to feel amused at heading for promotion " Flexible job of the week"

[tripletrouble]

Came up on my FB newsfeed from Mumsnet: Flexible job of the week- return to teaching.
As a teacher, I would say it is probably one of the least flexible jobs there is!

Agree. It seems to be my friends who teach who have the least flexibility and the most stress when children are ill etc

Average U.K. Annual leave is 28 days, not 40.

The job is flexible in that you get summer holidays off.

Yep, this is being shared all over Facebook in teaching groups.
Admittedly there is a lot more working from home in teaching than in most jobs, but that's on top of the 12 hours or so you work outside of the home every day. 60+ hours a week is not family friendly, flexible working!

Teacher here.

Ageee that termtime is a nightmare, but don't underestimate the massive boon that being off in the school holidays is (if you're a parent). The stress of making two sets (or one, if you're a single parent) of 28 days annual leaves cover your children's holidays is awful. So teaching is flexible in that you can all go on holiday together whenever you like during the school breaks, and you can spend large chunks of time with your kids (I know this is balanced out by how much family life is sacrificed in term time).

Yep, if anything teaching seems fairly rigid during term time! No possibility of WFH during the working day, hard to get time off for appointments or sick children, long hours during term time...
The holidays are great though!! (But expensive)

Creampastry

But that isn't what "flexible" means.

"Flexible" is often used as a synonym for "family friendly" and certainly although I agree with pp how inflexible a teacher's job is, it is massively useful to have your working year and your children's needs fir childcare match up so neatly.

In the workplace "flexible working" very rarely means variable day-to-day or week-to-week. People who have asked for "flexible" hours generally have very specific hours required which once established are set in stone. Once your "flexible" hours are agreed then no you can't come into work on Tuesday because you have no childcare that day, and you have to leave on the dot of 3pm on Fridays but work late another day, or whatever.

It's just a new meaning of the word "flexible" which is evolving.

I have pretty much totally flexible hours. I make it work fine. Directors and manager and clients all totally happy.
Only HR are getting their knickers in a twist about it. And they are all working mum's #somuchforthesisterhood

Yeah you get great holidays, by with no flexibility as to when they can be taken. So...Not flexible.

But much of those great holidays are spent working. Just because you're not in the classroom, doesn't mean you're not working.

They sent me an email advertising the "flexible job" of Chief Exec of the Competition and Markets Authority, sob.

I read it these days as flexible for the employer - in that you are at their beck and call whenever they fancy.

You get to flexibly adjust your lifestyle to constantly nudge a little less sleep, a little less time with the kids to fit in the ever increasing teaching work that invades every minute of your life.

I've looked at mums net jobs and feel it's not actually that great for mums, ideally it would be full of well paid jobs in the office from 10 -2pm. I feel that there is a lot of untapped talent that could be harnessed to boost the economy and would love to set up a smarter system on the jobs board - there is a real gap in the market for this Mumsnet.

Ageee that termtime is a nightmare, but don't underestimate the massive boon that being off in the school holidays is (if you're a parent). The stress of making two sets (or one, if you're a single parent) of 28 days annual leaves cover your children's holidays is awful

But in normal jobs you can potentially put in a flexible working request for annual hours anyway. Or you can use parental leave for some of the holidays as they have extended the entitlement. So my job is more flexible than yours, plus I have all the school holidays off this year, authorised minus 2 weeks in the summer. It isn't true that annual leave is the only option.

Yanbu at all op. It is the least flexible job ever in the world (well pretty much).