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  • Writer's pictureMeredith

Mandatory Volunteering

Monday morning. I pull up my Outlook calendar and scan the week ahead. Meeting tomorrow, Open House Thursday... Open House?! That’s at 4:30! How am I going to make that work with my zero-overtime resolution? Then it dawns on me that I can't do Open House anyway because of my child care situation. My daughter has significant medical needs, so we can only leave her with a trained nurse. It has taken a year to line up full-time nursing coverage. Since my husband works later than I do, I have to be home on time to relieve the nurse. The only way to manage Open House would be to ask my husband to take leave from work—when he’s being paid—so that I can go to work when I’m not being paid. That just doesn’t make economic sense.


And because I’m not a classroom teacher, it doesn’t make a big difference if I miss Open House. But what if I were a classroom teacher? And what about all the classroom teachers in situations similar to mine? They would have to, and probably do, make a nonsensical plan like the one I just described.


Of course we want to hold Open House after working hours. And of course we need all the teachers to be there. I'm not saying they shouldn't be asking us to do this. I'm saying THEY SHOULD BE PAYING US TO DO IT! I used to think, oh well, I'm salaried, not hourly, so that means they are paying me to do a job, not paying me for my time. But if that were true, the hours would be flexible. And they most certainly are not. You could work 12 hours one day, but you can't leave 10 minutes early the next. Not without supervisor approval.


My husband is discouraged from working more than eight hours a day because he gets paid overtime. When he has to work an event in the evening, he goes in at noon. Wouldn't that be a more equitable way to approach Open House during staff week than mandatory volunteering?

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