My whole time service

October 9, 2012 8:59 AM

My employment contract has the following line in it "Employees are expected to devote their whole time service to the work". Can anyone explain what "whole time service" means in respect to employment? I'm a teacher in the UK.
posted by Morsey to Law & Government (9 answers total)

My contract has a somewhat different phrase, something like "entire productive time," but I take it to mean that you can't sit around doing personal stuff when you should be working, can't open up a taco truck in the parking lot, etc. Seems obvious, but every employer can tell you about an employee who goofed off or started moonlighting another job on company time.

Similar phrases could also be construed, although there's usually more specific phrases about it, to mean that you can't take other jobs that conflict with this job, whether you're doing it on company time or not. If you take a job as an all-night security guard and therefore are a zombie while teaching, there's a problem.
posted by randomkeystrike at 9:06 AM on October 9, 2012

Google seems to indicate that "whole time" is what we would call "full time" in the US. So it sounds like they are just saying when you are at work you are expected to be doing stuff related to your job.
posted by COD at 9:06 AM on October 9, 2012

Check with your union.
posted by runincircles at 9:12 AM on October 9, 2012

Response by poster: >a zombie while teaching

Aren't most teachers like this anyway! This makes sense in a *sensible* way - and is how I imagine the condition was intended.


>Check with your union.

I thought that was the best idea. I'm not in trouble, or worried about getting in trouble, or even in disagreement with the condition. I just like to know exactly where I stand!
posted by Morsey at 9:17 AM on October 9, 2012

Ring or email your LEA HR, they are there the answer these kinds of questions.
posted by Jehan at 9:29 AM on October 9, 2012

I work in the UK public sector (NHS) and the term whole time equivalent is often used to denote 37.5 hours per week (ie full time). For example a job requiring two days a week would be 0.4 WTE. Could it perhaps be a stipulation that you should be devoting 37.5 hours a week to your job, so not just working during lessons but spending extra time on marking, lesson plans & extra curricular activities? I know all teachers do this and many do more than 40 hours a week in total but this might be the way they describe it in the contract.
posted by *becca* at 9:47 AM on October 9, 2012

I found a Conditions of Service document (Google doc) for a random school where it defines the term a bit better:

Whole time service - Staff are required to devote their whole-time service to the work of School and must not engage in any other business or take up any other additional appointment without the express consent of the Governing Body of the School.

So I would agree with randomkeystrike that it's likely to be about taking other jobs whilst employed in this particular one.
posted by paduasoy at 11:45 AM on October 9, 2012

I'm in the UK and have a similar phrase on my contract (albeit different field - science). There's also a accompanying brief explanation, which leads me to believe that I am not allowed to do the same sort of work for anyone else while I am working for my current employer, that my employer is paying me for the fulltime and exclusive use of my skills. I'm unclear as to the purpose of this clause (perhaps as randomkeystrike suggests, it's to avoid conflict of interest) or whether it is practically enforceable (obviously there's a certain amount of leeway with "fulltime" and "same type of work"), but's it's nothing to worry about.
posted by outlier at 1:25 AM on October 10, 2012

You should check with somebody/some agency who would know the real answer. To me, it sounds like they want employees to avoid what my employer refers to as "conflict of commitment" (not quite the same as conflict of interest).
posted by Lexica at 6:37 PM on October 10, 2012 [1 favorite]