Five pieces of good advice for how to handle changes to your working hours

Are your working hours and tasks being changed due to COVID-19? If so, you can read about which areas to give special attention and how to reach out to your leader when tasks are moved or changed.

D 2. februar 2021

af Mikkel Hvid, Kommunikationschef
Advice and guidance

Performed working hours must be included

Perhaps you have already prepared and studied for a feature week that has been cancelled or rescheduled by the school. That time has been performed.

You may have to prepare again for the rescheduled event, even though you have already prepared for it once, which means that you have to prepare twice for parts of the event. Discuss the extent to which you have to do this with your leader.

 

Plan all the piles of hours that are being pushed ahead

Cancellations can result in an extensive amount of non-performed working time that you have to perform later.

Do all you can to convince management to make sure that the remaining time gets specified with actual contents, and that the hours get planned and scheduled. Having an unspecified future task feels more chaotic and stressful than knowing a number of planned tasks – even if there are many tasks.

Discuss the possibility of rescheduling tasks so that the working time gets scheduled evenly over the remaining part of the school year.

When school management changes the plans, these changes must comply with the regulations concerning rest periods and rest days.

 

Engage in a dialogue

When significant changes are made to the contents or the number of tasks in the task list, you and your leader must discuss the consequences. Accept that a dialogue is necessary, and prepare for the dialogue.

 

Keep count of your working hours

With many changes to the plans, it is crucial that you keep count of your working hours and how you spend them.

If you have not kept count of your working hours, it may be difficult for school management to acknowledge that you have actually prepared for a cancelled event. Make sure to inform management on an ongoing basis about how much you work.

 

Remember to include everything

If the musical of the year has been rescheduled or the feature week has been cancelled, remember to take into account that you may need additional time to perform tasks other than teaching and supervision in the future.

Depending on the event and the actual conditions, you may need time for preparation, follow-up and cooperation regarding the postponed event.