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Original poster

To feel the rage with “teacher tired” posts

999 replies

Rainbowsandglitterbullshit · 28/06/2019 18:26

The season of teachers posting SM messages “no one knows tired like an end of term teacher/TA/dinner lady” is almost upon us.

I want to scream, what about the fuckers who work stupid hours all week and don’t get 6 weeks off in the summer, half term, two weeks Easter, two weeks at Christmas.

I wouldn’t be a teacher for all the tea in China but these people chose their career.

Grrr, actually don’t care if I’m BU.

OP posts:
Thread gallery
9
xsquared · 30/06/2019 00:29

I have been working in education since 2001 and do not know a single teacher who post those sort of memes on SM or claim to be harder working or more tired than anyone else.

Many teachers do work hard and many of us also get tired. We are allowed to say that, but who is claiming they have it worse than those in a non teaching job?

These teacher bashing type threads turn up on MN towards then end of term. There was a similar one on rubbishing teacher's stress not long ago too.

I see far more posters moaning about teachers allegedly moaning about how tired they are than actual teachers moaning how they are more tired than anyone else. Anyway, it's late and I actually am tired - not because I've been working or writing reports Shock but I've been out enjoying myself in the sun and hosting while a relative is staying over Shock. So that makes me a lazy I guess!

echt · 30/06/2019 05:40

Anyone else think it's weird that peaople still send their kids to school since teachers are so bad?

Wodkavodka, in my gazillion years teaching, this has to be the funniest in your face comeback ever. Though close to "if you think teaching is easy you don't you re-train and become one. And enjoy the holidays".

Member869894 · 30/06/2019 06:41

I work ten hours a day minimum and four weeks holiday a year. On holiday I worry about what's piling up in my absence because the work doesn't stop coming in whilst I'm away. I would love to never be more than eight weeks from a break where my office closes

SoupDragon · 30/06/2019 07:15

I would love to never be more than eight weeks from a break where my office closes

Except this "office" doesn't necessarily close even at weekends or evenings.

Grasspigeons · 30/06/2019 07:42

School is only closed for children during the holidays. The staff can go in and do work. Not all thier work is teaching. A lot is planning, preparing, paperwork, reports etc. The only time they cant go in and work is when our caretaker takes his annual leave. He moans quite a lot about the teachers getting in the way of his planned works in the building. Obviously they do all take leave as well - particularly during the summer.

MakeItRain · 30/06/2019 07:49

When you're a teacher work piles up in your absence constantly. These days we're bombarded with emails demanding paperwork. Teaching is 2 jobs now, the hours in the classroom, and then all the admin/paperwork/assessment/planning etc. Not to mention putting up displays and making sure the books are all up to date and marked.

During the summer terms, working with children is especially exhausting! (Because they can get very emotional, tired and overheated!) It's like being on stage but having to control the audience at the same time! Then when they go home, the other part of the job starts, the meetings, the paperwork, the data analysis, the planning, the displays, the marking. But you often get behind with that because the day itself has been so tiring. Then it mounts up and you end up trying to squeeze it in at all hours of the day/night.

I'm not saying that other jobs aren't exhausting too. When my mum was in hospital I used to look at the stress etched on some of the doctors' faces and wonder how they did it.

But I do know that exhaustion from teaching can be pretty debilitating. Right now I'm lying in bed with a cracking stress headache knowing how much work I've got to squeeze into my Sunday while attempting to run a normal family life. I'm about to get up and start work and I'll be doing all the time I'm not cooking /running my children to various places etc . I'm nearing retirement (well sort of nearing!) and I'm always thinking ahead to that. I love aspects of my job, especially the children and all their little personalities, and all the parents who are so supportive and appreciative, but I would walk away in a heartbeat from all the tiredness and stress if I could.

Member869894 · 30/06/2019 07:57

'when you're a teacher work piles up un your absence constantly'
Like it doesn't for many other jobs. Who don't get long holidays...

MakeItRain · 30/06/2019 08:17

The "work pile up in your absence" comment was a reply to member86...... (can't remember) who seemed to imply that this didn't happen for teachers! Like I also said, I'm not saying other jobs aren't exhausting too!

Eaudear · 30/06/2019 08:35

Yes, teaching is essentially two jobs. Performing monkey 9-3:30 and then once you have kicked out all the kids you sit down and start your other job.

NoParticularPattern · 30/06/2019 08:42

I don’t get the whole “I’m more tired than anyone else ever and no one could possibly ever understand” thing. People are allowed to be tired. They are allowed to be looking forwards to their time off work. You don’t get the monopoly on being tired just because you’re a teacher/parent/insert any other job here.... No one on this planet can categorically declare that they are THE MOST EXHAUSTED PERSON EVER and to do so is ridiculous. I wouldn’t be a teacher if you paid me a million quid a minute, doesn’t mean I don’t get to say I’m shattered though nor does it mean that I’ve never been as tired as they are.

fedup21 · 30/06/2019 08:44

I would love to never be more than eight weeks from a break where my office closes

Train to be a teacher then.

fedup21 · 30/06/2019 08:46

No one on this planet can categorically declare that they are THE MOST EXHAUSTED PERSON EVER and to do so is ridiculous.

Exactly.

I have never heard a teacher say this.

In fact the only person to have hinted at this was the OP @Rainbowsandglitterbullshit who has enjoyed kicking up a bullshit storm by saying that this was the time of year that a teacher ‘might’ say this.

But they haven’t.

YourSarcasmIsDripping · 30/06/2019 08:59

I'm a TA. I'm tired. I'm looking forward to the holidays. Deal with it.

noblegiraffe · 30/06/2019 09:20

I would love to never be more than eight weeks from a break where my office closes

getintoteaching.education.gov.uk

Still places left to train in September because the government can’t meet its recruitment targets.

What’s that? You wouldn’t love to be never more than 8 weeks from a break enough to be a teacher, just enough to moan at teachers?

Passthecherrycoke · 30/06/2019 09:25

I think (going back to the actual point of the post) it probably doesn’t help psychologically that teaching has a definite “end” (July) and clear “fresh start” in September. Because it’s so high pressure in term time it must mean that the end of term takes on a whole new significance most people don’t get in their jobs because they are year round.

noblegiraffe · 30/06/2019 09:29

That’s true. When I was in the private sector we would definitely celebrate the end of a major project.

fedup21 · 30/06/2019 09:32

True-DH’s team (private sector) certainly have much happiness and cheer when projects are signed off.

Finishing work for Christmas (across lots of sectors) probably gets the most ‘yay-time for some downtime now!’ type posts.

Conflicted121 · 30/06/2019 09:33

I would never compare my life on any level with others so it seems a bit strange.

From my own experience though, I went from working 50-60 hours as a broker to then owning my own business and literally never switching off (took my laptop on holiday and did a few hours Christmas Day type thing). I have now become a teacher.

I don’t understand it but I have never been as exhausted as I am now. With the other jobs I still had energy at the end of the day but with teaching, I literally come home and if I sit down, I am not getting up again.

It’s a mental exhaustion rather than physical though. The one where your brain really aches of tiredness from the constant stream of information coming in and out. With my other jobs, I knew how to do it and much of it I could be on auto pilot and get the job done. Teaching is not like that. It keeps you on your toes mentally all day long.

I am actually considering not continuing simply because of the tiredness as the only time that my children get any sense out of me is a couple of weeks into the holidays.

The other thing about teaching is you can always guarantee that I will come down with some sort of cold or bug as soon as the holiday starts. I swear that Adrenalin keeps the bugs as bay until you start a holiday and relax a little.

Lizzie3869 · 30/06/2019 09:41

Because it’s so high pressure in term time it must mean that the end of term takes on a whole new significance most people don’t get in their jobs because they are year round.

That's the case in a lot of other jobs as well. The financial year is significant in a lot of jobs. My DH regularly speaks about the pressure the Bridges Section is under to spend their budget before the end of the financial year.

Sofasurfingsally · 30/06/2019 09:41

This thread is ridiculous. Of course teachers are completely exhausted, 30 plus kids, government targets, standing up practically all day..

Of course many other jobs are just as hard-the world is getting harder, and employers are constantly seeking more for less from the labour force.

It isn't a competition. And anyway, even when we discover genuine evidence that one group of employees are doing well- good for them. We want the best deal for everyone, don't we?

PeggySuehadababy · 30/06/2019 09:43

Never seen a teacher post the crap you are talking about on social media. However I have seen plenty of posts complaining that nobody knows what being tired is until they are a mummy.

We must be on different versions of MN as every mention of a teacher who is doing as little as looking at your precious DC in an odd way will prompt a thousand :"report it to Ofsted OP!"

Passthecherrycoke · 30/06/2019 10:17

Lizzie3869 I don’t think it’s necessarily the same. I’m in finance and year end/ budgeting isn’t the same “end”- it’s a big thing but you come in the day after the accounts are signed off and get on with something else (you’vebeenputtingofffor8weeks)

Also if you’re under pressure to spend a budget at year end you’re not managing it properly throughout the year Wink

Lizzie3869 · 30/06/2019 10:25

He's never been the Bridges Manager (he's now the deputy so he has more say now), so there can be pressure when you think the manager isn't making the right financial decisions. He would agree with you about it not being managed properly throughout the year, he's been very frustrated about this in the past.

But this is only an example. A lot of private businesses have to make sure their accounts are in order for the end of the financial year or tax returns by the end of January. (My parents were business people so I remember this well.)

noblegiraffe · 30/06/2019 10:37

You’re comparing making sure your accounts are in order for a deadline with the end of the school year? Confused

A time when you have to say goodbye to all your classes that you’ve worked with over the year (or longer), and, in teaching, quite a few of your colleagues too? Knowing that next September everything will be different, you’ll have hundreds of new names to learn, new behaviour dynamics to get to grips with, new colleagues, new policies, new bosses?

I don’t think spending your budget on time has quite the same emotional impact tbh.

Lizzie3869 · 30/06/2019 11:03

@noblegiraffe fair point. There are no 2 jobs that are the same. All I was trying to say was that all jobs have their unique pressures (including deadlines at the year end) and that comparing tiredness is a pointless exercise, which is what most of us have been saying anyway.

A better comparison would be my parents, who taught English as a foreign language. They had summer courses, too, so there was no downtime at all.

OTOH, the teachers there were teaching adults, who had paid to come and wanted to learn, unlike the children that you all teach, which I would never feel able to do. (I have taught English as a foreign language, by contrast).