Flexible hours at FLVS now simply mean that you work all the time. Florida teachers are considered exempt professionals, which means that according to state law, you can be required to work as many hours in as many days, without any breaks, holidays or weekends, as required by your employer. This is legal. FLVS takes full advantage of this, requiring teachers to be available 8am to 8pm, 7 days a week. They also pressure you to work up to 10pm. My supervisor actually yelled at me when I did not take a phone call on my wedding day, which was on a Sunday.
FLVS speaks with a forked tongue to employees, telling them to takes breaks, and spend time with family, then punishing when they do. If you want to use any of your annual leave days for a vacation, you must complete your normal workload (which is already overwhelming) plus your workload for the amount of time you want to leave. FLVS is focused on numbers and money despite constantly touting a "student centered decision" catchphrase. If teachers try to do something that would prevent them from answering the phone, such as eating dinner with their family, or going to a Friday night movie, the opportunity for a parent or student to call, and complain that the teacher is "not available" presents itself. This induces a state of constant panic in many teachers, who are told by administration to "not panic, and take time away", but then inconsistently threatened when they do.
I gave a lot to FLVS, but won't mention that list here, because people will then know who I am... only to end up in my last year with a bullying, abusive supervisor who undermined me at every opportunity. Unfortunately, by that time, FLVS had grown so large, that I was just another number. I had to leave this environment for my sanity, my family's functional health, and because I truly care about students, and grew tired of seeing them treated like cattle.
