Are teachers really more stressed than anyone else?

[EcoCalc]

Stumbled across a news article with a teacher who said the stress was so bad she considered crashing her car just so she didn’t have to go to work. Iots of people on my Facebook feed agreeing that that was their experience.

Maybe I just don’t get it but surely teachers don’t have the monopoly on stress. I always get the impression that they feel their jobs are much worse than anyone else’s. Is it more that the personality type attracted to teaching isn’t necessarily equipped for the same levels of stress that lawyers or doctors have?

Just curious about people’s thoughts. Is teaching the MOST stressful thing in the world as it is being depicted as being?

I think we need to be careful not to make this a stress competition. I’m not a teacher, I’m a doctor. My job is extremely stressful.

But I’ve never been a teacher. I have no real understanding if the job. I see no reason why it couldn’t be equally stressful but in different ways.

It’s certainly not an award anyone wants to win.

I’m an ex teacher and according to my dr and many research studies it ranks just outside armed forces. Teachers are much higher sucide risk than the general population too.

If you look in the staffroom board or sometimes in Aibu you can easily see how it happens. Working 60/70 hours a week, under constant scurnity, pointless paperwork, being told your not good enough, never being able to get to the end of the list, poor behaviour, not support from SLT, your pay based on things largely out of your control, no down time durring the day, constant criticism from the world and his dog and a myriad of other things.

What is definitely true is there are fewer teachers joining than leaving with an increasing population and nothing is government policy is making things easier for teachers. I suspect it is going to get worse.

Teachers do tend to rank highly for stress. I'm not surprised at that article.

What I don't get is that teachers discuss being stressed and the response of 'but surely other people are too' and 'teachers think they have a monopoly on stress. It's not a weird competition.

Nobody says their teaching jobs are the worst stress on earth, but it can be very stressful (especially if you're not in a caring school).

Add in the bit about how teachers think their jobs are worth more, this seems like a subtle teacher bashing thread to me.

Is it more that the personality type attracted to teaching isn’t necessarily equipped for the same levels of stress that lawyers or doctors have

... what personality type would that be OP?

Try teaching- shadow a teacher for a while and see what you think.

BTW it's not teachers that say teaching is more stressful, they say it is stressful/hard and then others, like you, than make out teachers are saying they have the most stressful job ever and doctors etc. have it much worse....

Then teachers get hammered for saying it, even though they actually didn't!

Yes, many teachers are placed under an unbearable burden of stress. They do it as long as they can, then leave, break down or die. Those who are left sneer and think the lost ones weren’t as good as

I work in education (not as a teacher). I'm probably biased but I don't see it being presented as the single most stressful career going. People can say they find it extremely stressful but it doesn't mean they're saying no other profession carries the same or greater stress level. It's not a competition.

I love my job but I do find it stressful. I think there is probably some truth in what you say about personality types - I can only speak for me personally but the same traits that make me good at my job also mean I can worry a lot and struggle to switch off at times.

I haven't read the article, but from what you say she hasn't claimed 'a monopoly on stress,' but has just described her own experience. I'm not sure any of us can argue that her feelings are somehow invalid.

In terms of your point about the wrong kind of person being drawn to the profession, that maybe because of the way it (the profession) has been damaged by political ' initiatives'. People join because they are passionate about their subject and want to educate the young, but are caught up in some kind of rigged competition they can never win with constantly moving goal posts.

None of that means other professionals are not also stressed.

With family and friends as teachers and listening to them, I think it is a very stressful profession. I do also think that very few people went into teaching appreciating the kind of stresses they would face. Yes they knew that teaching a class of 30, planning and marking would be hard, but didn’t always appreciate the pressure from the lack of parental support for their children’s education, sometimes aggressive parents, parents with unreasonable expectations, lack of budget to be able to afford even basic resources etc.
I work in the city and that’s stressful and high pressure but I do think it’s a different kind of stress and I think most people go into that kind of career expecting it will be stressful and many thrive on that. It isn’t a competition though and they need support regardless.

EcoCalc

Its interesting how you have twisted one piece of information to fit what you think.

No teacher says that their job is the most stressful. They say that is is stressful.
No teacher says that teaching is the hardest job in the world. They say that the job is hard (and misunderstood)

No teacher is depicting what you are suggesting.
What you are suggesting is the usual Bullshit that various people put forward.

Who posted that? Not me.

... they are or they’d still be working. Outsiders sneer and think that teachers can’t be stressed. State education in the U.K. is a system built on bullying and lies. When you can win, even for a short time, it’s great. But it is always stressful.

My DH works with the emergency services in a response type role with responsibility for the safety of hundreds of thousands of people on a daily basis. DH used to be a teacher and left because it was so stressful, and now deals with literally life threatening situations but sleeps like a baby and his work rarely impacts his downtime when he’s off shift.

I’ve stuck out teaching full time for 11 years. Will I still be a teacher in 5 years time? Who knows. I don’t know why it’s so stressful, but if you watch that ‘school’ programme that was on BBC2 that gave a good idea.

I've also seen articles about the immense amount of stress linked to working for the NHS, law, intense graduate schemes. These articles are not just written about teachers, if you bother to regularly read the news.
Your point about personality type, considering the thousands of people who are currently teachers, seems fairly ignorant to be honest. Unfortunately, teaching seems to be one of the professions that the the general public feel more qualified to berate / pull apart .

Did it say "I'm very stressed", or "I'm more stressed than anyone else"?

Sounds like teacher bashing to me.

I'm a teacher. I'm also an ex probation officer (serious sexual and violent offenders), I worked in social care, I worked for the MOD, I worked as a 999 call handler.

Teaching is the most stressful job I have had, the pressure and responsibility. That doesn't mean I think it's THE most stressful.

I would make people who were considering teaching aware of the pressures though.

I don't think any teacher is claiming to have a monopoly on stress and it isn't helpful to set it up as a competition. Lots of jobs are stressful. However I was a teacher for eleven years and left last year - I was pushed to breaking point and had a very similar experience to the woman in the article. I was driving to school one morning and seriously considered crashing on purpose. I thought about my children, then I pulled over and sobbed. It was a turning point for me and I got out. Some schools have become toxic places and there is a mental health crisis in the profession.

It’s drpresdkng that you read that article and leapt to “well, other jobs are stressful too”.

Depressing^

Oh yes the ‘personality type’ you alluded to in a goady way? What type is that exactly-I’d be delighted for you to share your wisdom about what ‘personality type’ we all are.

Highly qualified? Passionate about our subjects? Dedicated? Keen to make a difference?

You seem to be implying that in a negative way, that we are weak or delicate, or we bring it on ourselves.

In my experience teachers are incredibly tough and resilient because you have to be.

Working 60/70 hours a week, under constant scurnity, pointless paperwork, being told your not good enough, never being able to get to the end of the list, poor behaviour, not support from SLT, your pay based on things largely out of your control, no down time durring the day, constant criticism from the world and his dog and a myriad of other things.

All of the above. Plus even an inability to pee during the day (on Monday’s I teach all day, with break duty and then intervention session at lunch so genuinely can’t pee or eat between 8:15 & 3:25). And parents are a huge factor - one example would be a parent who emails to check that I’ve taken in her son’s book every time because she still packs his bag and it triggers her anxiety to not be able to find it. One time I didn’t reply (because it was sent at 9pm), she sent a furious email to my HoD and Head explaining how grossly unsupportive I was and questioning my qualifications. I wish that that was the only example of insanity I had. And I get that anxiety is tough, but talk to your actual child or get them to pack their books!

I know a fair few teachers all of whom say the job can be stressful, which indeed it is

I do know a teacher convinced that hers is the most stressful job so unlkie boney i do think there are teachers that say that

But she is very much in a minority as most teachers just say that they are stressed and its a stressful job...which it absolutely is!!

Its a very difficult job, lots of external pressure

Many teachers agreeing that their experience is high levels of stress does not mean they think they have the monopoly on stress. It mean they think their profession is one that is stressful.

It’s the constant teacher bashing that doesn’t help - few other professions (except social workers) in the public sector get the same level of vitriol thrown at us as teachers.

Parents will be what drives me from the profession eventually - a large minority of them are a nightmare.

purple
Paraphrasing an article in a misleading fashion with no link to the original so people can read it themselves.
Maybe I'm cynical for all the claims of just being interetsed in people's thoughts, I doubt the thread was started to have a sympathetic discussion about an article. If it was then it would probably have been in staff room or education.

I think it's fairly insulting to suggest that the personality types drawn to teaching just aren't made of stern enough stuff.

Having said that, I think that the teachers I know who think that the stress of teaching far outstrips the stress of any other job are the ones who have never worked in any other job. The ones who have worked elsewhere before moving to teaching are the ones who understand that other jobs might have a different type of pressure but it's still pressure.