Was I an asshole?

[SF1900]

Taken a different perspective, you should perhaps go slightly easier on her. The prefrontal cortex is not developed until about age 25, which means very young adults make poor decisions. You should just have a discussion about her and hopefully she can learn from her experience. Give her the test again and you get to keep your job. Problem solved.

[Taffin]

Obligatory old bastard "In MY day we never would have behaved like this" to get it out of the way at the start.

I teach at a uni. Yesterday I spent the day supervising exams.

Yesterday after getting a group of 50 students seated I start going through the basic rules in German and in English.

- ALL mobile phones turned off and put away in bags, or on my desk at the front to be picked up at the end of the exam.
- No extra shit on the tables. Have what you need to write with, have an extra, have an eraser if you're working in pencil, have your ID out, everything else - get rid of it.
- No looking at anyone else's paper. No talking to anyone other than me. You want to borrow something from your friend? You tell me and I'll ask them.
- Have your student ID visible (and current). Make sure it's actually you in the photo (yes - I've had people send friends in to do exams for them).

I feel your pain, Bro.  2 important questions here I feel:

1.  Did you read these lines from a script provided by your employer and/or endorsed (by your employer) examining body?
2.  Are you in a Union (unpopular on GetBig prolly but a reasonable question nonetheless)

[Voice of Doom]

Is she hot?  Offer to trade nude pics for a retest.

[Palumboism]

This shows how poorly universities are run and how un-tech savy the bureaucrats are.  Every student on campus has a camera in their pocket and in two clicks can photo and send that test to a million people.  There has to be a policy enforced University wide on phone use during examinations. 

[chaos]

Suggest she re-sit. No fucking phone.

You got to apply the rules. She doesn't flunk over a brainfart moment. That's the middle ground.

Seems logical.

[VladimirVersic]

Was is the definition of an asshole? In this day and age?
I'm no teacher but to answer the question, no. You where not.

[keanu]

When I took some large first year courses, the same course exam was given over different times. Some photographed some parts to sell to others taking a later exam. You did nothing wrong at all, just holding the bag for the university which is bullshit. If they fire you a lawsuit is in order.

[Vince B]

What has to guide teachers re knowing what to do in difficult situations is to consider two things. First, what is the best for the group or class? Second, what is the best for the student? If a teacher always has the first in mind he/she can't be faulted even though the very best thing wasn't done or avoided for the individual.

In the op's dilemma perhaps he should have confiscated the phone. The student could sit for the exam with the others but without her phone. After the exam take her and the phone to a superior who will determine if the exam was sent to others, etc., and take responsibility for looking into the matter, discipline, etc.

[galain]

Thanks guys for the advice and support. Just got finished in a meeting with HR and my boss. Still have my job - but I'm on probation for 6 months.

HR wanted to know why I didn't do what some of you said and just confiscate her phone.

I replied that ..
a) I was told to use my best judgement
b) I'm not about to try and take somebody's personal property from them without explicit permission from the university that says I'm allowed to do this
c) Time is important. We have a 15 minute turn around window at the end of each exam before the next group comes in. Take into account the time I need to sort papers by up to 5 different lecturers, make sure everyone has signed their exam, and collect the papers from those still there - this window usually shrinks to something between 5 and 10 minutes, and I wasn't about to make that smaller yesterday having discussions about posting to Instagram.
d) I was told to use my best judgement.

The head of HR decided she would 'let me off with a warning' and everyone seemed to think this had resolved the situation nicely.

Except me. I asked her what I was being warned for. Got some bullshit reply that said nothing. I asked again, a little louder. Was told to control myself and keep my voice down. No specific reply about the nature of my warning.

I asked again - quietly - what the warning was for. Mumbled responses from what I could make out about my 'attitude'.

I told them if this was an official warning then I would expect to see the paperwork, and if they're warning me about my conduct in the examination room, then I'm going to take it further because none of them were in there with me, so it's a bullshit warning to placate angry parents. If they're warning me about my conduct in the interview I just had, this was an entirely different matter and not at all related to why we had the meeting.

HR lady went very red in the face and left the room. My boss got a message via text a few minutes later that I'm on probation now.

I told him I expect to see this in writing as well.

Germans (sorry German bros - you know this is true) cannot admit to making mistakes. The HR woman made a few and wasn't able to handle me exposing them.

Not sure what to do now but at least I still have my job (and the course assessments from the students were finalised today and all 7 of the classes I teach are the 7 most popular courses the uni offers - for the 8th semester in a row - so I'm feeling pretty good about that).

Don't want to turn this into a soap opera - thanks for reading. I'm out.

[Grape Ape]

Good for you - feels like you are correct.

You just have to weigh if potentially losing your job is worth eating shit over.

[kreator]

What do u teach?

[jdooly]

You did the right thing IMO.  As the authority in the room that day, you set the tone and gave the rules.  She chose to disobey them. 

[Griffith]

Everyone knows the rules, no phones, and obviously no photos of the exam paper.

The last exam I wrote we had to keep our bags in a separate area with our phones or any electronics in them.

It was also quite specific on what we were allowed to have on our desks.

[Hulkotron]

Thanks guys for the advice and support. Just got finished in a meeting with HR and my boss. Still have my job - but I'm on probation for 6 months.

HR wanted to know why I didn't do what some of you said and just confiscate her phone.

I replied that ..
a) I was told to use my best judgement
b) I'm not about to try and take somebody's personal property from them without explicit permission from the university that says I'm allowed to do this
c) Time is important. We have a 15 minute turn around window at the end of each exam before the next group comes in. Take into account the time I need to sort papers by up to 5 different lecturers, make sure everyone has signed their exam, and collect the papers from those still there - this window usually shrinks to something between 5 and 10 minutes, and I wasn't about to make that smaller yesterday having discussions about posting to Instagram.
d) I was told to use my best judgement.

The head of HR decided she would 'let me off with a warning' and everyone seemed to think this had resolved the situation nicely.

Except me. I asked her what I was being warned for. Got some bullshit reply that said nothing. I asked again, a little louder. Was told to control myself and keep my voice down. No specific reply about the nature of my warning.

I asked again - quietly - what the warning was for. Mumbled responses from what I could make out about my 'attitude'.

I told them if this was an official warning then I would expect to see the paperwork, and if they're warning me about my conduct in the examination room, then I'm going to take it further because none of them were in there with me, so it's a bullshit warning to placate angry parents. If they're warning me about my conduct in the interview I just had, this was an entirely different matter and not at all related to why we had the meeting.

HR lady went very red in the face and left the room. My boss got a message via text a few minutes later that I'm on probation now.

I told him I expect to see this in writing as well.

Germans (sorry German bros - you know this is true) cannot admit to making mistakes. The HR woman made a few and wasn't able to handle me exposing them.

Not sure what to do now but at least I still have my job (and the course assessments from the students were finalised today and all 7 of the classes I teach are the 7 most popular courses the uni offers - for the 8th semester in a row - so I'm feeling pretty good about that).

Don't want to turn this into a soap opera - thanks for reading. I'm out.

Sounds like you owned her badly and she probably does not lift or even work out much.

[El Diablo Blanco]

You should have smacked her in the ass and called her cookie.

[Roast Beef Pecs]

As soon as you used "uni" you were a fucking asshole.

[harmankardon1]

As soon as you used "uni" you were a fucking asshole.

What uni did Marky Mark go to?

[harmankardon1]

Thanks guys for the advice and support. Just got finished in a meeting with HR and my boss. Still have my job - but I'm on probation for 6 months.

HR wanted to know why I didn't do what some of you said and just confiscate her phone.

I replied that ..
a) I was told to use my best judgement
b) I'm not about to try and take somebody's personal property from them without explicit permission from the university that says I'm allowed to do this
c) Time is important. We have a 15 minute turn around window at the end of each exam before the next group comes in. Take into account the time I need to sort papers by up to 5 different lecturers, make sure everyone has signed their exam, and collect the papers from those still there - this window usually shrinks to something between 5 and 10 minutes, and I wasn't about to make that smaller yesterday having discussions about posting to Instagram.
d) I was told to use my best judgement.

The head of HR decided she would 'let me off with a warning' and everyone seemed to think this had resolved the situation nicely.

Except me. I asked her what I was being warned for. Got some bullshit reply that said nothing. I asked again, a little louder. Was told to control myself and keep my voice down. No specific reply about the nature of my warning.

I asked again - quietly - what the warning was for. Mumbled responses from what I could make out about my 'attitude'.

I told them if this was an official warning then I would expect to see the paperwork, and if they're warning me about my conduct in the examination room, then I'm going to take it further because none of them were in there with me, so it's a bullshit warning to placate angry parents. If they're warning me about my conduct in the interview I just had, this was an entirely different matter and not at all related to why we had the meeting.

HR lady went very red in the face and left the room. My boss got a message via text a few minutes later that I'm on probation now.

I told him I expect to see this in writing as well.

Germans (sorry German bros - you know this is true) cannot admit to making mistakes. The HR woman made a few and wasn't able to handle me exposing them.

Not sure what to do now but at least I still have my job (and the course assessments from the students were finalised today and all 7 of the classes I teach are the 7 most popular courses the uni offers - for the 8th semester in a row - so I'm feeling pretty good about that).

Don't want to turn this into a soap opera - thanks for reading. I'm out.

This is a disgrace... Fuck them, good on yah for standing your ground...

[rocket]

Perhaps you should let the HR lady off with a warning, yourself

She'd probably burst if you did that.