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.

I think it's completely normal to moan about working Christmas Day when you have a young child, regardless of your profession? I don't, however, moan about the amount of unpaid overtime I do, or my normal working pattern. Therein lies the difference.

Yes, but do you have to constantly defend your job against people who just think (and will tell you) that you are a lazy scrounger. I honestly think that people think that teachers rock up, pull a few lessons out of their arse and go home again. I often get genuine wide eyed puzzlement if i tell someone i have work to do at the weekend, people cannot fathom what i night be doing. Do people tell you that anyone can be a nurse, or cast aspersions on your profession even though they have absolutely no idea what your role involves?

Yeah cos none of the rest of us have to do that in our jobs

But do the general public think that you spend your days colouring in, even though you actually work really hard?

I have said it before, but when I have had an utterly crap time at work, the final kick in the teeth is that the general perception of my job is that it's a piece of piss. If the profession was in anyway respected, it would make all the bullshit a bit easier to bear!

The public perception of lots of hard going jobs can be pretty negative, social workers are baby snatchers, health visitors are interfering busybodies, doctors have a cushty job with a huge salary, cleaners are skivies, many jobs are seen as below people or not what people would want their children to do.

Wouldn't say the public perception of my job (in the police force) is particularly positive, but if it bothered me that much I'd leave.

If your job is so miserable that you feel the need to constantly one-up others in the "tired" and "exhausted and "difficult" stakes, then find a different job. Bloody hell.

Namechange I'm a police despatcher. Have to listen to 5 channels for my entire shift so potentially 5 voices in my ear simultaneously and i have to pick out which is relevant to me. I have a shit load of decisions to make and juggle several things at once. I have to be 100% alert even at 4am. So no not just teachers understand mental tiredness

Yes, but do you have to constantly defend your job against people who just think (and will tell you) that you are a lazy scrounger.

As a mental health nurse I often get comments that I'm not a "real" nurse and all I do is sit around drinking cups of tea all day. I just laugh and tell them to watch The Secret Life of Prisons. They quickly change their mind.

You would think the public have a better understanding of teaching, particularly after Educating Essex and other documentaries. Maybe I've got a better feel for it because my in laws are a family of teachers? I am empathic and truly believe teaching is gruelling. But I do find it frustrating when my in laws complain of exhaustion after I've had a shift of complete chaos. In the first 4 months of my job I have lost 8kg in weight, from the sheer running around and half the time I'm so exhausted I don't eat dinner.

I think the main difference is when asked about my role, I make a joke of the long shifts and always sell my job to others. I'm proud to do what I do, it seems not many teachers are proud of their jobs? Maybe a different tact is needed in order to draw sympathy from the public, rather than complaining? I see many HCP bashing threads on here, and I generally just ignore them. Life is too short.

And yes absolutely I have people with no qualifications telling me my job can't be that hard, people self diagnosing themselves with all manner of illnesses etc. I just smile and nod.

Teaching IS very exhausting, mentally first and foremost. You need to give out enormous amount of energy to teach. It is like 10 times your normal job effort. And people who have never taught just can't fathom this fact, they think it is your ordinary job like any other. I have done a few roles over the years and nothing comes even close to the mental demands of teaching. I now tutor and to be quite frank, after 5 lessons, I am completely and utterly spent. I am so tired, I do not want to see and speak to anybody (and I have not even started on the unseen preparation and marking part of the job).

And I am doing the easier one-to-one teaching. Your friend is NBU. In fact, we should treasure and admire those people who are willing to do the job, because I wouldn't, no way, for the pay they offer for the effort. Even with the "holidays".

redglitter working all day whilst listening to my radio has got to be one of the hardest parts of my job I reckon. 5 channels?!?!? That sounds horrid. At least I only have one! And I struggle even signing in and out of that one correctly

Oh and I'm not trying a my jobs harder than yours. I wouldn't be a teacher for anything but no profession has a monopoly on tiredness etc it's ridiculous to say no one else understands. We each have aspects of our jobs that others wouldn't want

Meh, many jobs have their stresses. Don't judge til you've done it yourself IMHO. I don't for a minute think that being a primary school teacher is easy, but nor is being responsible for 55 people with dementia and all the things that go with that.

I think the main difference is when asked about my role, I make a joke of the long shifts and always sell my job to others

As do I, and many of my colleagues. I think the dealing with any profession as a homogeneous block is problematic.

Not all teachers are whinge, not all MH nurses are positive rays of sunshine.

Maybe, actually, we should agree that people whinging is the problem, regardless of which job they are doing it about? And people making sweeping generalisation about jobs they have no real idea about should also probably shh.

Boundaries I think we can agree with that point. I also agree that not all mental health nurses are pleasant, you get twats working in all roles, we are no different!

I have been a teacher and I agree it IS more exhausting than one would imagine. That's why I chose to leave and change careers. Suggest she does the same if it's affecting her quality of life, or tries to reduce her hours/ workload somehow.

Yay!

I don't mean yay for twats.

But yay for agreement.

YANBU. Teachers can bore right off. And take nurses with them.

shakey - ok!

Good luck with education and the NHS!

There's always common ground somewhere! I'm sure I dislike Gov as much as you too It better be somewhere hot if you are taking me away!

It's definitely not fair to generalise. I have a former friend - former because she's a moany faced glass half empty torn faced coo - who's a teacher. She constantly moans about her work load. How she's up at 0530 every morning because she HAS to be at school for 0730, never leaves before 6pm and works til 11pm every night she's teaching primary 1 for the 5th year running.

Conversely I have a friend who's husband is also a teacher. She loves that one of them can always drop their children at nursery and pick them up. She loves that they're both home at tea time every night and that they have such great holidays.

You'd never believe the 2 of them did the same job

ShakyMilk if you can read this, thank your teacher. If you are healthy, thank your nurse. Now bore off!

FruitCider

I have done many jobs, some harder than others, some more exhausting than others.

I wouldn't compare them to each other, because IMHO opinion that would be stupid.

I also wouldn't say that 'x' job is a easy because I heard something on the radio or read it in the daily mail.

I couldn't for instance tell you how hard a nurse works or what its like in a call centre.

I can tell you from experience that nigh shifts are nasty to get over and that that the public are a bunch of arseholes to deal with because I have had experience of both.

Teaching is hard, but I (and others) have never said that its the hardest job in the world because that would be stupid.

As for the OP part of being a friend is listening to them moan, whether its about jobs, relationships, children, cars or the next door neighbour. If you can't do that, then get different friends.

Boney I appreciate your reply. I have no personal experience of teaching, and it's not a career that interests me. My current job is the hardest one I have ever done, in terms of mental fatigue and physical exhaustion. I also think having a young child doesn't help and wonder how much that adds to the tiredness! All I know for certain is, I will not be doing this job at 68...

FruitCider

I couldn't do you job.

I empathise and sympathise with all the rubbish that goes with what you do, and I respect you (and all nurses) for what you do.

I thought the Seychelles, Fruit

We can bond over a cocktail and a mutual loathing of funding decisions by people who have as little idea as Shakey

*shaky