Sick and Shut In

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I am wondering how those of you who are administrators deal with staff who are absent for long periods of time due to health issues i.e. birth of child, heart attack, etc. or death of a loved one.  The reason I'm asking is a few years ago I ended the school year early due to a scheduled surgery (Of course I waited until after the CRCT was administered).  During my time off I did not hear from administration.  This was disheartening to me.  How do you not check on your staff?!  A year later (yeah I know) I was able to voice  this concern only after my principal asked me has she ever did anything wrong.  Without reservation I informed my principal "Yes, You did not check on me when I had my surgery."  She admitted she was wrong and I was on her mind but her weakness was follow through.  I recognize not everyone wants individuals in their "business"......my question is along with everything you have to do, how do you assure to keep the human side of your position?     

Comments

  1. UnknownDecember 1, 2015 at 9:15 PM

    Even if a staff member is out for a day or so, we make sure we reach to them using our Remind 101 which sends each staff member a short text, just to let them know we are thinking about them. For long term, we have a care team that sends flowers or as a staff we may decide to collect money for meals and food for the family. We send emails, and make sure its noted in our weekly newsletters, same for babies, surgeries,etc. Even if we are not able to speak to the staff member directly, we do reach out to their families.

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  2. UnknownDecember 4, 2015 at 6:29 AM

    That's fantastic. At one time in our school if you did not pay into the committee that sends out cards or flowers you did not receive anything regardless if you had death in your family, surgeries, etc.

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