Teaching- any other jobs that make you cry regularly?

Residential social work/care with teenagers. I very rarely cry but colleagues do, aside from the horrific backgrounds we have to read about to prepare, in the last week I have had colleagues called a cunt many times each day, been assaulted, had furniture thrown at them, someone was pushed down the stairs, someone was head butted, another broke their finger, and a few females were sexually assaulted and indecently exposed to. That’s just off the top of my head in the last week! Not all in one home (I’m a manager now) but within my LA. Needless to say, staff turnover is high and recruitment very difficult. I’ve also fantasised about illness (haven’t been off sick for over 15 years) or accidents that won’t have a lasting impact but would give me a few weeks guilt free rest. If I just stayed off sick the guilt of others having to do my work would make it worse.

What a ridiculous comment. GPs can simultaneously find their work stressful and busy but also be allowed to scroll mumsnet in their time off. We do let them have days off sometimes, wild concept I know.

From my experience law does not get better the more senior you get, the pressures just change. I will be doing everything I can to dissuade my DS from going into law - not that he’s likely to do it anyway.

Therein lies the crux of the matter, I'm afraid. People, in general, are impatient, self-centred and rude, in a way that was just not acceptable even as recently as five or ten years ago. I've worked in my current primary school for 15 years and the change in the way we are spoken to and treated (by parents AND pupils) now is honestly staggering.

@CinnamonJellyBeans i wouldn’t say don’t go into corporate law. There aren’t that many jobs that will pay you a six figure salary straight out of school. Rather, go into corporate law with your eyes wide open and fully appreciating that there’s no such thing as a free lunch.

Gives an insight into the sort of shit GPs have to put up with doesn’t it? The lack of understanding that they aren’t at work 24/7 because no one is. Not expected to have a life outside of their job.

Yep: moral of the thread, don't go into corporate law. The lack of sleep will kill you.

I think a lot of the very stressful jobs described here have very long hours and give a rubbish work-life balance. We should be more like the French and strike for shorter working hours. It makes a world of difference to have a couple of extra hours in the day when you're not at work (they mostly use it to think about eating, cook and sit at the table, but imagine all the useful stuff we could do!).

I genuinely believe the UK culture of long hours is the root of a lot of our obesity, screen reliance, poor mental health and poor parenting. We are not a lazy and stupid society, just massively overworked. We must stop accepting this way of life.

I also worked as a TA for a few years & like you felt a lot of admiration for the teachers and definitely wouldn’t have wanted to do their job despite it being better paid (& I have a degree so could have done a PGCE).

People don’t realise how extremely rude a lot of pupils can be to teachers and apparently some parents are even worse! My upmost sympathy to everyone feeling stress on this thread - especially the teachers and healthcare workers.

Depending on whether you need a high wage or just a job you enjoy, have you thought about becoming a Foster carer?
Experienced Foster carers who enjoy working with young people with SEND are in huge demand. You could really make a difference with your experience there, however it may not work at this stage of life depending on your finances.

@Britneyfan @Matsukaze @LunaTheCat

Thank you for being GPs. I am forever grateful to mine. She was the one who spotted that I was living with domestic abuse.

Just wanted to say how fantastic GPs are because they often get a bad rep.

The partners. The hours. The culture. Please don’t worry though, i didn’t mean to worry anyone, this was a long time ago, they will be more progressive and enlightened now. Also I just didn’t fit in. Your son will be fine I’m sure

Thank you for what you do. You have my full sympathies. I go to the GP a lot due to chronic health conditions. I'm also autistic with the typical autistic strong sense of fairness and justice. Nothing winds me up more that sitting in the waiting room listening to other patients being rude to the receptionists. They are nice people and don't deserve it. By the time I get to see the GP, I am often quite upset due to this.

I was going to say law but see that lots beat me to it. It gets better though the more senior you are and you start to understand why your seniors behaved the way they did.

'We value the wrong things and the wrong jobs in our society and clapping for NHS workers and shitting on them at the same time is criminal.'

Very well said ❤️

I think remaining curious and connected to what you do helps you cope in a way too. Because if you’ve had enough and feel like you’re dying inside, you do know and that makes you feel shit too doesn’t it.

There has to be a balance and even with the most supportive team, manager etc people still break.

If people in these jobs aren’t having really good and meaningful management and clinical supervision, that needs to change and it should be separate IMO.

It’s amazing how many people I meet who barely have supervision at all. I know someone who works in a DA refuge and has never had a session with a clinical supervisor despite the secondary trauma they are exposed to every single day.

We value the wrong things and the wrong jobs in our society and clapping for NHS workers and shitting on them at the same time is criminal.

Sorry that turned into a bit of a rant.

I wonder if Keir Starmer is more stressed as PM than as a lawyer. It certainly sounds like a good training ground!

Also explains why the likes of Raab think bullying is normal.

TeacherTapp fairly regularly asks whether teachers have either cried themselves or seen a colleague crying . It's pretty common as it goes.

I am sure you didn't mean to but your post sounds rather lacking in empathy.
Teaching is inherently stressful. Of course it is. Hence the retention issues. Any job that faces the public, especially inclined to be unruly ones, is stressful. There is a book out now where a man tours the UK asking people about different jobs. He finds an ex army officer who served in Afghanistan and then went into teaching and said it was without a doubt more stressful to teach.

I have been known to cry. Of course that is mainly to do with workload , criticism, scrutiny, or external stresses impacting . But I have also cried when kids have upset me or made me angry. Or when dreadful things have happened. Touch wood, it's been eight years since a pupil of mine has died .

Law in general is toxic IMO. Every legal job I've had had made me cry. No non-legal job has.

Corporate law - a low level paralegal job. I quit after 4 days, each of which had me in tears, with a very unpleasant boss with unrealistic demands who would shout at me when I left for the day because she got in at 6am and didn't leave until 10pm. That was my introduction to legal employers.

Employment law - training scheme, so much pressure. I missed my own leaving drinks (joint with others) because I had too much to do and was stuck in the office.

Criminal law
Paralegal & my boss would phone all my clients drunk and tell them they would be acquitted. Huge pressure for hours. Would put me in insane situations, like sending unaccompanied young women to the home of men accused of rape to take statements. One was accused of raping their previous legal rep... He wanted us to go to them, target than them come to our office to show them that we believed in them.

Criminal Bar - stupid hours, insane pressure and switching cases at last minute made me feel like I was constantly on shifting sands, only with people's futures at stake. Physical threats (one got arrested for trying to storm the building with a machete to get to me -I then escorted my male client to their car to ensure he stayed safe as 'friend' with another machete was still on the loose). Often dealing with drunk, aggressive, high, unstable and terrified individuals. In the Mags Court, going to see the victim in DV cases, who had put themselves through so much to be there, and I don't even know their name! Her trial is in an hour and I don't have papers yet.

Pouring your heart into a case and pulling all nighters to get prep done for it to be given to someone else and you get a new case land on you the night before. I went off on maternity after ending up in hospital with baby's heart rate going crazy - I was still reading my 4th set of papers that day because I'd been messed round so much.

Every social engagement for years having the caveat 'work dependent' with most being cancelled. Working on every holiday, including my honeymoon. Despite this, delayed payments and insane travel expenses would have me regularly bouncing between okish and at the bottom of my overdraft. I waited 2 years for some clients to pay me.

The 'average' income across all seniority is £45kish, but in the first few years often under £20k.

'Compassion fatigue! You get to the point where you a literally dying inside and this is expressed as coldness. You don’t mean to, but you are just so tired, run down, burnt out, it becomes an involuntary reaction'

Hard relate to this. I worked as an NHS clinician for a long time and ended up on my knees with burnout. Compassion fatigue was a huge part of it. People outside of healthcare or similar roles have no idea the toll it takes on you. I could write an essay on the many reasons why - we all could - and how much it eats away at you

That said, I do agree with the poster who said that it's a vicious cycle. Starting off cold, rude and unhelpful is not the way forward, and trying to get off on the right foot with patients or colleagues is part of the job

What a stupid and mean post.

I agree with this. I worked in education for many years and the only times I remember crying at school were when a pupil died. Thankfully, it didn’t happen often.

Parenting - and it's not even paid.....

Social work, especially the Child Protection sector. Regular abuse from families, secondary trauma, frustration with the lack of services to support, being involved with life changing decisions, hated by the media and a lot of the public, too many cases to deliver the quality of work we would want to despite working late every day.

Midwife - reduced to tears more than I'd care to admit🤦🏼‍♀️

NHS dentist.