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?

Since a good way of dealing with stress is supposed to be talking about it rather than bottling it up, are you saying that you think teachers are actually better equipped to deal with stress than other professions, EcoCalc? A frightening number of doctors and lawyers deal with their stress through alcohol and drug abuse. Remember that next time you need an operation...

Teachers have always ranked fairly highly for stress. When completing Life Insurance and Critical illness Cover it comes up.

I was initially a secondary school teacher and i got out after about 10 years. For my own sanity and mental health I had to leave. I would be in tears on my way to work knowing I had to go. I initially enjoyed it but the second school i taught at broke me. I was verbally assaulted every day, as were pretty much every other teacher there, and I was of a number who were physically assaulted - mine by a 13y teenage boy whist heavily pregnant. Management at that school was dreadful. There was no support, and you were told not to speak about it outside - dh wanted to the it higher but I just want out. That time I just went on early mat leave a couple of weeks later. I did return after mat leave but not for long really, and very much PT. Nothing had improved.

I left and worked in a male adult prison where I felt safer and happier. I know have returned to teaching to an extent - as a HLTA and in an infant school which I adore and have done for the past 10 years. But I would never return to secondary school teaching ever!

DH was luckily really supportive and I left without another job to go to. I was also fortunate to secure a new job within a couple of weeks, out of secondary school teaching.

Whilst teachers don't have the monopoly on stressful work in the slightest they do have a large proportion of society, including the media, who pull the profession down constantly and there is little empathy

• just comments of how many holidays, short working days of 9-3, etc.
• everyone has been to school so everyone thinks they know what the role of a teacher is.
• there are also many people out there who do not really value education, not have any respect for teaching staff
• series of governments who make changes constantly, and never let new initiatives have time to settle and improve

- but when things do improve, such as exam results, it's never down to teachers and pupils working harder and more effectively - no, it is because exams are too easy. You can't win!

All that has a massive negative contribution.

None of the issues are new either. I left around 13 years ago. In so many ways it feels like nothing has changed.

PurpleDaisies unfortunately I know this (ex teacher) and it’s happeneing at the same time that kids lives are getting more difficult with the long term impact of austerity and new exams.

We are currently in a situation where people are waving the profession in high numbers. There has to be a reason. It really is time to stop kicking teaching staff and start working out what is going wrong - look at the root causes, not just try and bribe more people in with bursaries and them also leave within a short time period.

And yes, other professions definitely have high stress levels. It isn't a competition.

I have no idea if teaching is more stressful than other jobs, haven't tried the other jobs.

When I went to get a mortgage, talking to the mortgage advisor and being offered illness cover they wouldn't insure a teacher against mental health issues.

They were right not to, as it turned out....

OP, the fact that you would read an article about a teacher who was so stressed she considered suicide, and focus on the points you have made, says more about you than anything else.

I'm a teacher. I am very resilient. That hasn't stopped me finding the job extremely stressful. I haven't worked in any other profession, so I have no idea whether there are jobs that are more or equally stressful, but I'm sure there are.

If thousands of teachers across the country are saying the same thing, and teachers are leaving the profession in droves, does it matter whether it is the MOST stressful job or not?

PurpleDaises, the 'we' is myself and other parents I know in the same situation as me, and that's a lot of people.

It definitely got to the stage where I was really considering crashing my car. Every day I was given a longer and longer list of stuff that I needed to do. Lesson planning and resourcing was taking a couple of hours per lesson and was never good enough. We were guilt tripped by the school that if we didn't work ourselves to the bone, if we didn't push ourselves to the limit, that our children would die 9 years younger than the children at another local school. It was a dreadful thing to put on us and every time we 'failed' at anything that would be bought up. I had been ill with dreadful arthritis where I was having to ring my mum in the morning to get her to help me out of bed and dress me and I still went to school because I was so worried about letting the children down. Eventually it all began to fall apart in my teaching and the response from my school was to have another teacher tell me that I was in trouble and I would be having an 'unpleasant meeting' in a weeks time. The meeting was a telling off and being told that I would have every lesson plan scrutinised and every lesson observed. I cried more that week and weekend than I have at any other time. I honestly wanted to crash my car and end it all. In the end I was physically unable to even go to school on Monday and was diagnosed with stress and anxiety and was off school for 7 weeks. I quit that job and decided to do supply for a bit to see if that was what teaching was like or if it can be different and have now found a job in a school where I am trusted, where the workload is heavy but manageable and the stress is there, but manageable too.

I became a primary teacher after banking, civil service, management consulting and being a sales & marketing director of a big international company. There'd been pressure, all night working, lots of travel etc in all but the first.

What's different about teaching is that it is responsibility without power, combined with a high proportion of non-discretionary time. Bodily functions do get contorted to the school day. You can't take five minutes to book an appointment as your breaks are completely consumed by dealing with children, photocopier wrangling, being on duty or running a club. This is not just 8:45-3, but factor in compulsory staff and team meetings and extra curricular and these are long days being effectively pinned to a place. And I know that is true for many many other jobs: the difference is that while you're pinned there, you are acutely aware of the other work that is being generated... the marking, the need to change planning, the need to completely rethink the way you were going to do something because your headteacher has a new vision, the need to make extra resources to support all of these changes. Factor in the negligible amount of time you get for meaningful discussion with fellow professionals (some schools simply can't timetable teachers to be out of class together) and it can be very lonely.

I don't think there is a personality type in teaching, but I do think that many people with the potential to be really brilliant teachers experience huge stress because they are all too aware of where they are not being as effective as they could because of the pressures and/or the pointless initiatives and paperwork. They either burn out trying to be fabulous in spite of all the crap, or they become disillusioned and overly self-critical.

And in how many other professions can a career be ended by the subjective judgement of someone watching them work for 20 minutes. That sounds dramatic, but an underconfident headteacher, charged with taking action after a poor Ofsted, will more often than not prove their 'relentless drive to raise standards' by hounding the perceived weakest link until they leave. There is no real way to challenge observation feedback and results at primary level are so nebulous there is little to draw on objectively to defend oneself.

So, not more stressful than air traffic control, or bring a paramedic, or taking a penalty at the World Cup. But underneath the iceberg of the visible parts of the job, for five days a week, seven or eight weeks in a row, it is pretty crushing. Fantastic highs to compensate, but sometimes not enough.

I worked in a sixth form and the students weren't the problem - generally they were lovely. It's the constant scrutiny that's really stressful. Also the need to get a grade C at GCSE student up to a grade A or B at A level - anyone knows that's hardly likely to happen, but the pressure is on you to make it happen.

And in my college the managers didn't teach and (I know this from a friend who was secretary to someone high up in the college) would have meetings where they'd talk about how lazy the staff were - she said it was a regular thing they'd talk about, while they sat there eating biscuits and drinking coffee, while all the lazy teachers were teaching.

And the observations were so personal - as a friend was told, "Just because your students attend every lesson on time, and just because they rate you really highly, and just because your grades are really good (much higher than expected given their entry grades) it does not make you a good teacher."

So what does, then?

It’s definitely not a competition, and I think it depends on your personality.

I work at a senior level as a manager with peers who do the same role. I handle stress better than my colleague (she’s constantly commenting on it) It’s simply that she has a different personality type. Even if she did the least stressful job you could find she would still try and panic over something.

However, there are of course many roles that have life changing elements in them (doctors/nurses for one, social workers) I wouldn’t handle that kind of pressure or stress as easily as I handle my job (I work in advertising) because my job isn’t really that important! It’s not life or death.

Teaching is life changing in some way, as you are partly responsible for nurishing young people and like a lot of public service roles there is so much bullshit and politics. But I would have thought it’s not the same intense pressure a doctor in a A&E dept faces daily.

I'm a teacher and agree it can be stressful at times.

The number of hours I work each week is ridiculous. But I am an NQT in a single form entry school with no previous planning to use so therefore am planning almost every lesson from scratch.

But to me having to make decisions and carry out procedures that could end / save a life sounds far more stressful.

I know boney

Ive not got a cobb on honestly, and i dont mind her saying it..ive barely got a job and believe me i wouldnt be able to cope with the levels of stress a teacher has

That must be exacerbated by wanting to do the best for the children and effectively being handcuffed by the government

It can be a very stressful job (ex teacher) but it is not necessarily any more stressful than other jobs. In my family and friends circle I currently know 5 teachers. What I've noticed is that personality types plays a huge part. 3 of those people are very laid back, naturally positive, pragmatic etc and when asked have said they don't feel stressed. They only take the bare minimum of work home in the evening and don't spend any of the school holidays in school. The other 2 friends are much more sensitive, more conscientious (imo) and really want to get it right. They seem stressed a lot. I left teaching because I would say that I fell into the 2nd category. I like to do things well and if I couldn't do my best with all the constraints then I'd rather leave! That was 13 years ago and I do think teacher stress has generally increased. I continue to with in education so I am in schools everyday and although I still love the idea of teaching (especially at Christmas!) I know the reality is very different!

What a goady thread, with an OP that has sodded off

mummyshark That rings true. I remember a teacher on MN saying how much time she was spending on the weekends on classroom displays, and it was clear that she would always be working long hours whatever the demands of the job.

@EcoCalc

I'm wondering what is going on in your life that you read the article as some sort of competition?

For those that want to see/hear/watch the original article, it's here www.bbc.co.uk/news/av/uk-england-hampshire-46738445/a-teacher-s-story-eat-sleep-teach-repeat

What is the situation with teachers unions? Teachers in the UK seem to be in an intolerable situation. I often see the news reports saying 'head of teachers union says teachers are leaving in huge numbers' etc but not much more than that. Do they ever threaten to only work their classroom hours? Not complete their paperwork? Concentrate on the actual teaching? Just to make a point.

Or is there a reason why that's not possible?

Lots of jobs are stressful, teaching being one of them.

treacle Teaching unions have had a work to rule instruction for years. The problem with that is that teaching rules include the instruction to do as many hours as necessary to discharge professional duties.

And when we went on strike, the public were not with us. So teachers are leaving instead.

TrotEsio, the last school I worked in as a ft class teacher required me to plan in the same level of detail as the NQT I was mentoring, for every lesson. Because the headteacher liked paperwork and thought the more she nailed her teachers down with observations, learning walks, book scrutinies, marking expectations and paperwork, the better a head she was.
That’s one of the major differences as a supply. You get a wonderful, birds-eye view of many places, and can see what is necessary and what is monomania and that the same outcome can be achieved in different ways. The best, most effective and happiest schools don’t break their staff or their children doing it.

noblegiraffe do you think the general public don't support teachers concerns. Or is it that as soon as you say the word 'strike' they suddenly see their free childcare for the day disappear and that's when the sympathy stops?

It would be a pain for me if teachers went on strike (although I'm in N Ireland where teachers are treated far better and there are far more teachers than jobs) but I'd still support them because I don't think people go on strike lightly.

I read an interesting book - I think it was called the status syndrome. Anyway, it had a lot about work stress and did a comparison of the factory owner and the factory line staff during a time the factory was making redundancies. It started with the assumption that the owner should be more stressed but the factory staff had more stress and had higher cortisol (this may be remembered a bit inaccurately it was a while ago - but the gist is there)

there was a lot about how people view you in the pecking order impacts on your stress levels which would be relevant to teachers as it is a 'low status' job compared to a doctor.

There was also a lot about being in control and feeling you can have a say over your destiny. So the factory owner knew what was happening, could shape it and so on, and that was less stressful than turning up each day with not control. I think this would be relevant to teachers in that they don't have a lot of control over they way the profession goes, the targets and even the curriculum can change with a new education minister. I know gcse teachers who were teaching courses without the curriculum being finished for instance. They are held to account for pupil progress even though progress isn't linear and they have no control if a pupil starts taking drugs etc.

Its got to feel very different to being held to account for your own project that you designed and implemented (my pre-children job)

I'm a teacher. I find my job stressful - as do lots of other people (all jobs are stressful in their own way). But what I also find stressful is constantly hearing or reading about how I think I'm more stressed than others when I've never said that and nor have any teachers I know.
It's hard being in a professional that a significant amount of people resent and openly criticise when you went into said profession to help people.
I know mn is generally very supportive of teachers but I still can't my head around why so many people want to take us down.

A lot of “very stressful” jobs are also rather better paid than teaching, which helps as you can buy in more help to minimise stress in other parts of your life.