, call in. If you abuse it, you won’t be working there for long. </p>
<p>Our unionized workforce (non-teachers) lobbied for 2 personal days per year, to be used for “urgent personal business that cannot be accommodated outside normal working hours.” At the end of every year, there’s a huge number of people who <em>need</em> personal days. Since the contract says we can’t ask them for the reason they need a personal day (unless its immediately before or after a holiday), we can only assume they’re following the lead of a vocal worker who told her co-workers, “You have to take these days, otherwise you lose them.” In other words, if you don’t take them you’re working 2 days for “free.” One year I tallied it up: Sept - March, total of 12 personal days taken over 7 months. April - June, total of 23 personal days, in 3 months. Coincidence? I think not.</p>
<p>Our defacto sick policy: if you’re sick and can make it in and aren’t contagious, come in. If you’re too sick to come in or are contagious, work from home. Not that we need the policy. Most people work whether they are sick or well out of responsibility to their group and the company. The company pays for broadband access to work and will provide equipment for home if needed. It usually isn’t as a lot of the employees have near cutting-edge equipment at home.</p>
<p>I am obviously a union member. In fact, I’m a building rep. I have a great relationship with my principal who is not a member. </p>
<p>I have over 100 days of sick leave built up, I don’t take off unnecessarily. Unless I’m actually too sick to come to school I rarely miss a day of work when students are in school.</p>
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What happens to these when you retire/leave your job?</p>
<p>In NYS last year private sector income decreased 6.8%. Public sector income increased 2.5%. Combined income (both public and private sector) was negative statewide for the first time since the Great Depression. 2010 could make it two years in a row. </p>
<p>Out teachers’ union goes to the bargaining table in a few more months. I’d say anything the BOE offers in excess of 0% is bargaining in good faith. </p>
<p>(In the interest of full disclosure my wife is a teacher)</p>
<p>Here is another teacher who is not complaining about her job or compensation. When I began my teaching career 35 years ago (OMG - I’m old), my friends would tease me about my terrible salary, but I didn’t really care about their opinions. I loved being a teacher and I considered myself a professional and worked as long as needed to get the job done. When I think about all those hours, my hourly wage was so low, I probably would have made more as a waitress. Honestly though, getting my summers off made it all worthwhile.</p>
<p>Now - fast forward to 2010. I honestly can’t believe I make as much as I do and that I have such wonderful benefits. I still consider myself a professional and work many hours (as all professional do) to get my job done. I know many people who have not had raises (and I consider myself lucky that I have continued to get mine), and I have seen hours and benefits cut back for many people. I continue to shop the back to school sales because I know I will have students who come to school without basic supplies, because I do have families affected by this recession. I come early and stay late and don’t expect anything more than to be acknowledged and respected as a professional who will do what needs to be done. Good teachers know that you can not do your job completely during the contracted hours. You know you will put in hours beyond the hourly rate - just like other professionals. When the economy was going strong and people were getting huge raises and bonuses, and I continued to get my 1%-2% raise each year, I didn’t complain, because I did not go into teaching for the money. The funny thing is that no one ever gave teachers and their contracts a thought during those glory days. But now, the economy is lousy and many want me to feel guilty because my union negotiated my little raises, coupled with good health benefits and my summers off. NO WAY will I feel guilty. I love teaching and I am thankful I entered this profession. My good pay (and trust me, many of you professionals with 35+ years of experience, would laugh at my salary), good benefits and - did I mention - my summers off, are the icing on the cake.</p>
<p>I read the article in The Globe and I do think the teachers in that community have come off looking bad. You can not ask for such a big raise during these tough times and get respect. My union contract expires this school year and I know our school committee will have the teachers in my town go thru the next school year working without a contract. This will be the third time in 12 years this has happened. I have also participated in work to rule (working only your contracted hours). While I don’t support work to rule, I think sometimes you need to remind the community of all the work you do that you do not receive compensation, and work to rule is the only means to do that. No one wins when that tactic is used, and I want you all to know that the people who hate it most are the teachers. We know we can’t do our jobs completely and successfully. It can backfire, so it should be used only as a last resort and for a specific period of time (one week, for example). I think it has backfired for these teachers. I hope it gets resolved quickly for everyone’s sake.</p>
<p>Thank you Dogwood.</p>
<p>I will be compensated, truthfully I’m not sure of the rate, for up to 90 days. Anything that’s left over I will probably donate to someone who needs them.</p>
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Another benefit unheard of in the private sector. I can carry over up to 30 days of vacation/sick days from year to year, if I accumulate more than that and I don’t take it, it vanishes. <em>Poof</em></p>
<p>I think what irritates me most about the situation in the Globe is the refusal to write college recs (if it is actually happening). If a few unfunded extra-curriculars get canceled, I can live with that. Not entering grades on-line? I don’t care, I can look at my kid’s work at home. Work to contract? You do what you have to do. But no college recs? That’s hitting below the belt.</p>
<p>Sick days? What are they? I don’t work, I don’t get paid.</p>
<p>To clarify just a bit, compensation for accrued sick leave comes only upon retirement, not if I leave to take another job.</p>
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<p>I would argue that the ability to accumulate sick leave encourages employees, teachers in our case, to come to work. I have to believe that a “use it or lose it” sick leave system encourages employee absenteeism. When I am out, my students miss out on a great deal instructionally. It’s far better for everyone concerned, myself included, for me to be in school on a daily basis.</p>
<p>Certainly I have worked with teachers who burn through their allotted sick leave every year. To me that is neither personally nor professionally responsible. </p>
<p>If I do need to take a day off I try to make it a day when students are not in school if at all possible.</p>
<p>Career teacher here. I love that this has turned into another teacher bashing thread. Anyone who feels the benefits and salaries of being a teacher are outstanding should become a teacher. There are particular shortages in the sciences, and math (folks with those ares of expertise often choose private sector careers). Most states have an alternate certification program for folks entering the teaching career with expertise in other fields. If you feel the salaries, pensions, benefits, work schedule, responsibilities are appealing, I would urge you to join the teaching profession.</p>
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<p>Could you please post where anyone has bashed teachers? I disagree
with how these wage negotiations are going as do many others but
I don’t see anyone bashing teachers.</p>
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<p>I considered it once. As a homeschooler, I read the teacher publications
and the undergrad textbooks that teachers use for preparation. I spoke
to the dean of the education school at Boston College and she said that
I had a good shot at money for grad school (male, minority, science and
math). But I had kids and a mortgage and not having an income for a year
or two would have been impractical.</p>
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<p>My company at the time would actually give engineers $50,000 to
retrain to become teachers. I knew people that took that route. The
thing is that at the local school hiring fair this past summer, there
were about 200 applicants for every opening. Basically local schools
are cutting teaching positions because the number of students has been
falling (demographic bubble has passed through) and revenues are down.</p>
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<p>We have effective unemployment of 20%. Demanding a raise publicly
is bad form. Whether you’re a teacher, firefighter, banker or engineer.</p>