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.

Finishes at 3:15
12 weeks holiday
Fun job
Playing with kids all day(for younger ages)

That's probably why the OP's friend only teachers will understand.

The main issue isn't the tiredness, relentness nature of the job, the pay, the unsociable hours, marking, reports etc...
There is no other profession that is criticized as much as teaching on MN. Every day there is a new post about how some teacher has upset a child/a parent/both. Someone is always upset and complaining.
Most teachers don't mind all the bad things otherwise they wouldn't be doing the job. It is the current culture of teacher bashing that is exhausting. I went through 14 years of schooling and never did my parents feel the need to complain to school, nor did they ever discuss what the teachers were doing and whether they were happy/unhappy. I was lucky of they even bothered to read my report. And I was in a nice supportive middle class 'naice' family.
Most teachers would be delighted with the odd nice comment from parents & to feel appreciated by management. They honestly don't expect a fanfare, or a big end of year gift, or a huge salary. Just the occasional nice comment or a thank you would make their day.
The threads on here are very depressing. I never ever see a thread about someone being upset with the bin man, the waiter, the girl working in Next a hairdresser. These are all tiring jobs - but don't seem to get a mention. Maybe this is why teachers feel so defensive.

brasty still not said what you do btw

Median teaching salary Oct 16 just above £27000.

Median nurse salary is £23000.

User teachers only can use methods approved by the school,ofsted,la,law,government and so on. They also don't decide the class setup,and many times are faced with uproar and even aggressive behaviour when they try to discipline a child. Little johnny does not understand consequences you can't give him any! Little mary can't do her work during playtime,afterschool etc. It's just soo unfair. Little tarquin is not misbehaving he's a spirited child! Stop trying to break his spirit and make him into a sheep!

If the median is 27,000 is that for part-time and full-time jobs combined? Where did you find that out?

So I've been doing some further reading around teacher working conditions...

I understand you have to work a maximum of 1625 directed hours over a maximum of 195 days, 5 of which must be non teaching. This works out to be 8.4 hours per day. 10% of this time must be for planning.

Then there is "non directed time". E.g. Marking.I cannot find a guideline for this. Does this mean there isn't one?

Yanbu

I seem to find this from teachers a lot. I'm sure it is incredibly hard work. I've done volunteering in primary schools and it looks hellishly tiring.
However, I have also volunteered in a care home. Night shifts, physically demanding, risky work and mostly for minimum wage and 22 days annual leave.

I don't believe teaching is the hardest job out there.

Balloon yes that was a clumsy comment, and tbf I've not noticed a massive amount of obviously hormone fuelled issues.

As mum of a 12 yo DD though, I know how going through puberty is affecting her and her friends and if you multiply that by 1300, it will be a factor for some girls in some circumstances.

Obviously boys have their hormones too and this all goes on in mixed schools.

I think what I'm trying to say is that there is a difference in working in a single sex school - not a worse/better difference, not all the time and maybe down to humans being humans rather than hormones. Just that it's a unique environment.

Not sure that makes my point any better but I wasn't being intentionally sexist!

Try retail at Christmas then you will know what exhausted is

You're wrong and clearly you've only ever done retail to make that comment! 20 years of retail here then I had a career break. Two years later I retrained as a primary school teacher.

Retail is a walk in the park compared to retail.

I lasted four years before I packed it in. Pay was shit (£24k) which didn't help when you're working 16 hour days plus working 6 days a week. Those holidays everyone talks about? 2000 word reports for 32 kids during one of them (64.000 words!) Marking, assessment. Planning. I spent every 'holiday' actually in school at some point. Building air raid shelters for WW2 project (you need to inspire the kids and there's no one else to do it), re-doing display boards in the classroom (technically a TA's job, but they have a ridiculous amount of other stuff to do too, so if you want it doing, quicker to do it yourself) I could go on but basically it was the most all consuming 'job' I've ever had.

Anyway. I was an amazing teacher ! Even Ofsted said so I knew I was good. Yet, I left. Still feel awful about walking out. You're all right about one thing. It will soon be only the crap teachers left - those who can't get another job elsewhere. The most annoying thing - I still owe £9k of loans!

Nurses/Docs etc don't have to say how hard their job is, everyone knows. Equally, everyone thinks that teachers work 9-3 and have loads of holidays. Maybe if people started to respect the teaching profession, you wouldn't hear teachers moaning?!

yanbu. IME teachers are the ones who like to bang their "we work so hard, harder than you, certainly" drum the loudest. "I was at parents evening last night til almost 10pm" - right, and how often does that occur? Get over it. And yourself.

I find the lack of support for Teachers very saddening. Recruiting and retaining Teachers is becoming more and more difficult. Classes are being covered by Classroom Assistants. Is this really what we want for our children? I regularly hear the phrase " l'll be glad when hes back at school" from parents - well multiply that by 30 children of varying degrees of ability all in one class. There is no switch off in Teaching- its full on, and for what? a public who believes what the Government wants it to- That Teachers are lazy greedy Lefties.
Its about time we insisted on quality staff to educate our society, but this of course would mean a salary to attract the best and a shift from Teacher bashing to a real understanding and respect for the job.

Are you a teacher Kanga?

Lots of jobs are hard work, no one has the monopoly on it.
My DH works 40 hours a week in a minimum wage, massively physical job, no sick pay etc.
I'm a nurse & can work as much as 60+hours some weeks.
I couldn't do his job & he couldn't do mine, who has the harder job, doesn't matter we both work very hard it's not a contest.

I should know by now to ignore these threads but honestly, teachers do not have the monopoly on most tiring career. I know a male psychiatric nurse who works 12 hour shifts, Christmas day, micro managed, has to supervise inexperienced agency staff as often under staffed and worse of all has been accused of rape twice, which has to be taken seriously by police, therefore he has to endure questioning even though thr police know it's nonsense. Colleagues have been physically attacked. This is all routine and you know what, even though he is pissed off, rarely complains that he has the worse or most tiring job in the world. Maybe he values what he does. I think the moaning Mary's are in the wrong profession.

Yanbu, my brothers a teacher and the rest of us (family of 5 siblings) have full year jobs. He'd be the first to admit he has it better than the rest of us. He's well paid, planning to retire (comfortably) at 50, his mortgage was paid off long ago, he works less hours than the rest of us and has amazing holidays - he literally can afford to go on holiday every half term - and he does! If I had a particular skill set that fitted into teaching I'd be following in his lead. He's most definitely not stressed at all. It's not the job it's the person.

**StarUtopia are you for real or are you just trying to get a rise out of people?!!

Based on your sample of 1, you have decided it's not the job that's difficult, it's the people being moan you?

I'm interested to know his secret - what's his subject/type of school/position etc?

my brothers a teacher and the rest of us (family of 5 siblings) have full year jobs. He'd be the first to admit he has it better than the rest of us. He's well paid, planning to retire (comfortably) at 50, his mortgage was paid off long ago, he works less hours than the rest of us and has amazing holidays - he literally can afford to go on holiday every half term - and he does! If I had a particular skill set that fitted into teaching I'd be following in his lead. He's most definitely not stressed at all. It's not the job it's the person.

Can't think why there's a recruitment crisis then?!

I suspect he's in senior management.

Wow I wish I was that kind of teacher.

I'm doing something wrong.

I'm not a teacher, Boundaries, but have been worked to exhaustion nevertheless.

kanga 8 times per year for parents' evenings (inc form tutor evening), plus I'm a music teacher so myriad concerts, performances, shows all year round.

I'm not complaining, I love it, but it's probably one of the more stressful jobs.

YABU...
I've been a nurse and now work as a TA (easier around my young children) so can see it from both sides. Yes, I see how hard teachers work BUT it's no harder than nursing/doctors/ambulance/etc!!

I'm sure you have user, whatever you do.

I'm wondering what qualifies you to advise on what would help teachers?