There are moments in the life of a union member that should cause concern and “raise the flags” for the school employee. These are moments when the employee should consider finding a site rep before participating in a meeting with building administrator or supervisors.
So many times employees will acquiesce to questioning without representation. So often the employee feels they have done nothing wrong or does not realize the gravity of the situation.
Check out the following situations and phrases. These are signals that it is time to find the first available VUEA site rep.
You may need a site rep when…
- a building administrator says, “I just want to talk to you for a minute,” and when you walk into the office, a parent and a principal are seated on the same side of the table.
- you walk into the office and your are met by two administrators – one is your building principal and the other administrator is from central office and they did not tell you what the meeting is about.
- the administrator starts getting upset with you and you are alone.
- the building administrator says, “I’ve had some parent complaints about you.”
- the building administrator says, “I have some concerns we need to talk about.”
- the building administrator says, “There are some rumors in the community about you that we need to discuss.”
You DEFINITELY need a site rep when the building administrator says, “Do you want a site rep?”
THE ANSWER IS ALWAYS “YES.”
It makes sense that if an administrator is offering a site rep before the meeting even takes place — you must take it as a clue that this meeting is not going to be a happy event.
You can always stop a meeting and say that you would like to continue the meeting with your site rep present.
You DEFINITELY need a site rep when the building administrator uses the following words in the course of the meeting:
- discipline
- termination
- employment status
- negative evaluation