To be mildly irritated by most tiring job ever?

[brasty]

A friend who is a teacher has been saying how exhausted she is, and that only other teachers would understand. She is not joking. AIBU to be mildly irritated by this? Yes teachers do a hard job, but there are other jobs that are also exhausting.

the majority couldn't hack the real world

And there I was, all snug, thinking my imaginary teaching job was exhausting me. Good job I've got ignoramuses on MN to show me the way to The Real World!

Most teachers have had other jobs. I worked in The Real World before teaching, it wasn't for me

There seems to be a competitive streak through many threads on here about aspects of people's jobs.
I've lost count of the number of posts about stressful jobs - any job can be stressful at times, surely? Being at home with the kids can be stressful. Why do people need to state this?
And I think the tiredness is just the same.

Add into that the fact that we are individuals who will react differently to given situations then the whole competition side of it is ridiculous.

Am in a family of teachers / educators and get totally sick of hearing
a) hardest job in creation
b) no one appreciates them
c) how much extra they do etc etc...
The amount they put on social media about the end of the summer holidays and going back to work being brutal etc etc
They drive me wild as they also think they know everything......

Is there ANY other profession that is so regularly ripped to shreds on MN?

Seriously? Is there?

Not on MN. But online social workers are ripped to shreds far more.

I taught for a while years ago and it was the most tiring job I've ever had - I had to lie down when I came home until I adjusted to the demands. It's not that physically tiring, but emotionally, it wipes you out. All the children need full emotional engagement all day. You simply cannot switch off and I think there are enough critical posts about pretty minor events in school resulting in parents being almost incoherent with outrage to demonstrate that you just cannot let yourself be careless in a single word.

Also, you get every bug going.

To be fair Boundaries, I think the reason teachers are ripped to shreds so much is because they constantly moan about their pay, pension and working conditions. I remember not so long ago a MNetter posting smugly "if you can read this, thank your teacher". My response was "if you are alive to read this, thank your nurse", which was intended as sarcastic and to point out that yes teaching is massively important, as are other occupations. The poster took my comment at face value and lectured me on how I wouldn't be a nurse if I couldn't read. Women have been midwives since the beginning of time, before reading was even invented.

My point is, the attitude of some teachers can be very hierarchical, and that gets people's backs up.

Also, teachers are in the real world far more than most. Every social problem you can imagine, every kind of need, a teacher has to deal with it. There are children whose situations keep you awake at night and stories that just make you want to cry on the spot.

Saying it is the most tiring job you ever had, is simply accurate. The most tiring job I have had is counselling in the NHS - 6 hours a day of 1-1 counselling when you can of course not switch off for a minute, and endless paperwork. I still doubt it is the most tiring job ever.

Do they?

I might be missing them, but I've never seen a post started by a teacher complaining about any of that stuff. I see do see teachers getting v defensive when attacked.

I think there are good teachers and bad teachers, moany teachers and positive rays of sunshine. I know that the education system is on its knees (alongside the rest of the public sector) and would colllapse without the goodwill of staff.

brasty what do you do? You haven't said yet?
I also think we are all rising to the bait here. It is a very tiring job, but there are loads of positive things about the job. I do think as a profession we need to moan less to outsiders as there is almost no sympathy. Just save it for the staffroom.
I think people are defensive because the population of the UK seem to be quite anti-teacher. There are so many negative threads on here. Many more so than against other professions.

Teaching was tough. Social worker was tougher, but more enjoyable. Counciling abuse survivors much more tiring. Being a sahp to care for our disabled children- fuck of alot harder and challenging and more physically tiring and more emotionally exhausting than any previous work (which includes when they were little and didn't have any diagnosis).

It's all relative at the end of the day, and it depends on so many individual factors.

So no you are not being unreasonable.

holidaysaregreat again that might be due to the hierarchal attitude of some teachers, there is no fire without fuel.

I'm not sure what you means by hierarchical?

Do you mean they think they are superior, that the profession is better than others?

Some teachers don't help themselves gain any sympathy tbh. If it gets to the stage where I am moaning to all and sundry then it is time to get out and do something different. I can't see me doing the job until 67.

Yes boundaries, that their profession is the most important one, and other people don't teach because they are not capable.

It does puzzle me when people say that teachers know nothing about 'the real world'. Im not sure you can get more 'real world' than being a teacher and seeing the unutterable barrage of shite that some children have to deal with in their lives.

Slightly off topic but when Jo Cox was murdered, one of DH's friends commented that he was surprised that she had only worked in the charity sector before becoming an MP so didn't have much experience of the real world.

I was like, who has more 'real world' experience - someone who has worked for oxfam/Barnardo's/nspcc and all that entails, or someone who was born into privilege, went to a top school and therefore uni, got a job in a bank due to daddy's connection and then became an MP?

It pisses me off when people in the VIPrivate sector think that any sort of public sector or non profit profession isnt a 'proper job'.

whattheseithakasmean

So its only relevant when you say it?

that is a crock of shit.

Lots of teachers have worked in zero hour contracts, not all teachers are "straight from school to school"
and teachers also have long term caring commitments, what makes you think that they don't.

Boney sorry, I cannot follow your post - could you explain please?

I am simple contending that, whilst some teachers may find their job tiring, it is not, objectively, the most tiring job out there.

For the record, I have a lovely job that I don't fine remotely tiring or stressful. If I did, I would change profession. As my DH did - he became a teacher and loves it (and I try not to get too irked when I leave him slumbering in bed during his endless holidays )

People who object to teachers' holidays - what do you think should happen instead? Should they all go in during the holidays and practise teaching to empty rooms? (Some do use a few days of the holiday, of course, to prepare/tidy classrooms, mark books, etc.)

Worth pointing out again - because someone mentioned it, but it hasn't really sunk in by the look of it - that teachers are not paid for the holidays. A teaching salary may be split into 12 chunks for ease of admin, but it's actually based on 195 working days. If the summer holidays were to be shortened to, say, 4 weeks, one off at each end, then all teaching salaries would need to be re-assessed to reflect 215 days, not 195. Ten extra days for every full-time teacher in every school. Imagine the huge cost implications.

Most teachers, to be honest, admit that their holidays are pretty good, but why shouldn't they be? Many other decent graduate jobs come with "perks" (company car, bonuses etc.). There are none of these things in teaching, so why deny them the one great thing they do get?

195 working days for £24k starting? So the pay is better than most thought? I thought that only applied to TAs?

I don't want teachers not to get their holidays. But no there are plenty of graduate jobs that come with no perks. What perks do you think social workers get?

NQTs outside London get £22.5k

Schools have holidays because the kids need the break, not the teachers. If the kids aren't in, there's no point in the teachers being in.

Well, I'm not sure how TAs are paid, but a teaching salary is meant to reflect 195 "contact" days. Of course, most of them do far more than this.

The pay isn't terrible, but neither is it up there with law, medicine, accountancy, etc., when you look at people who have been doing it for 5-10 years. (Teaching strikes in the 80s tended to be about pay, from what I remember, but these days they're more about conditions and micro-management.)