Teaching- any other jobs that make you cry regularly?

Vet receptionist. Dealing with abusive people, abused animals, pig-ignorant people who shouldn't have pets, let alone kids, people that don't accept that animal health care costs, and costs a lot, and that it's not our fault that they have animals and don't have money. Dealing with people losing their beloved pets and companions, dealing with animals that have been dropped off to be euthanised by people who don't want to interrupt their day, or possibly be upset, by being with their pets in their final moments.

Being verbally abused, sometimes physically threatened, by irate customers. Having people attempt to abandon their animals at the counter.

This was me. Probably the same sweatshop - Wagamama’s with DH and back to work. Cried all the time and felt constantly stressed and afraid of making a mistake. Had a baby and became a support lawyer part time at another firm. So much happier (especially with the flexible working post-covid).

What strikes me, is it’s the public facing roles yet… we ARE the public!

If you’re reading this thread, and you’re a regular moaner, or you speak to your colleagues like crap, or you send tense emails thinking it’s ok. Stop.

Stop with the aggression, passive aggression, condescending, snippy, sarcastic, abrupt, ignorant, communication and just treat people with respect.

Manners and graciousness are a dying form and it’s really sad to see how many people cry regularly due to other people.

I was a teacher for over 25 years and used to buy tissues every week for the crying rooms - when they ran out we’d use toilet roll. I have cried twice due to work since leaving teaching - over three years ago.

I had an office job that made me cry every night. I sat opposite this dreadful loud and aggrsssive woman who was a complete bully. She was on a hair trigger, ranting and raving every day. She was super confident, very attractive looking, and so had the ( mostly male ) workforce wrapped round her finger.

She was so nasty to me, can't believe I hung in there tbh. I'd been out of work and temping for over a year and was just so desperate to have a job.

healthcare work. Carers, nurses, done both jobs and honestly the hardest job ever.

I used to work for a high street bank. Worst job I’ve ever had. Customers were vile. We were made by law to ask where money had come from, and to check were it was going to ensure they weren’t being scammed and it ended up in daily abuse. We then also had drug addicts and homeless on benefits who would come in and hurl abuse, throw chairs around, threaten to kill you because their benefits hadn’t come in or they had spent it all and we couldn’t give them more money.

I know people get really irritated when people in banks ask where there money is going and the usual response is ‘it’s my money, it’s none of your business’, but I would plead with anyone reading this, if you have that attitude please don’t take it out on the people working in the bank. We don’t want to ask you these questions, just as much as you don’t want to answer them, but we have to because we can be held legally responsible if we are deemed to have not taken steps to stop money laundering etc.

Retail - have to deal with rude entitled people daily

They’ve now sent their kids to boarding school ( for the very BEST education) because neither parent has time during the week to do any kid stuff, even with a housekeeper and nanny to hand.

Why on earth are we allowing this to happen? Highly trained professionals in tears, addicted, suicidal, sacrificing their children's young years and their happiness to meet the demands of selfish, money-hungry clients/bosses/politicians/bureaucrats with ice in their veins?
Many years ago I was a house parent and teacher in a "posh" boys' boarding school. My flat was the sanctuary for so many unhappy young men, a warm kitchen where they could get a cup of hot chocolate, a home-made biscuit, an icing bowl to scrape out, and could pour out their troubles. Some of the richest, best-connected and most famous would squirm if they knew what their sons had told me all those years ago about life at home. One, however, son of a highly regarded child psychiatrist, asked if I could adopt him. His parents had no time for him, and the holidays at their mansion, despite the tennis courts and swimming pools, were torture until he could come back to school.

Hospitality and retail makes you hate humanity.
Now on the admin side of our overly stretched NHS and m not much better. The entitlement of some individuals is shocking.

Foster carer. Dealing daily with traumatised children with not always the help available is soul destroying!

PR. Marketing. Management. Public affairs. It was all the people elements that made me cry on the regular - from a couple of bullying managers, to the enormous stress I felt every time I had to chair a meeting or lead a discussion, to the constant feeling of not knowing the rules when interacting with pretty much anyone in a corporate context.

Funny enough all my colleagues seemed to think I was highly capable, tactful and socially skilled. Meanwhile I felt total inexplicable panic most days. I am pretty sure I'm autistic and do a lot of masking, but haven't sought a diagnosis.

I now have an outdoor job where I'm mostly solo (with some pleasant, non-complex social contact with others too) and it's been an absolute revelation in how much better it suits me.

To be entirely fair, when I had urinary incontinence, due to bladder damage arising from a botched birth my GP refused to refer me on the NHS - 30 years ago.

A urinary specialist assessed the damage, recommended specialist physio until my family was complete (which helped enormously) and when I had finished breastfeeding my dd I had a surgical repair. The NHS didn't give a stuff, even though the issue was caused by an incompetent NHS midwife and as far as I am concerned the NHS shoukd have taken responsibility and should have rectifies the damage caused by a member of its staff. But they'd have had to have admitted fault for that. We didn't complain at the time BTW.

I appreciate the situation you are in. I appreciate my issue was not life threatening. What I don't appreciate is the lack of transparency and the tendency to blame the last government by doctors and NHS staff. Things weren't fab 30 years ago, they weren't fab under Blair (far from it except for the PFI's and shiny buildings).

I am aware that some LAs are not following the law and SEND CoP and not all Caseworker are dedicated to the role and I am unsure why they work in SEND.

I am annoyed and frustrated by those who are manipulating the system and treating SEND as though it comes with special privilege. That you have a right to demand what you want due to having SEND there is a right to a fair access to an adequate education. This is not what I was referring to though. The purpose of the tread was what was making you cry at work. How the behaviour of some parents and professionals is bullying and intimidating. Not a thread of how SEND policy is being manipulated, how there is not a distribution and recognition of fairness in SEND education.

It’s not that GPs won’t refer… it’s that there are very strict criteria about what will. E seen in hospital (secondary and tertiary services). For instance,whetf I work you are not going to be seen by a gynaecologist unless you are sudpected to have cancer.. so my referrals chronic pelvic pain, endometriosis,urinary incontinance are all declined. It’s absolutely awful.

Acute medicine, sort of like an a&e overflow with all the medical emergencies rather than the broken bones and cuts etc. So very very poorly patients, lots of sepsis, cancer, diabetic crises, but also lots of delirium, confused patients, violent patients, phych patients who can be a danger to themselves and others.

On top of this you have lots and lots of movement as it's only a short stay ward, so multiple admissions a shift (most I've seen is 14 in a 12 hour shift which is absolutely batshit). As well as demanding doctors, relatives, liaising with social services etc. It's very full on and not a shift goes by without some kind of abuse being directed towards us

Are you surprised though? LAs all over the country are ignoring the SEN code of practice and making illegal decisions. Of course parents are frustrated when their children is being denied a suitable education. No, they shouldn't be taking it out on you but the majority are at their limit, many suicidal because there is no accountability for the law-breaking the councils are doing. Repeated delay tactics to avoid paying even though they know they'll lose in tribunal but that 6 months of law-breaking saves a few quid.

It shouldn't be the educated/articulate parents "winning". All SEN children should be provided with the education they deserve without any need for parents to "shout the loudest". If councils just followed the law, it wouldn't be an issue.

Nursing does. It's a mixture of exhaustion and moral injury from being forced to provide care in a way that doesn't meet the staff's personal values.

Teacher Tappers are usually irritatingly positive actually!

With surveys like that, though it's a self-selecting sample who respond. People who are unhappy tend to want to talk about it; people who are happy don't bother, because they're too busy enjoying themselves.

I don't agree that teaching is inherently stressful more so than any other job. Being in front of children all day is emotionally and intellectually demanding, sure, but it shouldn't be stressful. It should be enjoyable. Teaching a subject you love to kids who you have built a good relationship with and get to see learning and growing over the course of the school year is a joy and a privilege and I certainly experience that joy on a day to day basis.

Teaching is only stressful when the management structures in place within a school allow it to become so. In a school with weak and inexperienced SLT, poor behaviour management systems, overworked and underpaid teachers, and far too high a ratio of inexperienced to experienced teachers - then teaching can be incredibly stressful. However, no more stressful than any other job in which those same issues - weak and inexperienced management, badly distributed workloads, and a majority of inexperienced staff who aren't getting the right support because there aren't enough experienced staff to help them. Teaching sadly is not unique in often providing a poor environment in which to do the job. However, we don't have to stay in schools that are poor environments in which to work, and if you as a teacher are regularly crying, you need to find a new school. Not all schools demand blood, sweat and tears of you. Mine doesn't, and I don't feel stressed by my work pretty much ever. It's demanding, sure, but it's not stressful.

I just get frustrated with the negative press teaching gets and teachers saying oh god it's awful, it's so stressful, I cry every night - it's no wonder we can't get anyone to train. It doesn't have to be that way and actually a lot of us are happy in our jobs. Not all schools are the same. Teaching itself is not the problem - it's how a school is run that provides the stress.

My most stressful job where I often did go to the toilet to cry was actually when I worked in a theatre pre-teaching. There was no money so we all had to do about three people's jobs, I hadn't had the right training to manage the backstage equipment but had to magically figure it all out by myself, and I had to deal with the egos and emotions of directors, producers and actors, all wanting me to fix something NOW otherwise their precious show was going to fall apart, all while a show was literally happening live and if anything went wrong 1000 people would know about it and want a refund. It's making me sweat just thinking about it now! Give me a classroom of teenagers any day, honestly.

Running your own business, particularly annoying staff that rely on you. It's never ending, takes over your whole life. I haven't slept properly in years.

One of the kids wants to go into law, is it all that awful? I had no idea!

The positive with law is its flexible. I have worked in all types of firm and in several really different fields and now for myself. It’s knowing when to quit that’s the key I think. Dh and I enjoyed some aspects of City law - interesting international people / travel with work / money. But you need to quit while you’re ahead. The tragedy of the lawyers women especially that gave everything up including marriage and children for a job that cared nothing for them and ditched them without a qualm. That was hard to witness.

Me three ❤️

Gosh, this thread has made me feel so grateful for my job!
Honestly, get a cushy middle-management role in the private sector! You’ll never look back!

Ofsted is not a factor.

It absolutely is with lots of heads. Not necessarily just how parents are dealt with but the expectations of workload.