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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

To leave my professional career for a low paid job?

185 replies

raininginbaltimore · 18/01/2013 20:39

I'm a teacher. Been teaching for 8 years, I'm a Headnof department for a small dept in secondary school.

I have bipolar disorder, diagnosed two years ago an have just had my second dc. As a family we have had a rough few months, I've been in a mother and baby unit and dd has been ill. I cannot face going back to work. Teaching just doesn't seem doable anymore. I can go back 4 days, but nothing less. I can't move schools as I am too expensive, and not many local jobs.

I am so exhausted with the job. I have been made aware of a job in a local charity. Two days a week, much lower salary etc. however after childcare costs etc we wouldn't be much worse off.

Has anyone done this?

OP posts:
BlackholesAndRevelations · 19/01/2013 11:15

*gradings, not headings. Stupid autocorrect

Fakebook · 19/01/2013 11:18

Nebulous, Fakebook, how would the pupils know or be affected?

That's the problem. Ofcourse children don't know if their teacher is unhappy. They wouldn't know they're not being taught happily. I would ask how well an unhappy teacher would teach. I'm not a teacher, but even I have experienced with dd that if I teach her things when I'm happy she understands better. If I teach her when I'm stressed, she gets confused, bored and doesn't listen. If I was teaching 30 children something whilst stressed it wouldn't be a good outcome.

specialsubject · 19/01/2013 11:18

YES. Go for it.

just stop wasting money on the fripperies; makeup, Sky, mobile internet, contract phones, unnecessary shoes and clothes. Stuff for kids can all be second hand.

With more time you'll be able to shop for food more wisely, will be able to spend time reducing your bills and can spend more time having fun with the kids.

BunFagFreddie · 19/01/2013 11:18

Someone told me the the other day that teaching has the highest suicise rate of any profession. I don't know if this is true though. They hate teaching and feel totally shafted by the gubberment right now.

breatheslowly · 19/01/2013 11:18

I retrained as a professional in a higher paying career, so it doesn't have to be a permanent pay cut.

Fakebook - poor pupils for losing some great teachers. The teachers who feel like that are burnt out, but in my experience are channelling their energies into not letting their pupils down and sacrificing a lot of their personal life to do so. There aren't hoards of excellent, unemployed teachers braying at the door to teach the pupils instead, if only the teacher with difficulties would step aside.

People get stuck in teaching as they have to pay the mortgage and feed their children (probably like many other professions).

Fakebook · 19/01/2013 11:19

Erm. Don't tell me to fuck off when I'm voicing my opinion. Really low to swear at someone like that. Hmm.

TheNebulousBoojum · 19/01/2013 11:20

I could say the same about parenting, Fakebook.
How many parents give 100% of their energy and life to ensure that their children are as well-parented as they could possibly be, learning to grow into the best citizens and humans they are capable of being?
Not enough of you, that's for sure.

TheNebulousBoojum · 19/01/2013 11:21

Dunno about suicide rates, but along with doctors there is a lot of ADs and alcohol in the lives of many professionals.

breatheslowly · 19/01/2013 11:23

Part of the problem is that teachers are expected to give 100% to teaching leaving 0% for everything else.

MissAnnersley · 19/01/2013 11:24

I would leave if I could. It's not the children or being in the classroom it's everything else that goes along side it.

If I could get out I could.

And I say that as someone who absolutely loves being in a classroom.

You should do it.

MissAnnersley · 19/01/2013 11:25

If I could get out I would.

TheNebulousBoojum · 19/01/2013 11:25
Smile I think that calculation makes yo a high level 3.
TheNebulousBoojum · 19/01/2013 11:26

What defines a good teacher tends to change every few years though.
Although the paperwork increases by around 20% a year at least.
Rose V Gove anyone?

BunFagFreddie · 19/01/2013 11:26

In all honesty I think a lot of jobs are stressful now. Thanks to the recession, a lot of employers have taken the stance that you're lucky to have a job. They are paying less, treating people worse and expecting people to be grateful because there a loads of people who could do that job.

We're going backwards ffs. Even people on min waged are getting completely milked dry, for a poxy six quid an hour.

Yet the government wants to errode worker's rights even more. I thought teaching was one of the last safe professions for life. Apparently not so anymore.

emsyj · 19/01/2013 11:28

"Hmm, now you're all messing up my tentative plans. I'm thinking of giving up being a lawyer which is very stressful and not at all family friendly.....to teach!!!"

I know soooo many lawyers who say, 'I'm going to do this for 5 years and then be a teacher'. I think it's a common perception within the legal profession that teaching is 'naice' and non-stressful, with lots of holidays. Having never been a teacher, I can't comment on what it's like, but I have been a lawyer and I can highly recommend a move to the civil service.

I now work (not as a lawyer - I did look at joining as a lawyer but didn't fancy the work) for a government department and it's great - totally family friendly (you can even do term time only working...), stress-free and no chargeable hours. It's so lovely getting up in the morning and not feeling a grip of panic at the thought of another day. It is less money, but it's still ok money and of course the pension is better than anything on offer in private practice. Does the bureaucracy get a bit frustrating? Of course, but I can put up with that 100% if it means I can stroll out of the office at 4.45pm every day to pick up DD.

BunFagFreddie · 19/01/2013 11:28

breatheslowly. You'll find that nearly all employers want you to give 100% to their job and really don't care if you have 0% left for yourself. They all want their pound of flesh!

If you find good employers stick with them.

TheNebulousBoojum · 19/01/2013 11:29

So, the consensus from those of us with direct experience of what you are asking seems to be run and live OP. Smile
Good luck.

BlackholesAndRevelations · 19/01/2013 11:31

You said it yourself. You're not a teacher. So your opinions aren't that useful really. I apologise for swearing at you but I thought your comment was incredibly insensitive. A few other posters have reinforced what I said; namely, that the dedication to the pupils is what is leaving us so worn down. There are teachers who are fine and dandy because they dont do much work out of school or in the holidays,, and their pupils are the ones who are suffering as they are rwceiving the bare minimum of an education, and schemes of work that have been around as long as I have.

Phineyj · 19/01/2013 11:34

Op, just to say that your teaching pension will still be there, even if you stop teaching. You won't lose what you've paid into it so far. I am a teacher, worked in the NHS for a while and also freelanced, paying into a stakeholder to cover the periods when I was working for myself. I reckon when I retire and pull the various bits of pension together it will be doable.

theoriginalandbestrookie · 19/01/2013 11:36

Agree with bunfag.

I am not a teacher and work in banking but I find my profession to be soul destroying and to expect people to work extra hours, pick up emails and voice mails in holidays and the evenings etc etc. Most professions try to suck the life blood out of their employees when a recession is on, it's called being efficient.

I have taken the drop in salary and grade and now find my job manageable. I enjoy the perks of having a final salary pension ( although gawd knows how long that will last for) and getting paid if I'm off sick ( although I never am)

I have no doubt that teaching is an incredibly hard profession and I'm full of admiration for DS's teachers who seem amazingly dedicated and hard-working. However lets not get stuck into this mindset that teaching is the hardest profession in the world, its somewhat irksome for those of us who aren't teachers and even more so I would imagine for say a nurse who is on a lower salary, mixed shifts which make it almost impossible to plan child care around and doesn't even enjoy the benefit of having school holidays off.

Definitely agree that OP should go for charity job though - sounds like a great option.

BunFagFreddie · 19/01/2013 11:45

To be honest theoriginalandbestrookie , all my jobs have been with employers like that. I've worked in design and I've had to work extremely long hours and it's often a thankless job. The people I worked for were arseholes.

I've tried finding a job for a naice company where I get a pension and all that fancy stuff, but to no avail. I now freelance and work my arse off, because DP is only temping and I'm sharting my pants about our financial situation. Oh how I dream of someone giving me a pension!

susanann · 19/01/2013 11:47

Is it worth asking again, things may have changed. I think you sound like you would be much happier leaving tbh. Good luck with whatever you decide to do.

MissAnnersley · 19/01/2013 11:48

Where has anybody said it's the hardest profession in the world?

The OP is a teacher. She has been given advice by some teachers who agree that if they had the opportunity to leave they would.

theoriginalandbestrookie · 19/01/2013 11:49

Bunfag it's really funny when I talk to the twenty and thirty somethings who ask why I didn't take VR last year when I don't really like my job so much.

I explain about the final pension and their eyes cloud over because they can't really understand the concept of getting old and needing money to retire.

I don't think many people find the perfect solution but I figure once you are at the stage when you spend Sunday night tossing and turning and are throwing up on Monday morning because you are so worried about the week ( I have been there) then it's time to change things.

countrykitten · 19/01/2013 11:51

I am a teacher and know where you are coming from. I say go for it - it sounds like you know it's the right thing anyway - and be happy. Life is too short to be unhappy and I have worked in schools where I have been at rock bottom - it's not a nice place to be. Have a change!