To think that this is too many hours for one person to work!

[crazydashboard]

Teaching...this time of year...nightmare.

My working week:
Monday (Bank Hol): 10-7
Tuesday: 8-8
Wednesday:8-9
Thursday: 8-1(AM!)
Friday: 7-8

And in tomorrow 11-4!

Shattered doesn't cover it!

Goodness, I've just surprised myself by agreeing with Scottishmummy! Never happened before

I've never been paid overtime. Few salaried posts do pay overtime and only a rare few give you TOIL

I just don't understand what makes teachers feel they are so special and that they shouldn't have to work the same hours that other professions work.

I know teachers, I know social workers, I know lawyers, I know doctors, I know service and emergency service personnel and would honestly say out of all of those the teachers have by far and away the better work life balance, the better working conditions and the better pay conditions.

Perhaps the teachers I know though are just incredibly organised?

Metal - most people can't afford to work only 15 hours a week.

Normal-I agree totally. I know a lot of teachers too, and actually they would say the same.

I agree with Normal. I've never been paid overtime, and rarely get TOIL, and long hours are seen as the norm, particularly since we have had so many staff cuts, and can't recruit at the moment. A couple of my cousins are teachers, as is my SIL, and they all seem to have a reasonable life/work balance - OK not at this time of year, but they certainly don't seem to work all the holidays. And they teach GCSE and A level maths and physics, and one teaches MFL.

When the DDs were at primary, we used to get knocked down in the rush by the teachers leaving the premises at the end of the school day!

Artandco it very often, although not always depends on lifestyle choices.

It's not that I don't respect the job that teachers do, it's just I don't understand what they think elevates them above other difficult civil service professions. I work in the prison service which has seen savage cuts. Prison officers are working with some of the most dangerous volatile people in the country, with very high ratios of prisoners to staff. They do a dangerous, thankless job every day which the public doesn't value and the cuts have escaped public outrage. They also work very long shifts and have had pay cuts and pension rises. Think on teachers.

Metal - well say £10 an hr. £150 a week. If £20 an hour £300 a week. A crappy 1 bed flat in London is about £350 a week rent. Food/ bills etc on top. Doesn't work...

Hence you get many x2 parent families where both have to work 50/60+ hours a week. If min wage even more

As a nanny I often do a minimum of 12 hour days - 60 hour weeks.

Sounds like being self employed, all hours everyday.

Yes, it's a lot of hours and you must be tired. However, it is a particularly busy time of year for most teachers, I imagine. You are not working like that all the time and you do get excellent holidays which is a huge bonus.

To the posters that says doctors get paid a lot more for their trouble, that's not actually true. If you have a look, you would probably be surprised by the level of basic pay of a lot of doctors compared to other public servants (nurses, firefighters, etc). Also, I don't think you can compare the numbers of years of training, level of skill, level of risk and stress of the job of, say, a Consultant Cardiothoracic surgeon and a lot of these other jobs.
Apologies for the mini rant but a lot of people seem to think that all doctors get paid a similar salary to city lawyers, bankers, financiers, etc when it is far from the truth.

Then don't choose to live in London then! That is a lifestyle choice I was talking about. I have a dc who earns 25k a year. I earn £13k approx working 15 hours. we have purposely only took on a relatively small mortgage, don't do expensive holidays abroad and don't buy things we can't afford therefore not in debt apart from mortgage.I appreciate there are people in certain circumstances who both have to work full time but I have managed independently with a mortgage on 22.5 hours a week with some disposable income as well. I'm not lucky to only work part time, I set myself purposely up this way.

dh who earns 25k I meant!

Haha oh dear, well this turned into exactly what it wasn't intended to be! I wonder, had I not mentioned what I do, would this have been more lighthearted?!

No I don't think teachers have a monopoly on moaning, no I don't always moan, yes I understand we aren't in our usual working environment for 12 weeks of the year (it just moves to a desk elsewhere), yes I chose to do my job and I always knew it wouldn't be easy, yes I know it's not always quite as bad as this, yes I absolutely appreciate people work more hours in some professions, yes I totally respect the jobs other people do, yes I understand some people have it much much worse.

I don't know how I will do my job and be a mum at the same time, so I have a massive amount of respect for those that do.

I was just tired...that is all!
We don't need to 'outdo' each other on hours worked, it's just a shame that so many people I know (regardless of job) seem to be worse off on the work/life balance front.

Shame really, as my grandma always used to say: "On your deathbed you won't be wishing you spent more time working"

I get 13 weeks "holiday" plus at least a week inset days plus bank hols. Whilst I appreciate that you work some of that, I dont believe you work all/majority, and it's significantly more than most, even allowing full time work for more than half of 14 weeks.

You can't really lump INSET days with holiday and bank holidays - INSET days ARE working days. It means IN SErvice Training.

I know that but what I'm saying is teachers say they don't get lots of holidays. What I am saying is that they are not IN school for at least 14 weeks (assuming most bank hols are in school holidays) even if you work full time for half of that then that's still 7 weeks holiday which is a lot. Saying you work in your holidays is disingenuous unless you qualify how much.

Metal - for many the option is 60 hour weeks in work in London, or move and have no job. You can't just move. That's like me telling you to just move to remote Scottish island with 6 inhabitants. You can't just work there

I see what you mean. Any teacher saying that they don't get much holiday is deluded. However, a lot of that is unpaid holiday which IS different from other jobs. INSET days are always in school/at another school/in a training facility so you can't claim that there a 14 weeks "not in school" One of the great things about the job IMO is that there is flexibility in terms of WHEN some of the work can be done - so I can choose to walk out of school on the last day of the summer term and fly off on holiday the next day if I want to, and then fit the work in during the last couple of weeks of August. Or I can get it all out of the way in the first two weeks and then enjoy some totally free time with my family. The flip side is that there are other times (this week for example) where I am at the mercy of external forces like exam board deadlines. But then LOTS of jobs are like that.

What says it all to me tbh is MIL's reaction whenever she's here. When I get in at 7pm "why are you so late home, oh that's such a shame"; at Christmas when I go back to work before the DC go back to school "oh you haven't got to go to work have you"? And so it goes on - endless amazed comments about hours and normal holidays.

MIL was a middle school deputy head. She has absolutely no idea of life outside schools and regards all what she calls "office work" as typing letters, photocopying and filing.

I find the naivety shocking tbh.

You cant work like that week after week. I used to be a management consultant among other things so I know.

You can work like that for 1 - 2 weeks and many people do.

If it is just temporary, make a plan to have a recharge week where you just coast along doing the basics and getting to bed early.

scottishmummy too difficult to resist temptation to say: what holidays? Half terms don't actually exist, just catch up on work and marking. Summer hols is getting everything ready for next year, coursework, schemes of work, setting up and equipping dept

Summer holidays are SIX WEEKS long. You really need to be stricter with yourself. You should be able to get away for four of those weeks at least.

If I had no idea about teaching, I wouldn't say that, but because I taught for years I know you can and should be able to do that.

Other professions work a lot of their holidays too. Just felt the need to point that out.

I think it is fine. It is only 4 more hours than I work.

DH works 13 hour days 5 days a week, and more hours on Saturdays and Sundays, although not all day.

He is SE, so only takes a week off in the summer, and a week at Christmas. However he is working this hard to pay off our mortgage in the hope he can retire early.