To quit my job because I am crap at it

[crapatwork]

Is it unreasonable to quit for these reasons?

Probably not. But I feel I am useless at work and I feel like a fraud taking money for a job I'm rubbish at

OP, you are not crap. You are really, really not.

If you are a teacher, then you have a degree and a postgraduate certificate. You are caring for, teaching, supporting, mentoring and guiding a large group of children day in day out. Someone who is 'crap' and 'not very bright' wouldn't last five minutes doing that.

I can highly recommend supply teaching. I quit my permanent post last year due to stress and pressure (Special Measures, 5 Ofsteds in a year, unbearable scrutiny, 100s of emails a day). I began supply in Sept. On supply, you feel welcomed, appreciated and like a special visitor in a school. The staff want to make a good impression and you can leave the job at 3-4pm and go home and not give it a second thought.

You're most probably not crap at your job. So many of us think we are!

FWIW I'm quite successful at a very competitive job and I'm pretty certain I actually suck. Luckily for me, my bosses disagree.

IME, the people who are really crap at their job tend to think that they're bloody brilliant and doing stellar work. The top ten on my list of useless employees all do.

Google the Dunning-Kruger-effect and Imposter syndrome. Might ring a bell?

Which bit is the problem?

You're probably not. I feel so sorry for teachers right now, it must be incredibly hard.

I almost always feel like I'm terrible at my job. Some of it is anxiety, and a touch of imposter syndrome. I try to focus on the things I do well, and bear in the mind that I've never worked with anyone who is brilliant at every single element of their job.

It's such a shame. I just knew you were a teacher from your first post. Any other job - if you can do bits of it well and other bits not so well - you'd be asking for further training at your PDR or looking for promotion into the areas you're best at, leaving the other bits for others to do.

Teaching is the only job (and I've done a few) where you are expected to be impossibly perfect at everything all the time and if you aren't so good at some bits you are made to feel like a total failure as a human being (which you are not.) The secret that SLTs, Ofsted, parents and other teachers don't tell you is that they are all crap at bits too. They are just better at bluffing their way through.

Anyway, if you think you could love the job except for this one bit then it might be worth working on that bit before quitting.Schools need people like you. If the bit is too big or mportant or you feel you wont ever enjoy the job because of the bit then come and join the happy band of ex - teachers. It's not worth your mental health.

Oh, poor you.

I bet you're not all that crap, and I bet you've given it your best shot. Maybe it's just not for you.

I'm pretty good at my job generally but still fret every day that everyone thinks I'm shit. And I don't get feedback from my manager at all (not a single 1-2-1 in 12 months) so don't really know anything for sure. I'm a manager and jack of all trades whereas my team are all specialists in their own area - when they're away I can cover all of them except one, which is deeply complex and which I honestly cannot grasp. I feel like I'm falling off a cliff whenever she's away, and everyone's laughing at me.

I'm just struggling with the kids. I don't think they like me.

Teaching is not a popularity contest and actually the kids liking you is not the most important bit at the beginning. The kids learning is actually what matters. Usually one follws the other and children start to like the teachers that they learn most from.

The cool 'down with the kids' teachers who have fun fun fun can sometimes end up earning little respect, discipline goes out the window and everyone ends up miserable.

If you can teach - actual getting of stuff into actual brains with actual behaviour management happening so learning isn't disrupted then you're doing well. Liking you will happen naturally with time as the children start respecting you.

Agree - it's not a popularity contest. As long as you're firm but fair, kind to them and show an interest in their lives/views, have some lighthearted fun with them (where appropriate) and help them learn and make progress, no one can expect much more.
Not much light-hearted fun chez clam today though. Hideous fussing and nonsense all round.

I bet you aren't crap but kids do pick up on a teacher's lack of confidence and,if they're teenagers, will be merciless. I still feel haunted by being told I was inadequate by a sexist fuckwit who just didn't like me from day one. I really wasn't but I didn't have a thick enough skin. I'm not weak or over-sensitive but I have noticed that a dash of arrogance goes down well if you want to climb the greasy pole

It sounds like your MH might be suffering. The building is on fire - you are not unreasonable to head for the fire exit.

I think I've pretty much decided to leave in the summer, anyway! I should not have gone back into teaching, I am shit.

Op I suspect if you get out and look back in a year you'll be amazed at how you ever doubted yourself.
it's not you. BIt rhe job clearly isn't the right fit.
I had a job where I never did anything right. Left and got (to some extent) the job I'm currently in. From the minute I walked in the door and met our administrator I felt I fitted in. I've never looked back. I get asked to do stuff, I do it, people are on the whole happy.I'm trusted and respected. There's nothing like it.

Fair enough. Can't comment if you're shit but I bet you're not , but you do sound bloody miserable.

I left teaching and never regretted going. Good luck.

I knew you were a teacher too. I never went into it after dreaming of doing it from an early age. I sometimes wonder if I should have a try at it after all but then I see what is happening to the poor teachers in my secondary where I am support staff - they literally can't do right for doing wrong, both from SLT and ofsted (recent ofsted inspection.)

I would have made a great teacher years ago but know that it is far too demanding a job these days and I wouldn't be able to give it the blood that they seem to want. I have a life, I have a family. If I wanted to be a perfect teacher, those parts of my life would suffer. Work-life balance as a teacher was doable pre-national curriculum and ofsted, but it is non-existent these days. One of them has to give, and my kids come before anyone else's.

So you're not crap - you've just come to the realisation before some others in your school that what you're being asked to do is actually ridiculous when it boils down to it.

If you love most of the aspects of teaching, ignore the bureaucracy crap and concentrate on enjoying the pupils.

It's a real shame you feel this way, but life is too short to spend it doing something that clearly makes you feel shit, so if you don't have to do it (financially) and you have other options, then I think you're right to leave.

It depends. sounds stupid but I have a horrible class (I teach secondary) and they are so awful, I dread teaching them so much.

There are some lovely ones but I feel bad as I don't get to teach them properly. The others are awful. Never bring pens, if I give them a pen they take it apart and trash it, rip pages out of their books and throw paper around, argue with me, take pictures of each other and - grr. Frustrating. I don't think I've taught them anything all year The lovely ones deserve better.

What support are you getting from the SLT re: their behaviour?
(not suggesting you should stay, but you'll still have to soldier on until July and I'd be wanting some backup if I were you).

YANBU I think you should quit and do a different job that you feel better about.

Never tell SLT you are struggling, rule no1, non negotiable, do not pass go.

I do not need capability 'support' :)

Go supply, and from there look for a better paying job.
Seriously, I have more than enough work as supply, if the students don't behave I rigourously apply the BFL and get them removed (not my results, not my arse/PRP), and I leave at 3.30 with nothing more to do. No marking, no planning, no phoning parents, no meetings, no parents evenings, no extra curricular, no data.

Unfortunately supply doesn't suit me or I would!

Why no marking, Susan? And who plans the lessons you get paid for delivering?

Clam - I do daily supply. So I turn up and hopefully the work is sellotapeD to the desk somewhere. Either the normal teacher plans, or the HOD.
5 different lessons, often not my subject - the class teacher will mark it on my return. Which is part of the reason I normally struggled in when I was a permanent permanent teacher and ill myself as actually it's less work to be in and poorly, than have to think up 5 lots of cover work a non specialist can do, and then mark it all on your return.

Supply pay is pretty low though on the other hand.

And you do have to deal with students attitudes that a supply lesson means a muck around lesson. But that is why I am rigourous with BFL and make an example early on....

I'd be extremely pissed off if I returned to work after illness and found a pile of un-marked work. It's made clear to visiting supply teachers by the SLT that they are to mark what they cover.