To sue Gove for ruining my back

[teacherinpain]

3 prolapsed discs

This is down to the crippling weight of paper work and marking I've had to lug round with me all day every day since Gove came to power. ( The hospital confirms this)

This will never heal

What if every single teacher who has been physically or mentally damaged by this mad man sued him personally for the results of his insanity.

[shockinglybadteacher]

Yeah, honestly, stresses are different. I have stressful moments in my current job, but I can also pee whenever I like.

On the pee scale:

Security - it's mostly boredom but when something goes wrong it goes wrong very quickly. Peeing is complex as you have to arrange with a fellow member of staff to take on the area you're guarding while you nip off to, er, take care of your lady areas.

Teaching - you end up holding your pee for ridiculous times. I have been desperate for a pee for half a day but had to teach classes. Prepare for infections.

Office job - no problem. I could pee 55 times a day and no one would complain. I need to go, I get up and walk along. The toilet is about 50 feet from where I sit.

I know which I prefer....

[AElfgifu]

You cant compare one day here and there with the endless weeks schools have off

sonlypuppyfat, you have no idea! it isn't one day here and there, at this time of year, it is 10+ weeks of every day, including throughout half term (which is a paid holiday) and the Easter holidays ( which is an unpaid holiday), often including the bank holidays too! I will sleep most of Saturday, work straight through Sunday and hardly have a conversation with DC for the whole of May or June!

I get about two weeks work free in the summer, but my staff at my school are back full time two weeks before my Dc school opens for pupils. I get a few days work free over Christmas. That's about it really, maybe one or two other days throughout the year.

Teachers hours are unlimited. There does need to be something done to limit them.

I'm having a "lunch break" now for half an hour, then straight back to work.

I'm sure other jobs are unfair too, but it doesn't make this any less unfair.

As soon as the Btec marks have been submitted, I'm going to look for another career.

[HumphreyCobbler]

Do you really not think that some jobs are more stressful than others?

I have managed an aromatherapy shop with no customers - NO stress!
I have worked behind an understaffed bar - HUGE stress.
Teaching - huge stress
Event managing - stressy but it stops a lot of the time

I bet A and E nurses are stressed. I bet GPs and social workers are stressed. Some jobs are really stressy but you get paid huge amounts to compensate, like some kinds of solicitors. My self employed husband is not stressed. All jobs are different ffs.

And just because some teachers have time to wee, that means all teachers do? It is really common to go all day without eating or weeing. Don't accuse teachers of lying when they say this, it is simply true. I am not whinging by the way, just establishing the facts.

[Happyringo]

I'm hiding this thread now I think as yet again it's descending into "4 Yorkshireman monty python you were lucky" style competitive "my job is hardest", as it so often does.

Most people have stress at work, I don't see why any profession thinks it has it worse than any other.

And just to add, I've never had a job where I can just get a drink or go for a wee when the urge takes me. And I'm not a teacher!

[Happyringo]

Well why do you need to wee at all, sounds like there's no time for a drink anyway! ;)

[BlameItOnTheMoonlight]

Break time - duty / needy tutor group kids
Lunch time - revision / catch-up / meetings
After school - meetings, clubs, parents blah blah blah.

I work in an international school so have nothing like the shitty conditions that I experienced in UK state schools, but the lack of wee time is the same.

[ComposHat]

Of course they don't have to wait 9 hours! My parents are both teachers and have never mentioned they haven't has 2 minutes to pee.

As for 99 per cent of other jobs brong able to pee whenever they have the urge? Don't be daft.

[Nancy66]

do teachers really have to wait 9 hours before they can piss?

you can go at break time can't you? At lunch time? Before class begins?

[AgathaF]

in 99% of other jobs you can go for a pee when you need to and don't suddenly realise as the kids are heading out of the door and you're crossing your legs and praying that you've not had the chance to piddle since 7am that morning - as an ex midwife, I can assure you that the lack of time or opportunity to pee is not unique to teaching.

I realise that teaching is a demanding job, but FFS, the constant bleating about conditions!

[Nomama]

AKeyFox - more rooms because the reason we move round so much is to ensure that no room is left unused - any institution's grading includes room utilisation (we mustn't waste tax payers money with empty rooms).

So I have to vacate/move so that a room is not sat unused for the 30 minutes or an hour until I would next use it.

Every lesson I and my team teach is in a different room. We move across the large campus, into all of the vocational areas, always moving, carrying, catching up. It is not an unusual situation, but the current funding restructuring is making that worse - more needs for more bums on seats to bring in the same amount of money = bigger class sizes, ergo more bumf to carry round!

[sonlypuppyfat]

[ilovesooty]

I don't teach any more. I'm on annual leave this morning, but thank you for your concern.

[sonlypuppyfat]

Haven't you got marking to do?

[ilovesooty]

And, according to you, the short days they work. It's serial teacher bashers like you who move teachers to defend themselves so much. Of course there are teachers who, like other workers, moan for the sake of it. Of course there are some teachers who lack awareness of the demands in other employment. However your comments are just straight from the ignorant "short days / long holidays/easy job/" Daily Mail readers comments mould.

[sonlypuppyfat]

You cant compare one day here and there with the endless weeks schools have off.

[ilovesooty]

Fair enough but of course nearly all bank holidays fall within the school holidays as well.

[Happyringo]

Not much more though to be fair - all full time employees are entitled to 28 days paid leave, this includes bank holidays. So, it's 4 weeks of holiday plus 8 days bank holiday.

[ilovesooty]

There's no point in trying to explain anything to posters like sonlypuppyfat

She has a low opinion of teachers and never misses an opportunity to say so.

I also don't understand why she persists in her assertion that "most people" only get four weeks holiday. The legal entitlement in the UK is more than that.

[AElfgifu]

sonlypuppyfat, just a few points, I have worked in care, in research, in retail, and in 4 different countries, so plenty of real life! I chose teaching as a permanent career because I love young people, and I love my subject, and I was under the mistaken impression that it was compatible with family life. I started work today at 7am. Since then I have worked constantly until 2am, excepting one 15 minute break waiting for a meeting to start, 1 hour travelling home, and one hour cooking and eating with the family. I'm relaxing a bit now , then will sleep until 5.30, when the alarm goes off. Not a short day! it isn't always this heavy, it is like this mid April/May/ end of June, when I have approx 200 btec students trying to organise/complete/ improve/catch up on work for their Btec portfolios. Yes, this includes Easter holiday, and half term.

I love teaching. Unfortunately the conditions in which we are working are unreasonable to the point of being insane and inhumane.

I have just quickly added up in my mind the colleagues who have worked in my department with me over the last 3 years. 18 people, not one has survived the last three years with their career, health and family intact. Everyone who hasn't left teaching , or gone part time to concentrate on other work, has had long term physical or mental health problems, caused by teaching, or family breakdown, or both.

It is insane. I'm not saying it doesn't happen to anyone else, or we get it worst. Its insane whoever is put into a position like this, what ever their career.

The answer has to be legally enforceable limits to working hours, in what ever sphere you are in.

[Geraldthegiraffe]

I think as a teacher I'd probably rather work in Australia, but as a parent I'm glad my children will be educated in England!

[Stopmithering]

I always thought Australian schools were like Heartbreak High

[echt]

It is an improvement, Stopmithering, though to be fair, there are those around who'd love to imitate the worst aspects of the UK educational system.

And Tony Abbott is hell-bent on destroying every last vestige of welfare in a way that rivals the present Uk government

[Feenie]

Every cloud.....

[ForalltheSaints]

I hope that the spat today gives David Cameron a reason to sack him. It would gain the Tories a lot of votes.