...do teachers really work that hard?

[User298895613]

I know the general idea on AIBU is that teachers work load is ridiculous, that they work extra hard and that they never never stop to the point that they r all seemingly leaving the profession.

But, AIBU to wonder if they are any different to anyone else? and actually might have it a bit easier? I mean, I also work myself into the ground, am exhausted, never stop etc... But I don't have summer holidays off to look after my kids, and I often work well into the small hours at night.

I'm not saying teachers don't work hard, but sometimes on munsnet I just feel like some teachers kind of spend a lot of time complaining about the workload, when maybe it's just the same as everyone elses, but with a nice long summer holiday?

(Sorry, I appreciate this will really inflame some posters, but it just had been annoying me lately)

I really want to work in that school. Mid June holiday sounds ideal

Good luck Piggy, although late June would be better, after all the end of term is just movies and water fights, right....

Term time holidays? No way. Occasional unpaid days to attend a family wedding/graduation etc have happened but never heard of anyone having more than one single day off. Can’t go home in PPA/frees unless we get permission, and certainly not regularly. Have to sign in and out at the office whenever we leave site, but can nip to the shops at lunchtime if necessary.

I’m 26 and when my friends and I all graduated about 4/5 years ago, about half of them became teachers. They’ve all absolutely burned themselves into the ground working 70+ hour weeks, marking, trips, parents evenings, planning, assessing. Most of them have left or are planning to leave, and those that remain are hanging on by a thread. The only one that seems to have a decent work/life balance is a PE teacher, and I don’t know if that’s due to her subject or her school being better than the others.

They’re all young and childless too, I have NO IDEA how you’d do it with kids.

I think noble, marple, ice and me shoudl set up a school with :

PPA at home
Flexible holidays
time off for anything you need (hair done,, nails, children's events)
Made to leave premises at 4
no pointless meetings or parents evenings
no reports
no marking

We'd certainly recruit!!

Oh, and I'll add to my ideal school an hour's uninterrupted lunch.

@Walkingdeadfangirl how do you explain the fact that 40% of newly qualified teachers leave the profession within 5 years of qualifying?

10.4% of all secondary school teachers left the teaching profession in 2016-17.

What I can say is that teachers seem to feel the need the tell people how hard they are working in a way other professions/jobs don’t.

Let me correct that for you

What I can say is that teachers seem to feel the need the tell people, who wrongly assume they work 9am - 3.30pm, how hard they are working because they are constantly told they have it easy, in a way other professions/jobs don’t. Because everyone has an opinion on teaching, but wouldn't dream of telling a doctor (or starting goady threads) that their job is easy

Yes we do work very hard. I’m currently on mat leave and definitely realising how much more relaxed I am now I don’t also have work to contend with. Many jobs are equally stressful and a few I would argue are more stressful (I don’t think I would cope as a nurse for example) but that doesn’t take away from how stressful teaching actually is.

I teach in a college so I lose some of the school holidays to open/applicant day events plus marking if it is half term or Christmas/Easter.

I generally have one GCSE class, one A Level class and one Access class. That equates to anything up to 50 2000-2500 word essays to mark at a time. Plus I have to actually prepare the lessons. There’s also an online system within the college that needs updating regularly for each individual student.

If you think it is easy, try it yourself.

That’s hilarious zzzz, I wonder why other professions don’t feel the need to defend their jobs? Let’s have a look on mumsnet for the “do plumbers/surveyors/physios/accountants really work that hard?” threads. Can’t find any? Funny that.
Actually I have had a term time holiday, if a trip home for a funeral counts?
Really disappointed MNHQ has let this goady shite stand actually.

Oh and I think the issue is people think teachers work a 9-3 day. As a college tutor I have to be at work for 8am and I generally don’t leave until 5pm. I get four weeks in the summer rather than six due to open/applicant days and lesson prep. I also lose a lot of the half term weeks to either revision classes or essay marking.

Actually I have had a term time holiday, if a trip home for a funeral counts?

Rain how fucking dare you, when I took my kid out in term time I got fined.

Lighthearted... but probably a genuine complaint from a parent somewhere in the world

They don’t always have nice long summer holidays - the work doesn’t stop when they walk out the school gates.

DH started off as a teacher more than 20 years ago and has worked his way through to SLT level, along with still doing a few hours of teaching per week out of choice because he loves it. However, our family life is ruled by his job - long, long hours, never really able to switch off as even during the holidays he gets calls and emails, other work to be done etc. He lives in a permanent state of exhaustion and, in my opinion, is heading for total burnout or an early grave.

But he stays working in Education because he is passionate and dedicated, to the point of personal sacrifice, however as usual some ignorant people think it’s a cushy job with generous holidays. Strange then that the number one headache for the three schools he is oversees is recruitment

Just as in every job, there are the grafters and the lazy arses.

I have known teachers who are dedicated, desperate for the kids to do well, love their subject and are a credit to the profession. Otoh, we have all encountered the "going through the motions" ones. These days, however, there is less of a place to hide. People complain about paperwork, league tables, progress scores etc etc and frankly these are largely a waste of time, BUT it does reveal who is not pulling their weight, or any weight.

When I was at school in the 80s there were some incredibly lazy teachers. They could absolutely get away with it. Nowadays, not nearly so much.

There is no absolute measure of how hard each individual works - or perceives themselves to be working. I think why teachers are often a bit defensive is that we have all been to school and very often have children in the system so feel in a position to judge, whether that be rightly or wrongly.

Yes, they do work hard. Yes, lots of people in other professions also work very hard. It doesn't all have to be a competition.

The difference in MOST cases is that you usually get paid more than a teacher does for working as much as they do. If there is a high rate of teachers leaving the profession, then I guess people probably need to think harder about the work:pay ratio before becoming teachers.

Not a teacher but know loads of them through a sport I play. The reason it's so easy to recruit for teachers here in Asia is that the workload is so light vs. UK. No-one has to work a full timetable, most planning done centrally, and if you're organised you can get everything done between 8am-5pm term time. Long holidays.

I think teachers in the UK are insanely overworked. The expectations are ridiculous.

Let’s have a look on mumsnet for the “do plumbers/surveyors/physios/accountants really work that hard?” threads. Can’t find any? Funny that

It's kind of a vicious cycle. OPs like this one start threads like this about teachers because teachers often say how hard they work, but teachers only say that because people so often say that being a teacher is easy and they work short hours and have long holidays, and then it just goes around in circles!

Nobody ever says "do plumbers really work that hard?" because plumbers generally don't talk about how hard they work, because nobody questions how hard they work....

@User29...

🍿

And good teachers make it look easy, too.

They work as hard as anyone else, no less no more.

I know teachers who find the job hard, I know others who find it easy. As with any career it’s a individual choice.

My best friend's a teacher, and she works incredibly hard. During term time, she has Saturday mornings off, and the rest of the time she is working or sleeping. Sometimes she'll do a social thing, but that cuts into sleeping time, because she usually has work to do once she gets back from what she's been doing. I don't know anyone in another job who works as hard as she does at a single job.

Not at our school. They issue the same homework sheet every half-term for at least five years. Hardly put any comments under the homework. It depends on a school really. I know some schools where teachers really try hard for the pupils to succeed. However, my DH works up till midnight every day because of the workload. He works with lots of students. He doesn't have holidays during the summer or half-terms. There's always so much work and he doesn't moan. It's his job.

They issue the same homework sheet every half-term for at least five years. Depending on the topic of course. I meant to say the homework is exactly the same my older DC did a few years ago back.

This drives me crazy.

My first profession was as a teacher. It nearly killed me. This was the outline of my week, every week of term time:

Sunday - work to prepare for week ahead, prepare lessons, mark books. Often 6 hours.
Monday - Thursday - in school for 8. Lessons all day, stay to prepare for tomorrow, home around 6. Mark books after dinner. If parents evening, in school seeing parents from 4 - 7, then go home and do prep. One evening a week, take kids for extra activity outside of school - I used to help coach girls' rugby.
Friday - in school for 8. Lessons all day. As soon as school ends, go to the pub for a drink or several. Stress release.
Saturday - day off.
Sunday - all starts all over again.

Holidays - usually get ill at the start as my body relaxed and got sick. Always in school at least 1 day over half term. Summer holidays - prepare for next year, esp if syllabus changed.

As a newly qualified teacher, I regularly worked 60/70 hour weeks. Often producing worksheets late into the night. It was horrific. I managed 3 years and handed in my notice. It damaged my health, my relationships, and I didn't even earn much compared to many of my friends doing more corporate style jobs.

Retrained to be a corporate lawyer in the City. It was never as stressful, demanding or totally demoralizing as teaching.

You could not pay me enough to set foot in a classroom to teach ever again.