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 used to work in Greggs full time -7.45-6.30. Tiring! Dh is a builder. Db is self employed as a plumber and works all hours in a physical job. VERY few Holidays trying to maintain a living, no Union, lots of responsibility. Some teachers are deluded! Having worked in education,I know the ins and outs and the protection and support staff have even though it doesn't seem like it when you're in the thick of it. I'm sure no sane teacher would claim it was the most tiring job. It's very annoying when teachers feel hard done by thinking they are the only people in the world at work before 7.45! That's a bit pathetic really. Many people are working 2/3 jobs on zero hours contracts. I can see why people in the real world get annoyed.

The problem is most teachers are probably exhausted because they are women and are doing the lions share at home too. The job is pretty cushy when you co wider you get a third of the year off.

Teaching is utterly exhausting. YABU.

Yes there are other jobs that are also exhausting such as doctors and nurses, but how many doctors and nurses bring their work home? There is no down time, even in the holidays and certainly not at the weekends. There are days when I'm at school for 14 hours, get home make a cup of tea and then carry on working until 9 / 10pm. The expectations of senior management, parents and society in general weighs heavy... and compared to even a junior doctor, we're paid very little.

It's not a competition. All public services are on their knees with over worked staff. Cut your friend some slack and support her.

Working with 36, 4 and 5 year olds is rewarding but most days, it's like herding cats!

having just worked 34 hours out of the last 48 in a busy hospital with acutely unwell patients and being eemotionally and physically exhausted, i would be tempted to tell your friend to fuck off. I would of course promptly apologise for the language (not the sentiment) after I had some sleep!

Even if everyone knew how hard some teachers find teaching how could they help? What can anyone do? Teachers choose to teach.

Actually nearly everyone I know works from home at evenings and weekends. Shouldn't be the case, but this seems to be so common these days.

I work as full time primary care doctor in the US and it is very exhausting especially if you have a 2 years old and other responsibilities. Seriously considered career change in more than one occasion!!

I'm a teacher and was a late entrant (28) to teaching so worked in a couple of different jobs before. I worked shift work in my previous job and it could be quite stressful as it was a customer-facing job and could have irate customers to deal with regularly.

It's a different kind of tiring in teaching. What's different in this job compared to any previous job is that there's no off time. When you're with the children, you don't get a single second to think about anything. It's full on for the whole day. (And I'm in school from 8 til 4.30pm and bring stuff home after.) When I go home, all I want is quiet for a while- no chance with DCs of course.

I don't whinge about it to anyone. I love my job - but I teach in Ireland which is a nicer system to be a teacher in. But it IS tiring. Not whinging about it, but it is.

And the holidays are flipping great

I have been a nurse (which was exhausting) and had three other careers, including teaching key stage 1. I don't want to be e 'Moaning Minnie' but, nothing comes close to teaching. I did do it for nearly thirty years, but the exhaustion finally did for me. I genuinely don't think I would have survived another year. I am now self-employed. (and very poor.)

I haven't read every post here, but I find it alarming at the number of comments stating that teaching isn't a real job. It's such a shame that anyone would have such a low opinion of those trusted with educating their children. This would not be the case in other countries where teaching is still a respected profession. I work full time as a teacher and I am a single parent of five children as it happens. I respect and value the majority of teachers involved in educating my children. I don't understand the need for such negativity from so many posters. As far as the exhaustion levels go- teaching is very full on- 150 different children a day potentially, if you have five hours teaching a day. Children are fun, entertaining, frustrating and challenging in equal measure. Thinking on your feet, while dealing with challenging behaviour and covering the curriculum to prepare them for exams- all requires a constant level of energy. It catches up with us by the end of term. How about cut us all some slack and be grateful for the unpaid hours we put into our job? No teacher could do their job in the hours we are paid for. It would be the children who would suffer then. And I'm not moaning- just stating a fact. Not to worry- five more days ten two weeks paid leave...

Looool

I'm a nurse, and often have to hear my DM, part-time teacher, go on about how tiring her job is, how exhausting etc. Last time I checked she wasn't on her feet for twelve hours, likely to be covered in all sorts of bodily fluids and dealing with the very worst day in a persons life. And that's before we even mention night shifts. I think if she came and lived a week in my world she would be very grateful for her weekends and holidays, even if the payment for those is marking and lesson planning.

Actually nearly everyone I know works from home at evenings and weekends I don't I have a lovely job that doesn't stress me and I usually only work my contracted hours. But I have retrained & changed employers until I have found something that suits. No point whinging, then doing nothing about it, is there?

How often do you want people to express their gratitude? It is a profession that has been chosen by those who do it. We all have our own perceptions what is tiring and I wouldn't expect a teacher or anybody else for that matter to understand how tiring and challenging being a debt collector is. Working to targets to make sure you have enough money at the end of the month to pay your own bills. Dealing with people at their lowest ebb who are very unpredictable and volatile. No one can know what anyone's job is like. Reminds me of my dad is bigger than your dad type of conversations.

Yes I need to change jobs. My job was great when I started in it, but the conditions have slowly been getting worse.

I mentally write anybody off who talks about the 'real world' as frankly a bit hard of thinking. What the fuck is the real world? And whatever you think that mythical place is, you're saying it doesn't include the people educating your kids?

(I'm not a teacher btw, not for all the tea in China.)

We're also an all girls school so throw in the excess hormones and it's challenging to say the least.

Are you suggesting that boys have less hormones than girls or something?

Or are you implying that in a mixed school the hormones cancel each other out or that the students somehow "relieve the hormonal tension" with each other?

Honestly am not trying to be mardy but genuinely surprised that you would claim that an all-girls school would be a more hormonal environment than the two other possible options.

It doesn't sound to me like she's saying that teaching is the most tiring job ever and trying to do some sort of one-upmanship on nurses, doctors, oil rig workers, or what you or your other friends may do.

It sounds like she is saying only other teachers would understand how tiring their job is. There's a common perspective/assumption that it's a short work day with long holidays and therefore an easy option - which it is most definitely not. Think of how tiring it is to look after one, two or a handful of children. Now change that to 30+, add in catering for a range of abilities and needs, discipline problems without the range of options available to parents, plus marking, lesson planning, meetings, parents evenings, after school activities and perhaps before school and lunch activities too.

Even if she is saying her job is the most tiring ever, maybe - since she's your friend - she needs you to be supportive rather than finding her problems mildly irritating? If someone has a newborn baby that never sleeps and they're shattered, it's no help to them that people with 4 children have it harder. Perhaps the same with this. Being a doctor may be more objectively longer hours and more tiring, but your friend is struggling with the job she does and has trained a long time for. Even if you're not telling her you find what she's saying mildly irritating, are you sure this isn't coming across so that on top of being knackered she's also worrying that she's about her friends not thinking her problems are sufficiently important?

(btw, not a teacher but I know lots of them)

Fuckwits who talk about the real world are those who think that all is right with the world when nobody has secure employment and everyone works on a zero hours contract. Because they think that's just the way things should be - so shut up and keep doing as you are told until everyone has attained this ideal work situation.

Pointless, goading thread.

As long as teachers are lumped together as moany, their real concerns will not be listened to. Don't assist the government in writing them off.

No, I'm not a teacher.

Jenny Nias, the educational researcher, classified this model of professionalism as 'commitment as exhaustion', meaning that there are a subset of teachers who don't think they have done their jobs properly unless they are completely prostrate with knackeredness.

Not all teachers are like that. I wasn't. (Although the job was quite tiring, it wasn't horrendous IMVHO).

Reference for anyone who is an education nerd.

Nias, J (1989) Primary Teachers Talking: A Study of Teaching as Work (London, Taylor and Francis)

I work in retail and a lot of the time I work in a shop alone. For 8 hours (but only get paid for 7 as they don't pay you for your lunch break). Without a break (see previous comment). If I need to pee I have to leave the door ajar to hear if anyone comes in the shop, and pee really quickly! Now that's tiring!

It's not a competition. I'm a nurse and just wanted to correct a few points, teachers are the only people who do work in their holidays, not true I work hard putting together student packs, writing policy documents, my own training and trying to come to terms with watching a 24yr old die of cancer. As nurses we constantly work late and don't get paid for it. We get hit, punched and verbally attacked almost daily mostly from patients with dementia. We get slatted in the press shouted at by relatives for things like not force feeding their dad who is of complete sound mind. Many of my colleagues are on anti depressants.

So yes we have a hard job and with a worldwide shortage of nurses face a tricky time. But I think this is something many professons are facing. And yes we could all pack it in. But actually as one of the lowest paid public sector workers we don't do it for money. I nurse because I love it, it is part of me. And I think teachers and other occupation feel the same. So everyone keep working hard with the knowledge that you chose your vocation in life and remind yourselves daily of why you made that choice. Keep up the good work teachers nurses, soldiers, and everyone. X

but how many doctors and nurses bring their work home

I don't literally bring work home, but I spend around 10 hours a week on top of my job reading research papers, doing CPD, training, checking the equipment for my job is in working order. I count all of this as work activity too!

My other half is a farmer. He never gets a day off. Cattle to feed 365 a year. We don't go on holidays, we can go out for the day sometimes, but he gets up extra early to get the animals done. In the summer during harvest he can work 5am till 11pm or more sometimes. Often with no stop for a break. So sometimes exhausting. Calving time he often gets up in the middle of the night. Occasionally he's been out all night calving. Then he works all day as usual. It's not as mentally exhausting as something like teaching or being a nurse/dr etc. But knowing there is never a day off is quite tough. But then I always say that he chose his profession. Farming has many plus sides too