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.

Lots of jobs are exhausting. All the teachers I know acknowledge the holidays make up for the horrendous term times that can occur. I used to work in residential care with children with disabilities, lots of challenging behaviour leading to myself and colleagues being injured (as one pp asked who else is at risk of being physically attacked at work) often worked ten days on and shifts winning at 7am until 10.30pm. Our case work meant that work was down out of hours often, and as a senior I was also on call on a rota basis so even at home could expect to be contacted on an emergency. I thought that job was specific to the case; but turns out when I moved into community respite I still worked well over my hours, antisocial hours - less pay and far less holidays than a teacher. It turns out that if you care about the job you do - particularly with a vulnerable client group such as children - you tend to work your arse off. I don't think any one profession has the priority over every other in terms of hard working and exhausted staff members who are working themselves into the ground for the sake of doing the best job they can with stretched resources.

An oft-circulated 'fact' is that so many Teachers are leaving within 5 years of qualifying. I cast no assumptions here - but I think a balancing statistic would quantify how many of these 'within 5 year leavers' had also had children? I think then we might have a more realistic statistic or take on the situation. Do they leave teaching because of teaching or do they leave because of the work/baby dilemmas that all working women face.

DfE figures show that in the 12 months to November 2015 (the most recent year for which statistics are available) over 50,000 qualified teachers in England left the state sector. This equates to one in ten teachers leaving the profession and is the highest number of teachers leaving in the last decade. The number of teachers leaving as a proportion of the total number of teachers in service, known as the ‘wastage rate', is 10.6 per cent.4 The same figures reveal that more than 100,000 potential teachers have never taught, despite finishing their training.
In October 2016, the Government confirmed that nearly a third of teachers who joined the profession in 2010 had left teaching within five years. Of the 21,400 teachers who started working in English state schools in 2010, over 6,400 (30%) had quit by 2015.5
The DfE statistics also highlight the significant number of teaching posts that schools are not able to fill permanently; in November 2015 there were 730 teacher vacancies and 2,870 temporarily filled posts where a vacancy existed.

Link www.teachers.org.uk/edufacts/teacher-recruitment-and-retention

Same with social workers

PlanIsNoPlan

Are you disputing the 'Fact', or the cause of teachers leaving?

In October 2016, the Government confirmed that nearly a third of teachers who joined the profession in 2010 had left teaching within five years.

I still can't get my head around this statistic. It's just unbelievable and i don't know when the government are going to wake up and do something about it.

An oft-circulated 'fact' is that so many Teachers are leaving within 5 years of qualifying. I cast no assumptions here - but I think a balancing statistic would quantify how many of these 'within 5 year leavers' had also had children? I think then we might have a more realistic statistic or take on the situation. Do they leave teaching because of teaching or do they leave because of the work/baby dilemmas that all working women face.

Well I guess you would have to look at the rate of retention in other professions and whether there is a similar problem? I have no idea on that one. And also look at the reasons for leaving which overwhelmingly appear to be to do with workload. And also whether these teachers (men can be teachers too you know!) are leaving to look after their kids or going into different careers?

Boundaries my bag is packed!

You may like this video...

And here's my favourite one about the desperation of student nurses right now.

All public workers are getting a crap deal right now. I need to apologise, my attitude in this thread, driven by tiredness and the nurse bubble has been appalling. To be honest, I think us nurses need to get tougher, we need to fight our corner.

I'll leave you with one final thought. Those teenagers who are causing disruption, on the periphery of acceptable behaviour? With a good supportive teacher, they can turn it around. Without that support, they end up with me. And trust me, I am the nurse no-one ever wishes to meet, as it means their life has hit rock bottom if they do. So even though it may feel that no-one appreciates what you do, we do. We just wish we heard more about the positive things that you do. It seems that all teachers hate their jobs right now. Just remember that may be difficult for people who do not see the bigger picture to stomach.

Our LA wonders why it can't get any headteachers. I'd love one of our QIOs who probably had a very brief career in secondary to spend a week with our head and see the amount of shit she has to put up with all day every day.

FruitCider If you choose to do that job, then do it. I don't want to hear about how hard it is. Over and over again (did no one mention to nurses that shift work is involved?)

Fruit, if I could "like" your post, I would.

Oh fuck OFF Shaky

Noble I am just 1 of 38'000 left. There were 40'052 in 2011. We have lost 8% of our workforce. 1/3 of mental health nurses have special officer status and can retire in the next 5 years. We also struggle with retention, due to lack of staff and lack of resources. I think it's the same across the board for all professions? However I do worry about my child's education a LOT. Who is going to be left to teach her?!?!?

Of course I knew shift work was involved! However nothing can prepare you for the realities of radioing a code blue as the only registered nurse in the immediate vicinity, a mere 15 weeks after registering, and silently praying that someone, somewhere, has heard your call and is bringing that emergency bag to you with some urgency. I honestly think you can never imagine the horror I feel at moments like these. It's not the shift work that's the difficult bit, it's missing my child's Christmas party at nursery because I have to work, it's being scared to drive home because you could fall asleep at any minute. You have utterly missed the point of this thread. It's not the crappy hours. It's how the lack of resources makes you too tired to function outside of work, whatever your job.

Boundaries FruitCider I will "fuck off", because you seem to have misunderstood the part where I said I don't want to hear about it. Your jobs are hard, my job is hard, being a taxi driver is hard, being a SAHM is hard etc etc - you don't have the monopoly on being tired.

ShakyMilk
you seem to have misunderstood the part where I said I don't want to hear about it

Yet you have returned to the thread, it doesn't make much sense when you think about it.

I have never said I have a monopoly on anything.

If you aren't interested in people's jobs, why open a thread about jobs? Unless you're just bored and a bit goady, I guess.

Boundaries to me, being "a bit goady" is telling someone to fuck off, but there you go. Night

Teaching is exhausting definitely. All that time with kids? Definitely but it does seem teachers want to tell us that. Pal round today with her kids and talking about how tiring being teacher was. Then as leaving I said so you off for Christmas - forgetting momentarily- then said oh yes you are and asked if her partner was. She never asked if we were off so I was mean and pointed out I'd got new year week off but would be working fir three days from Boxing Day. She proceeded to tell me about mid term holiday ages already booked. And then she will have easter I won't know when I get my holidays and will be summer befire can take. And I work just as many hours as she does but all in office and not at home at 4 like she does so time with kids before doing her marking later.
So yes exhausting but what do you think many others do and we get 25 days and handful public holidays not 12 weeks.

Fruit

Teachers are also appalled by the cuts being made to mental health services. We know how vital they are, because you've got our backs when we've got a child who is really struggling, not with maths, but with life.

I can help them with maths. I couldn't do what you do.

Hmm, daughter of a teacher here, she's always knackered, physically and emotionally. She's always doing work in the evenings and a fair bit in the holidays too. I think I'd rather have a job like mine where I work 37 hours a week but have no work to worry about doing at home.

Noble Maths is bloody hard, thankfully I had a good maths teacher so I can calculate that a 7ml parinex injection should be injected over 70 seconds as you inject 1ml per 10 seconds, or 0.1ml a second. If I have to administer a 20mg dose of buprenorphine I can work put that I need 2 x 8mg and 2 x 2mg. If a patient has been eating 16 "blue ones a day" I know they have been taking 160mg diazepam, and therefore start them on 50mg chlordiazepoxide 4 times a day, which is the equivalent of 8 "blue ones" a day. If someone has been using heroin on top of their methadone, collected their methadone this morning but are in withdrawals now, I know the half life of methadone is around 36 hours and heroin 6 hours and so would withhold buprenorphine for another 25 hours - ish. If someone is prescribed 15mg diazepam and the liquid is 10mg/5ml I give them 7.5ml and not a drop more. When it comes to ordering buprenorphine, if it's Monday, medication is delivered on a Wednesday, I have 18 tablets left and I used 16 8mg this morning, it's time to ring the pharmacy and grovel so you get your order of 19 boxes of 7 tablets on Tuesday morning.

And people say nurses don't need maths

And people say nurses don't need maths hmm

Do they?

My lodger is a secondary maths teacher & she loves it which is refreshing. She hardly ever works at home