Piano World Home Page Forums Our Most Popular Forums Piano Teachers Forum Do piano teachers get sick days?

I just wondered if anyone else has thought of this . . .

Almost everyone in the working world gets sick days that they can take off but still get paid. Why shouldn't we as professional piano teachers get the same privelege? I mean, if I'm sick, I cancel my lessons, but I have to reschedule them. Shouldn't I at least be able to cancel ONE time per year and not have to make it up? It only seems fair to me.

In school, if your teacher has to cancel a class or lesson, you don't get a rescheduled class or lesson and your tuition doesn't get adjusted. Why should it be any different for us?

I don't know why. But it is :-(
But I don't adjust tuition if they are sick either.

Assuming you are talking about self employed Piano Teachers giving private lessons, then no you wouldn't get paid sick days. It's the same for anyone who is self employed. If you're sick you don't get paid, you have to take care of your own pension provision as there is no company pension scheme to join, you need to take care of Public Liability Insurance, you pay for any Training or Professional Development you undertake yourself, you have to make provision for periods when you have no income but still have outgoings e.g. school holidays, Christmas etc. and so on.

It's the same for any other professional who is self employed.

It's a reality of self-employment. When you get well, at least your students are still there. I was sick for a month early last year, and not only could I not earn money, but because I turned down requests I lost clients who found someone else and stayed with them. It took over a year to recover from that. There is a price to freedom.

(Not a piano teacher).

Gerry -

I know that's how it works, I've been doing it for over 5 years now.

What I'm saying is that I think we SHOULD get at least ONE sick day a year where we don't have to teach and don't have to make up for it.

I think it's a little different than other self-employed professionals, though. Your dentist wouldn't expect you to still pay for your appointment if he's sick, but you only go once or twice a year. Same with your plumber, of course he won't charge you if he can't come and fix your toilet, but that's just once in a blue moon.

For us, we see students pretty much every week, and most teachers charge an annual or quarterly tuition, not a "per lesson" fee. Wouldn't it be nice if that policy included one teacher sick day?

Just an idea . . .

My piano teacher had a retired piano teacher, who would cover for her if she was away, or was sick. She went away sometimes for a month, and another time had to go into the hospital cause she fell downstairs and broke her leg!

It was kind of nice for us students to have a rest from her teaching style and experience someone else.

Not sure, but I think her friend didn't take the money! Just did it as a jester of kindness!

Your initial post stated that almost everyone else gets it and you felt you too were entitled to it. I was simply pointing out that's not the case.

And I guess it's different in different parts of the world but where I am most teachers charge on a per lesson basis.

As for what your policy is, that is for you to decide as it's your studio. And it would be for your customers to decide if that policy was acceptable or not.

For teachers who charge by the term/school year etc. I don't see anything wrong with it at all as an idea, and if you offered a reciprocal arrangement where a student got the same opportunity i.e. could be sick and miss a lesson and get a free make up lesson then I think it's a fine idea. You are being fair as you are offering your students the same facility as you desire for yourself so I can't see how anyone would be unhappy with that.

I pay my teacher for each month in advance and never count the lessons or hours. It balances out in the end. Some lessons are longer than 45 minutes some are shorter if his schedule suddenly gets hectic. I miss the (very) occasional one (never without notice) and he misses the occasional one - We usually make these up in some way but it's not a rule..... We don't have lessons during July and August and I of course don't pay those months.

Well the great thing about being self employed is that you can pretty much do what you like. If you want to put the 'sick day' in your policy you can! Or you could get round it by increasing your fees slightly so that you are covered for that day off.

This has got me thinking about sick days though. How many of us continue to teach even when we are sick? I can't remember the last time I had time off sick. I think I would have to be really bad and unable to get out of bed. I know it's probably very wrong to teach when you have a cold or minor illness but if you can't afford to take time off then what choice do you have?

In recent years I have been able to keep a little savings to one side which could be used if I needed time off. It would pain me to dip into this though.

Our relationship with our teacher is similar to Sandy, it's relatively loose and we both figure it'll work out in the end.

That said, I'm a bit perplexed by the OP's statements. "Sick days" are a benefit worked out between an employer and employee. What the OP wants is a provision that states that the teacher can cancel 1 lesson without makeup over some period of time. As others have mentioned, if you think your clientele would agree to such a term then go for it. Wouldn't be too surprising though, as Gerry mentions, that unless you have a reciprocal agreement, that many would not find that clause very palatable.

Chris H, "what choice do you have?". Well, you have the choice to "do the right thing" vs making a decision that places revenue above the health of your clients. Funny that people usually get all up in arms when "big business" makes similar value choices.

I enjoy everyone's responses . . .

I know that since I'm self-employed I can make my own rules, policies, etc. I was just wondering if any other teachers actually do this or have thought about doing it. I'm not asking permission to do it, I know I can do whatever I want =)

That's easy for you to say. But if you are struggling to pay the bills and you catch a cold then 'doing the right thing' becomes more difficult.

I charge tuition rather than by the lesson. If a student is unable to make their lesson then they do not get a refund. Do you think that they 'do the right thing' and stay away when they are ill?

Well, whether or not students "do the right thing" is not relevant. We all have choices to make in life ... yadda yadda.

My answer is obviously more a philosophical one (though maybe not to some). I understand that from a realistic standpoint, many practicalities play into value judgments we make every day. However, the OP did ask the question (however rhetorically), so I responded. If you are in the "do unto others" crowd, then you would do what you would hope the students would do. After all, would you cut a student the same amount of slack if they came in sick and then got you sick which caused you to lose income (i.e. that you'd "understand" because times might be tough for them thereby extending them some "moral credit")? Not likely in many, if not most situations. So why would times being tough be an excuse for a teacher to do the same? Some would say that it's exactly these types of scenarios that truly defines a person.

Hey, I'm no saint. You can generally take my comments as being the devils advocate, not as preaching. But none the less I think the points are worthy of introspection.

I allot myself 5 weeks off during a 10-month teaching year. Four weeks are the standard holidays; the 5th week is an extra week that I can take off whenever I like. This would be my 'sick day', if I needed it. I think I've used it as a sick day one time in the last 5 years. Typically, I take my 5th week to extend my Spring break from 1 to 2 weeks, or I use it when I attend WPPC or other function.

One of the perks of being your own boss is that you can write your policy as you want. But.... you have to know yourself. Do you tend to get sick often? Do you have a family that has issues that have conflicted with your teaching schedule? You have to take these into consideration when writing in a 'sick day' policy. It's unprofessional to hold your students to a strict makeup lesson policy if you as a teacher have a habit of canceling and re-scheduling lessons.

My advice would be to come up with your set of agreed upon rules for your private practice. Let your students know from the beginning that you plan to take of "X" amount of days during the year. It's a private teaching practice, so make it work for you.
Steve Barta
http://myspace.com/stevebarta

I thought a lot about this, and I decided not to bring it up in my policy. There has only been one year where I was too sick to teach for four days. I offered to make them up because we had Guild Auditions around the corner, and I wanted to be sure everyone was prepared.

An employee is one of many individuals in a large organization that must manage them, with one employer. Thus a lot of formal arrangements must be made. As a private teacher you are one individual with many "employers" with whom you have a personal face-to-face relationship. You are also their guide and mentor. Surely there can be flexibility on both sides, and the model of an institution is ill suited. A student will understand if you are sick, and you will probably be understanding if the student gets sick. I think if one of us arrived coughing and sneezing, our teacher would send us home - for his sake, not ours.

Well, if my piano teacher--who charges $120 per hour--gets sick, I certainly would want my money back for that week, or at least have a make-up lesson when she gets better, or double up the lesson the following week. I would feel cheated of a lesson if the lesson is cancelled and fee not returned.

For the same reason, I do not charge my students when I get sick. If I ever get sick, I would first try to re-schedule the lessons. If re-scheduling is impossible, then I would credit the lesson toward next month's tuition. Thankfully, I don't get sick very often (I've cancelled _one_ day of teaching in seven years due to a bad case of flu).

However, I do have a load of other responsibilities; thus I do tell my students' parents to be flexible with my scheduling. For example, spring concert season is approaching, and I have to move some students around when my choirs are performing. I fully expect my students to accept my re-scheduling because I have informed them way ahead of time.

Besides, I would much rather have the student take a lesson than to skip one--every lesson counts!!

By your logic, my gardener is entitled to paid sick days because he services my yard every week.

Most piano teachers that I know of always make up their missed lessons. If they can't, they will refund the money. It's only fair.

It doesn't matter how you bill your students, it always boils down to how much per minute. If your policy says so much money for so many months minus one sick day, I'd simply calculate how many weeks ther are in this many months and then subtract 1 from the number. Then I compare your true rate with those of other comparable teachers in my area and go from there.

The OP says, "In school, if your teacher has to cancel a class or lesson, you don't get a rescheduled class or lesson and your tuition doesn't get adjusted. Why should it be any different for us?"

It's simply not ture. If a school teacher cancels a class, either a substitue teacher will teach the class or a refund is issued. If it's a cancelled lesson, the teacher will make it up.

Short answer, NO. Though I do have an interesting loophole in my studio policy. It has to do with a clever use of make up classes