I am an occupational therapist working in a small urban charter school. I’m planning on taking a step back after this school year to spend more time with family. I was chatting with the intervention specialist about upcoming IEPs and goals for next school year and casually asked if she was planning on coming back next school year. I let her know that I’m planning on spending a year off with my young children. I didn’t get any impression that the conversation made her uncomfortable and she didn’t say anything to me about it. I later got this email from the principal/ administrator (copied and pasted from my email, and I switched out my name with “OP”:
“Good morning OP and contract relationship manager,
I just wanted to point out that it was brought to my attention that OP felt it was necessary to talk to my employees about their intent to return to NAME OF SCHOOL including sharing her own for next year.
My employee said she did not feel comfortable with her asking that information, nor was it relevant to her what OP’s intentions are.
Please note, for the remainder of this school year, OP’s role is to provide services to students, classrooms, participate in ETR & IEP meetings, and conduct assessments as needed. Should OP overstep any boundaries, I will ask for immediate removal.
That type of personal invasion creates toxicity in the culture. It is not appreciated, nor accepted here. Please accept this as notice.
Thank you,”
TLDR: I had a conversation with a co-worker where I asked if she was planning on coming back next year and I told her that I wasn’t. I then received an email from my boss saying I was unprofessional and might get fired.