Teaching- any other jobs that make you cry regularly?

Working for the council. If the public don't make you cry, the management will.

Veterinary. Most days I see a colleague cry or reach a breaking point.

And we have so many posters on this site badgering/cajoling/bribing their children to pass their exams and setting total store by education - for what? ...... to finish up in jobs that are so stressful they make you cry.

The world is crazy.

@Kittyfur - you really can't imagine why being a GP would make you cry?

I am a health care provider and I always smile and chat to our receptionists. They take so much shit from the public.

(I am never late to my clinics, though)

I certainly don’t cry at work, I have a pretty low stress job, but solidarity to anyone who is in a customer service role. I had a few of them while at uni and it was awful, so many customers being dicks, and if anyone submitted any kind of complaint then the managers’ view was always very much “the customer is always right”, they weren’t interested in hearing the other side of the story. Even on the one occasion where my side of the story was “well I wasn’t at work that day so clearly it’s not referring to me”.

My last customer service job was a shift manager in a cinema, and the complex manager was such a bully. I used to wake up in the night with palpitations thinking “oh no, the tills didn’t balance, I’m gonna be in sooo much trouble” and then in realised, f* this. I’m getting paid about $1 an hour more than minimum wage. So not worth it.

City lawyer. Hated it. Terrible unpredictable hours, very stressful, very boring mostly.

I’m still a lawyer but moved firms, do a 9-5, and no longer do client-facing work - huge improvement.

Though I’d love not to go back after maternity leave…

I should add: parenting small children. Maternity leave. That has made me cry a lot but I do have PND.

I think our society has made many jobs far more stressful than they need to be. Too many American-style performance reviews etc, all of which absorb time and change nothing about the quality of the work people do. If someone isn’t performing, you generally know. If you don’t know without a performance review then it raises other questions.

Teaching in the U.K. does have impossibly high expectations though, so it’s not your fault. Teachers are not just there to teach a course, they are also expected to be able to demonstrate that they differentiate all the time so that every child has been given precisely the right level of scaffolding or stretch. They are expected to ensure every lesson caters for a wide range of learning styles and is ‘fun’ even when the content is necessary and dry. They are expected to know every child well when they teach 200 a week. They are expected to recognise signs of abuse or other safeguarding concerns when they see them in a class of 30 for 40 minutes, sandwiched between other classes of 30. They are expected to maintain good behaviour at all times without any school behaviour management structures or parents willing to accept that their child might not always be perfect. And they are expected to endlessly redesign courses to incorporate the latest educational trend. In no other job are you effectively on stage performing with all day, whilst also having to juggle all those things.

I haven’t cried in teaching since PGCE (I’m mid career now). But PGCE was so terrible that I decided never to work in a state school again, so.

yes you are always definitely replaceable. I always thought if you worked hard and honestly then you would be valued and would progress. But no, in my case the firm did not care about any of that- they just wanted their money. One of the equity partners bought herself a new maserati the year I left. I worked out that with all the unpaid overtime I was earning about £3 an hour. Like a PP I also came from the charity sector originally and I never actually out-earned my middle-management role in the charity sector. Even now as a part time office admin my hourly wage is higher than being a solicitor.

Why do you have to fill out the forms if you’ve been there before? You don’t have to do that at my GP surgery or dentist.

Owning your own business. Literally any business and you will defo cry a lot

@Whosaidthattt and other teachers, have you seen the Life After Teaching page on fb?
It's quite enlightening.
I left teaching as I couldn't do it all. I was so tired, so much planning, marking, assessment, reporting... and little seemed to benefit the children.

I’m a teacher and I’ve got upset at school twice in the last 12 months - once because of how the head spoke to me, once because of the overwhelming pressure I felt from Some of the parents.

Pre-children I cried fairly often at work and at home about work. Then I went on maternity leave and realised you work as hard as you do and then you’re replaceable! I try to have more of a detachment from work now.

This is so appreciated. And maybe it shouldn’t be the way but it you’re kind and polite to the receptionist, we will go the extra mile to help you. Obviously we try to help everyone and give the best service possible but for those who don’t treat us like utter shit, we will bend the rules to try and get you seen sooner.

Lawyer. Constant.

Another Social Worker here.
I love my job because I know i make a huge difference to the kids I work with. However I cry regularly, work 14hr days frequently, the expectations and responsibilities are just huge. I can be all over the country regularly. Paperwork and emails are just too much - I get on average 50-60 emails a day and have to log on late at night so i can go through them with no interruptions. Emergencies and fire fighting every day, threats and abuse (I've been followed), so much court work, meetings after meetings, having to make the right decisions and constant fear if you don't.
I work regularly with lots and lots of schools and without exception they all say to me "I couldn't do your job" Luckily I have the best team and best manager who are so supportive.

Yep, corporate law made me cry regularly too. I found myself sobbing on the Tube once (I hadn’t even noticed I was doing it!) and a lovely stranger sat and chatted to me.

It shouldn’t be that stressful, nothing we do compares to the importance of eg social worker, doctor etc.. but the pressure is just so intense.

My mum was dying (weeks to live) and I asked to be able to work from home (I lived 2 hours from the office) to be told that wasn’t possible but I would be permitted to work core hours I.e. I could leave at 530. I was SO grateful for this, this seemed so generous to me.. it was only after my mum died and I got through the grieving process and suddenly thought “WTF?” And actually my boss was lovely and I’m still in touch with her, but such was the mentality.

I am now self employed and work full time from home.. will never earn the crazy money I was on track for but on the plus side I can make every single school concert and don’t have to ask anyone’s permission to take an hour off.

Yes, this was my experience too.
The toxicity and being pitted against your colleagues is difficult to put into words but it is so damaging to your wellbeing. I found that I was working all the hours but also had severe anxiety about work when I wasn’t working. It was very lonely with little collaboration between colleagues. I still have bad dreams about past legal jobs.

Really sad reading though this thread as jobs being mentioned (nursing/midwifery/medical, teaching, social work etc…) are, in my opinion, the cornerstone of our society. These aren’t jobs, they are vocations - we need more support for people in these roles - they shouldn’t be feeling like this.
@Gill123789 this is a kind comment and I am going to sound critical of you when I really don't want to be. However I don't think that society viewing these jobs as vocations helps. It's a line that can be trotted out by the unscrupulous (not you, I'm absolutely not saying that!) to excuse horrible working conditions.

Another lawyer who regularly cries here!

Criminal justice working with ex prisoners etc.
Like those who work in social work have said, most of the time it’s utterly heartbreaking. The majority of prisoners have had traumatic and tragic upbringings, and have then gone on to do awful things to others. So it takes an emotional toll.

The rest of the time it’s super stressful as workloads are astronomical.

If every job is making you cry though it indicates you are the issue rather than the job and you need to look at a different career

Yes, because that's easy.

Maybe everyone just needs to be a bit kinder to one another? Shouting at your lawyer or your kid's teacher or your GP because they aren't doing exactly what you want when you want it shouldn't be acceptable.

I am mid 60s and in the 80s/early 90s worked on sales/trading floors in American Investment banks. They were tough but I never cried. Certainly 12 hour days, minimum, every day.

For the last 20 years, quasi public sector having retrained. More like 10 hour days. It's quite a tough job but I've never cried. There was one period when the director was vile but they only lasted for a year. Some colleagues do get stressed but I sense they have overstretched themselves intellectually or financially.

I'd never have done a job that made me deeply unhappy - but I've always had the ability to leave if necessary which I never have without another job.

DH was commercial/corporate but a barrister. He worked 14 hour days for decades and loved it. However, clients were unfailingly nice to him - otherwise he wouldn't have accepted their work. Occasionally he worked for an a'hole client but usually quoted a triple fee. He was able to be quite picky by his early 40s.

DD and DS are both in education and are loving it. DD is not working silly hours and evidently loves the paperwork - secondary; DS is thriving and says being able to research and publish is paid for metaphorically by his teaching (HE). Neither understand the meal some colleagues make over prep and marking.

One thing DH and I find hugely helpful is having a dedicated work phone. It provides a divide and means you only see the messages come in when you elect to do so.