Last week I got COVID (yep! It’s still hanging around), and it knocked me out of commission for five days. I’m incredibly fortunate that I had a lighter work week so I pushed some internal deadlines, sent off a few text messages to clients, put up an OOO, and then started my reign as Couch Potato Queen.
But I kept thinking about how things would be different if I was a teacher. I would’ve used up five PTO days, if I even still had that many at the end of April. Industry standard for instructional staff is 10 PTO days, so that would’ve been 50% of my allotment, for one illness. That doesn’t even include if I had children and COVID made the rounds through a whole household of small humans.
We have to overhaul the teacher PTO system. It’s not practical in a post-COVID world (I mean, was it ever?).
We are more conscious about not coming to work sick and keeping our children home when they’re sick. But that means we’re now taking those two days off for a cold. A half day for a migraine. Three days for the stomach bug to run through the house.
The argument of course is that teachers get a lot of time off with scheduled school breaks and holidays, but unfortunately, you can’t plan for you and your children to only get sick during those scheduled breaks.
The result is that teachers are coming to work sick because they can't afford to take unpaid time off. In an industry where we always make decisions in the best interests of the children and not the adults^, let me be clear - having teachers come to school sick is not in the best interests of the children.
Some kids are immunocompromised.
Some have parents who can’t afford to take off work to take them to the doctor.
Others might not have quality health insurance that covers the care they need.
So what do you do?
Give unlimited paid sick time. Seriously.
I know the immediate fear is that some staff will abuse it. But you can put parameters around it. Maybe give 5 “free” days where no documentation is required - mental health day, just didn’t feel great, etc. After that, you could require documentation* - a doctor’s note, positive test results, etc.
But we can’t keep asking our teachers to only get sick 10 days a year.
*Note: I’m generally not a fan of employers policing how days off are used. I wouldn’t normally recommend a doctor’s note for a grown-ass adult to prove their PTO is legitimate. But that’s in a system where you’re given a bucket of days that you should be allowed to use as you please. Schools require coverage - we can’t just measure performance based solely on outcomes - we physically need adults in the building. So in a case of unlimited PTO for teachers, then I’d say employers could require a doctor’s note to prevent abuse.
^I don’t agree we have to always make decisions in the best interests of children. Sometimes yes, but oftentimes what’s best for adults is going to lead to what’s best for children. Other times, what's best for adults is simply what's right.
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