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From the Chair

Dear Colleagues,

Do you have the mid-winter blues? Cheer up! If the mid-winter recess didn’t cure them, spring break is just around the corner. Besides, the school year is progressing quickly and before you know it, the lazy, hazy days of summer will be here.

Is that the way you look at your time at work? We all do — sometimes. Our jobs can be very difficult and very stressful. That is the nature of the work we do as school secretaries. We multitask all the time, meet deadlines, manage school offices, do payrolls, place orders, update student information in order to service students, parents, staff and administrators. We can be pulled in hundreds of different directions in a typical workday. We are expected to do everything, do it correctly and do it NOW — and without enough training.

So, we are all stressed. Now, some stress is good because it motivates and keeps you on your toes. But most stress is bad because it causes constant anxiety and makes you sick. No one should have to work in an environment where unrealistic job demands and pressures make you sick. Administrators who are disrespectful and arbitrary in their behavior and decisions about your professional work situation can make you feel devalued and very stressed.

The Executive Committee and I realize that there must be remedies for situations that put our members’ health and ability to do their jobs at risk. A couple of years ago, we were able to win a workload dispute provision in our contract. This was unheard of in the world of education office personnel, i.e., to contractually challenge the amount of work that is being given to you by an administrator. Guidance counselors won this right at the same time as we did, and in the new contract school psychologists and social workers have, as well. This contractual provision is good and it works, but you have to use it to make your work situation better.

The workload dispute is akin to the grievance procedure in that it is a process with levels of authority to which it must go and a timeline which must be followed. To file a workload dispute, you need to fill out only one form but you must thoroughly document your unmanageable workload. Click here for the form and the instructions. I will explain the dispute procedure now by paraphrasing the language that can be found in the contract.

If a secretary has an unmanageable workload, he or she can make a written complaint to the principal on the workload form. The top of the form must be filled out with home and school phone numbers so that I can call you to discuss your dispute.

Under the heading, “Nature Of Complaint,” you should write a detailed description of your job responsibilities adding any additional responsibilities given to you recently. You can attach additional sheets to the form in order to provide as much workload documentation as possible.

Under the heading, “Remedy Sought,” you should write in the remedy that would give relief from the unmanageable workload, e.g., an additional full-time secretary, a partial position secretary (F-status) or additional per-session time to do the work. Or, the remedy can be something else that fits the nature of the complaint. The chapter leader’s name must appear on the form. Once the form is completed, you may fax a copy to me for review at the Brooklyn UFT at 1-718-852-9891. I will call you to discuss the dispute.
When the form is ready to go, your chapter leader will give it to your principal and that is the date to be written on the dispute form. The principal then has five school days from that date to meet with you and your chapter leader to try to resolve the complaint. The form is then dated and checked off as to whether the dispute was resolved or not resolved. The remedy or lack thereof may come from the principal orally or in writing.

This next step is very important: The dispute form and the remedy must be faxed to both the workload liaison in your borough’s UFT office and to me. Your chapter leader should call the UFT borough office to alert the workload liaison that a dispute form is coming.