Thread: Payday...$300 for 7hrs work

Wow talk about putting a cat among the pigeons, or maybe more appropriate for an auto/car forum, a spanner in the works!

I know plenty of people who would kill to earn $300 a day and thats the real reason I put this thread on in the first place. I know theres the fact that releif teachers do supply to a number of schools, and I also know how my staff operate. Normally, in fact ALL the time when one of my pool of releif teachers is booked up they will still answer and tell me so. This is not just because I am a fussy bastard and like people to answer their phones, but how on GODS GOOD EARTH do they know I am calling about today? Or tomorrow? Or even to offer them 3 weeks of work from next week? I mean unless you have done the job of hiring temp staff, you have no idea how it all works. As I said, I know each of these teachers WANT work, so I was initially commenting on the slackness to not answer the phone when it was guaranteed work. Anyway, onto to try and grab that spanner in the works...

I am slightly miffed as to the people who think that $300 for 7 hrs work is "below them" when as has been quoted, the average Australian wage is less than $300 a day, by a long shot. If you earn that much more then great job, lucky boy! I think its great people earn big bucks for hard work and if you make loads of $$$ by doing sweet f'all then good for you too! However, to look down on it as lesser than worth, is a little annoying. As has been said, retail workers, hospitality workers, labourers etc all get a lot less than $300 a day and hence this is why so many of them do cash jobs after hours. A member of my family is a labourer for a retirement home and earns $35000p.a.. They havent done CPI pay increases for years, and the rest, but he has massive freedom as his boss is simply a legend. Anyway, he works 7:30-3pm and then off he trotts to do his landscaping/mowing cash jobs, and pockets a great deal of money. He knows that if he went for a higher paying job, he would be expected to work harder, longer and really the cashie factor far out weighs a 10% pay increase etc etc.

Yes theres plenty of mining jobs out there and Ive had many a student try their hand at it. One guy, worked in the mines for 3 years, earned $150000 a year or something, then moved back to the big smoke with basically NOTHING cos he spent it all on, as they say, "wine women and song"! I get it the lure etc and if you want to be away from the family to earn a $1000 or more a day, then go for it, but personally I'd rather get a pittance (and yes for some, thats apparently $300 a day) and spend time with my family, and sleep in the same bed each night knowing my family are safe, and have a dad in the home, than sleep in a site shed in the middle of nowhere waiting for my bank account to grow high enough so I can move back home with my family and pay off my home in one foul swoop.

Yes I know a lot of people who are on a lot more than $300 a day, and they are either very successful small business owners, who work 16hours a day, 7 days a week, or they are fly-in fly-out mine workers dwiving a big tonka twuck. Yes the economy is upside down and unfortunately, sith happens, and the company's making big $$$$ due to luck of the draw finding minerals, are commanding the big $$$$, and thats the way the cookie crumbles.

I didn't start the thread to whinge at my pay at all and being of Jewish ancestry, more money would be great. But when I earn $90,000pa., and my wife can STAY HOME with the kids (oh by GOD its a struggle), and she can acutally RAISE our kids, not the local ABC Learning Centre, we are happy. Many of my friends earn 40-50k and work 48 weeks in the year, and work hard and long hours for their money too. Many of them cant afford for mum to stay home and have to send them to day care, and I feel for them, however.....

Dont get me wrong, I'd love to earn $250000p.a., but I don't and I am happy with my money. While I take the soapbox for a second, I'd be hard pressed to find many on here who work harder and longer than a school principal and they earn DIDLY-SQWAT as far as I am concerned compared to the job they do and the stress, OH MAN THE STRESS! and they earn like $120-170k. In alst weekends paper they had Principal jobs advertised for $150-$170k and that's at a school in the middle of the northern territory, like 600km from DArwin on some island closer to Thailand than Australia at a school with 1600 Indigenous students. Now thats a massive insult to the value of education in our society.

So, yeah, there you go! Enjoy that. I hope that the comments on here about $300 being diddly-squat don't represent the views of the Australian public, that's for sure. If they do, then we as a country have REALLY lost something.

I have had my 5 cents worth, now I need to go teach a lesson on wages and salaries. and maybe I'll do a study on the students parents who earn more than $300 a day and their sentiments about the issue!

My wife is a fully qualified teacher (double degree + diploma in education, and a 4 year apprenticeship before that). She works at the local community centre doing before/after school care at $18 per hour, as there are no full time teaching jobs close to where we live.

So far she has found the job really rewarding. There are a lot of people out there putting in the long hours for not much money, who drop the kids off at 6:30am and pick them up at 6:30pm.

Definitely! I'm there with you and have the utmost respect for you and your family.

Also...love the profile pic! My shepherd does that when I jump out of the drivers seat for more than half a second!

Barney2803, there are Indians working in slums that are paid a lot less than $3 per day,and subsistence farmers in Indonesia earning even less. But comparisons with them are about as valid as saying that teachers should be paid in line with labourers, hospitality workers and retail workers. Your arguement falls down almost immediately because you obviously didn't call the local labour hire and ask for a couple of untrained people to come do your relief.

Should people who have put their name down with you answer their phones? Yes - though it's still possible they were busy and would call you back later. But otherwise, politeness would dictate they either respond to the call or advise you they are no longer available.

Relief teaching is an appalling way to try to earn a living - and in fact no-one takes it on for the money. They are all hoping you (or someone) will find them good enough to give them a permanent contract.

In this day of numbers appearing on the phone, perhaps you need to wonder if there is something which is putting those 5 people off. And perhaps you need to think about the non-monetary benefits they might get - such as lesson plans, well behaved classes, not being treated as an unskilled worker.

If you had to call 6 workers, then none of them had a job with you the day you called. In effect YOU are offering them $300 for one day, and nothing at all for days or weeks. They would be paid better doing childcare, as Beckford's wife is, though they would need to put in longer hours (which as you know most teachers do largely for the love of teaching).

I suggest you walk a mile.

Reading this thread I realised I shoudl be getting paid a lot more so I don;t want to hear any whinging about overpaid public servants neither :P

Are you seriously insulting my intelligence and profession that much?

For your information.
1. I did releif teaching for 3 years and know how hard a life it is. I did my "time" at some VERY difficult schools Northern England and Western Sydney, Parramatta, Blacktown and Penrith to be exact. You however, have no idea.
2. It is because of my time "walking the mile" as you said, that this is more of a reason why I found it so confusing as to why my current relief teachers didn't pick up.
3. The relief teachers in MY pool, yes MY pool, who I have worked with for the last 5 years, and know very well, and know their situations in terms of other jobs, and yes I even know their families etc etc, do NOT have other jobs and rely on relief teaching offers to get them through the week, from pay to pay. You have no idea, how MY relief teachers work.
4. You are clearly wrong in your understanding of why people do relief teaching. I know many relief teachers who do relief work for many varied and even what might seem contradictory reasons but work for them:
~the money (as it is really quite good IMHO),
~the lack of responsibility,
~the freedom to choose when you work, (and when to answer their phone lol)
~the lack of paperwork and lesson plans, etc etc.
I work hard fostering relationships with my pool and we pay more than all the schools in the area. You have no idea.
5. Not all releif teachers, and in fact there is NO trend at all about releif teachers wanting full time or permanent work. Most releif teachers want as much releif teaching work as possible, but for various reasons, and however I know that most of my releif teachers dont want full time or permanent but want lots of relief days. So again, you have no idea.
6. Calling back later? Why would they? This is business, so they know, unlike you (who has no idea) that if they don't pickup, and the next one does, they'll miss out. As harsh as it is, I am not waiting for one person to return my call 6 hours later while all my others get hired by other schools, and we miss out!
7. Yes the non-financial benefits are huge issues for relief teachers (one thing you are right on) however, where again you have no idea, is the backup WE give our relief teachers. Come take a look at the countless gifts and cards I have had from my relief teachers from when I have stepped in and supported them with difficult classes/subject. On the topic, one of my relief teachers, just the other week, in a meeting with me and the Principal said that he was so sick of being treated like crap at other schools, that he had taken his name off all schools except ours because he knew he was supported consistently and the kids behaved themselves for him. He even stayed back after hours to learn our computing system to mark the roll etc etc, of his own volition (do you know what that big word means) and NO he DOESN'T want a long term contract, he WANTS to do relief teaching for the foreseeable future. When I told him I couldn't guarantee the frequency of work, his exact words were "well who cares, I am only working here as this is the only school who actually gives a _____ about their relief teachers".

Yes EVERY one of my relief teachers receive a full lesson plan and class roll for EVERY lesson they take.

Like Beckford's wife, she chooses not to do relief teaching, and you mentioned her too, however, note she has chosen NOT to do relief teaching for her own reasons. My pool HAVE chosen to do relief teaching and we ensure their availability wishes are updated all the time.

If you read my comments about labourers and the like carefully, I wasn't actually comparing them to teachers. I was stating differences and how teachers wages/conditions differ. I was, if you read it again, declaring how fortunate I feel I am to be earning what I classify as good money, while others who often work just as hard, earn a pittance.

So, I take it you havent done any relief teaching yourself? so that means you aren't qualified to be an expert on the issue? and hence you need to "walk the mile yourself".

Do I need to go on utterly destroying your uneducated and uninformed argument?

no way would i work for 42 per hour as a subbie by the time you factor in tax, super and outher thing like no work no par ( so no holiday pay etc) 42 an hour is more like 20 an hour in your pocket, and no i dont work in mines and wouldnt go near them i make the same money if not more working civil project around me and its a lot less hours if i ws to take up some of the rail work which has been offered to me in fnq it would be more money again as its a camp job

You came here to rant, not converse, so much continual drivel, I wouldn't answer the phone either

It appears it's you who thinks you've got it right, those that earn more shouldn't and those that earn less should be earning more

I'd like to see a little more rational approach to an open forum of others from someone educating children, but hey, that's the opinion of someone sitting having poo at the servo