Are we now a luxury?

[Handyman]

Can't say I'm surprised by this BUT they can ALWAYS find money for another layer of management. A local school, I'll mention no names, ares constantly moaning that they have no money for anything but keep adding to management. Meanwhile people like us are paid peanuts and expected to perform miracles and they wonder why they can't get or keep site staff. Priorities are very definitely skewed.

That's true, when I joined a secondary school they had one deputy head and one assistant head. When I left 10 years later they had two deputy heads and eight assistant heads, plus a load of other highly paid new roles such as teacher mentors on 75k +. Then miraculously there is no money to keep enough site staff or pay them properly. If school budgets massively increased I wonder where the money would go, I doubt it would be on maintenance.

[thecaretaker]

They will come a cropper in the end if HT's think they can do it. They don't know the half of what we have to do. When a school catches fire and someone realises the fire alarm call points haven't been checked in years, emergency lighting tests were not carried out... let alone all the H&S checks we have to do. These 'so called' HT's (elevated teachers with the Liz Truss mentality) will end up being prosecuted or even had up for manslaughter and doing time in prison.

(Then again, you can take what the Guardian prints with a pinch of salt) I'll never forget our TES article)

[Handyman]

I take a lot of these things with a pinch of salt. My BM claims all the time that they do a lot of the cleaning, which is referring to the time 2 years ago when they hoovered half of one classroom.

I know someone who works in admin in a primary school, they had no caretaker for over a year, and when the LA came in to do a health and safety audit basically no checks or compliance had been done in that time. Headteachers can talk about pressure, but in most industries there would be much heavier consequences for a manager ignoring health and safety for a year than a bunch of recommendations.

[hendo91]

its a strange one personally I am made to feel well and my role and what I do is made to feel rather important not just the usual --- censored word --- shifting, cleaning and general maintenance but the safety checks, paper work and stuff that keeps us water tight from a H&S stand point, all of which before I started wasn't being done at all which resulted in a very very serious H&S audit just prior to me starting the cause of which being that before I started they had multiple caretakers, site managers or site supervisors in a very short span doing various hours, various shifts with a lot to do and not an awful lot of time to do it in which as we know is the cause for something's not being done and no on checking on the why. (all that being said I leave in 3 weeks and my role is advertised with the hours cut by 8.5hrs a week) so looks like they are hoping the changes I have made are enough to go back to their old regime and keep things ticking over on a budget.

[Simon]

When I applied for my post as Site Supervisor there was only one other person who applied for it. Also we can't hire cleaners for love nor money, same with canteen staff.

Let's face it, the pay is rubbish, the hours are rubbish and you get treated like a dogs body. I'm doing it as a semi retirement job (well at least that's what I thought) turns out they want me to run around like a 20 year old shifting things and setting things up at their own whim without any planning or forethought!

Luckily I'm at that age now where I am stubborn and stand my ground. I know and they know noone else is likely to want the job so they have to keep me on side. As soon as my retirement fund allows I'll be out of there though and won't miss it one bit.

[OXSET]

They will come a cropper in the end if HT's think they can do it. They don't know the half of what we have to do. When a school catches fire and someone realises the fire alarm call points haven't been checked in years, emergency lighting tests were not carried out... let alone all the H&S checks we have to do. These 'so called' HT's (elevated teachers with the Liz Truss mentality) will end up being prosecuted or even had up for manslaughter and doing time in prison.

(Then again, you can take what the Guardian prints with a pinch of salt) I'll never forget our TES article)

What TES article?

[Handyman]

When I applied for my post as Site Supervisor there was only one other person who applied for it. Also we can't hire cleaners for love nor money, same with canteen staff.

Let's face it, the pay is rubbish, the hours are rubbish and you get treated like a dogs body. I'm doing it as a semi retirement job (well at least that's what I thought) turns out they want me to run around like a 20 year old shifting things and setting things up at their own whim without any planning or forethought!

Luckily I'm at that age now where I am stubborn and stand my ground. I know and they know noone else is likely to want the job so they have to keep me on side. As soon as my retirement fund allows I'll be out of there though and won't miss it one bit.

We have the same here, applying for jobs outside of schools and finding out there were 50-100 applicants compared to frequently 0-1 in many support staff roles now. It is always strange to me how SLT decide to bully staff that they must know they will have difficulty replacing. I had one cleaner who was a bit difficult sometimes but not too bad, the BM went on and on at her until she quit "there are plenty of cleaning jobs around, I have better things to do than deal with a Business Manager with mental health issues" was what she told me her reason for leaving. Of course, they have not been able to replace her, and I got the blame for her quitting (obviously). When I left my last job SLT were boasting how easy I would be to replace, it took them seven months to get one application and then the new guy quit after about a month because he got his first pay slip and found the school were paying him less than they advertised.

[OXSET]

I've just seen a local secondary with over 1500 pupils advertising for an Estates Manager.. SUB 30K salary!

JOKE.

[The Big K]

I'd like to know how much the head of a school of 80ish pupils is paid in comparison to a 1FE primary with of 240ish pupils as a reference. As funding is based per pupil, I get the funding will be lower as its less on the GAG formula and you would cut cloth accordingly. But if they are paid in line with a 1FE primary therein lies the problem. Always feather their own nests to the detriment of others. As duty holders, yes it is their job if they don't employ a responsible person.

[jay]

20 odd years back I was a grade 3 caretaker.
Worked hard, got promoted now a grade 5 site manager.
New Business Manager, and made redundant.
New caretaker a Grade 2. Less than me 20 years back.
Business Manager, now a Business Director.
As Trout would say ‘Go Figure.’

My new job is four days a week, and pays a third more than I was as a Site Manager, with almost non of the grief.