Is teaching really so stressful?

[summertime06]

Really trying to get my head around this without getting flamed. I have a good friend who is a teacher, part time since having kids, doing the same hours as me (I'm not a teacher), 3 days a week.

For the past year or two, all I ever heard when we met up was how stressful her job was, how difficult it was to be a teacher and a mum at the same time etc etc. I get that there's work to be done outside teaching hours, but I do the same in my completely different job and just get on with it, I think it's part of the job when you get up the pay scale/responsibility level a bit. Any time I did mention that things were similar in my job, I was put down, I couldn't possibly understand how stressful it was to be a teacher?!

And now she's made the decision to take a career break for a few years because there's just no way she can continue to be a teacher and a mum to 3 young kids. That's fine if that's what she wants to do but she's making out that she's been left with no choice but to make this decision because teaching is just so difficult. Is it just me or am I missing something? I get that it can be stressful as are lots of other jobs, but there are surely also lots of advantages? Not having to sort out summer camps and childcare during school holidays? Is it really so much more difficult and stressful compared to other jobs? I genuinely want to understand!

summer
I can see you get it! Teenagers can be a bit wild and as teachers we don't have back up. They sometimes lose the plot en masse & behave a bit like a football crowd when their team has lost!
HOWEVER, despite everything, despite the relentlessness of it all, there are still enough good times to make it worthwhile.
They can be funny, witty, intelligent, interesting, perceptive, hardworking, eager to learn & share, inciteful, creative and good fun to be around. Never dull that's for sure.

"I get people turning up to my clinics high on drugs, if there's no security around I call the police. I've had patients go to the toilet to do a urine sample and have taken a drug overdose and collapsed. I've had someone take a heart attack in front of me and have had to use a defibrillator."

Now imagine this happening every day whilst you constantly have a queue of 25 customers demanding your attention.

I'm a qualified primary teacher with 15 years' experience. Now working as a 1:1 SEN TA and although the pay is terrible I don't want to go back to the relentless pressure of teaching. Money can't buy time with your family or good mental health.
Plan is long-term to develop my SEN expertise; from September, as well as continuing to work with SEMH children, I'm also going to be supporting the SENDCo re admin/liaison etc.
I love, love, love what I'm doing-it's about the kids more than the levels and paperwork which sadly teaching is not any more 😢

It's the person, not the job. Some people arent good at dealing with pressure. I have known people in the exact same job and 1 person will say it's stressful and 1 says it is not.

Is it a stressful and difficult job? - yes, definitely.

Is it more stressful and difficult than all other jobs - no, of course not.

I've been a teacher for 13 years. I often find it very stressful. I love it when it gets to the holidays. But if I thought it was more stressful than other jobs I could do then I just wouldn't do it.

Now imagine this happening every day whilst you constantly have a queue of 25 customers demanding your attention.

Haha! Yes!

@manicinsomniac Is it more stressful and difficult than all other jobs - no, of course not. I think that was my point when I started the post.....

Needmorecoffee. That only adds up to 10hr a day plus a few hours at the weekend. Lthough not a light workload, it is fairly normal for a professional job.

Yeah you might be doing stuff till 10.30 but only because you have had a decent break at teatime for personal stuff.

"That only adds up to 10hr a day plus a few hours at the weekend. Lthough not a light workload, it is fairly normal for a professional job. "

By law, anyone not a senior manager or self-employed is not allowed to work more than 48 hours a week averaged over the year so 55-hour weeks every week are not normal, or at least should not be (I know that some people sign the op-out from the WTD).

I know summertime but plenty of the replies seem to think it is.

By law, anyone not a senior manager or self-employed is not allowed to work more than 48 hours a week averaged over the year so 55-hour weeks every week are not normal, or at least should not be (I know that some people sign the op-out from the WTD)

But that's averaged over the year. It's not unusual for me to work 80 hour weeks in term time (boarding school with Saturday school and I teach performing arts so lots of shows and evening work). But I only work about 10 hours a week in the holidays (often less than that). So my average is probably in the low 40s which would make it very normal hours.

So the OP posts about how, for years her friend has refused to see that OP might also have a stressful job, refused to even contemplate it and indeed puts her down - and when OP gives an example of how stressful her own job is - people jump over themselves with "oh...but imagine that all those 100 patients...."

The OP posts about having people on drugs turning up to clinic and having to ring the police to be met with cries of "oh...but imagine...." This is exactly what she is getting at! The implication that having drugged up patients, patients collapsing and having to do CPR, having a patient OD...is STILL not as stressful as teaching.

I don't deny teaching is stressful, it can be a tough job, but it is not the ONLY tough job.

*@manicinsomniac Is it more stressful and difficult than all other jobs - no, of course not. I think that was my point when I started the post.

summerime06 It is disingenuous of you to start a thread where you made comparisons with your job, thereby inviting direct comparisons. Nor in your OP did you say teaching had been described as more stressful than all other jobs.

No-one has said teaching is more stressful than all other jobs.

So the OP posts about how, for years her friend has refused to see that OP might also have a stressful job, refused to even contemplate it and indeed puts her down

OP needs to get a new friend, or start a thread about the stressful life of a pharmacist.

Possibly shouldn't have posted after having a Saturday night glass of wine🤦‍♀️

But i think my post was really about the fact that my friend didn't recognise that I also have a stressful and difficult job. I personally enjoy the challenge that it brings and it's never anything I'd ever really complain about to friends.... I rarely get nights out with friends and much prefer to enjoy those nights out rather than complain about work.....

I am supporting my friend a lot with her career break, that's really why I wanted to understand it all more, I've been a counsellor for the past 10 years so am very used to being in this role.....

Indeed.

Guess my main issue is that my friend doesn't seem to acknowledge that we both have levels of stress and difficulty in our jobs, just obviously different.

I can understand your issue with this, in my experience teachers will vent about the stresses of their job and give a detailed account of why it’s so hard while describing stresses that a lot of professions have to deal with - while not acknowledging that those professionals might be equally if not more stressful or that having extended breaks in any way ameliorate that stress.

I too don’t know any teachers who do the 7.00am to 8.00pm hours described here on a week in week out basis - yes during parents evening or school shows but not every week. And before I get flamed, I’m not saying I think teachers work from 9.00-3.300 either. I also don’t know any teachers who work during the holidays beyond going back before term to get things organised for the year ahead.

It’s a hard job, yes. Anyone who can teach my child to read while working with another 24/25 kids (class size in my child’s school stage in Scotland before anyone asks), has my full admiration.

At one point I was working in a role where I had responsibility for a 24/7 service, making literally life or death decisions about children, working 12 hour days with regular periods of 24 hour duty with high levels of responsibility and “mental load” (if your service runs 24/7 and folk are often in crisis you don’t leave it at the office door). I was on my knees at one point, met a teacher friend for coffee and to vent a bit about my day which had involved a pretty horrific child protection issue, she spent the whole time explaining how I didn’t know what stress is because I wasn’t a teacher.

I don’t grudge my teacher friends the room they need to talk about the hardships of their role, and it’s not a competition or indeed a race to the bottom but there are many roles particularly in the public sector which carry as much or more stress, which need you to be at the top of your game pretty much constantly, with high levels of public scrutiny which aren’t greatly paid for the responsibility levels.

I think being a teacher is a very stressful job. Kids are in your face all the time.

There is an opt out Gwen. I am guessing private companies have this built into contracts because nobody has ever mentioned me doing more than a set quota. Not sure how it is regulated for teachers though. Guessing as PP said, the holidays bring the average down.

Fair enough, you have all opened my eyes quite a bit, obviously a very stressful job, one that I will definitely putting my children off if that's the case!

I have a huge respect for teachers, at all levels.
I know I couldn't cope with it, and I work at a high level professional role.
DM was a teacher, and it really wasn't 8.30-4 weekdays - she worked virtually constantly - most of each 'holiday' was spent writing reports or marking.
My XSIL is a teacher too, and of the'13' weeks holidays that the kids are off school, she spends approx 10 of them marking, planning, organising stuff for the next year,
the future of our children and country is in their hands - teachers need to be valued far more highly.

I have just left teaching as I am normally a very strong person, I have had very stressful past jobs and then did my pgce and entered teaching. It is the most stressful job in the world. I stuck it out, got great results, was nominated for teacher of the year awards but was working s solid 6am - 12 midnight every day. I would wake up several times a night worrying about the day to come, not planned enough, my data wasn't robust enough , the stroppy parent I had to call etc etc. I have now left and returned to what's considered a stressful occupation. It's a piece of piss compared

It is the most stressful job in the world.

I think this is the type of statement that winds folk up. I don’t disagree that teaching is stressful. More stressful than being in the military on deployment? More stressful than being a paediatric surgeon operating on tiny babies? More stressful than being a children’s residential worker, prison officer? I’m not so sure.

People have different experiences and different limits, not every teaching job will be more stressful than every nursing job, and vice versa.

Exactly. I have two teachers in my extended family. One became a headteacher and had a breakdown due to stress (since changed career); the other taught for several years and also became a headteacher-she genuinely loves the profession and wouldn't want to do anything else. I know she works very hard, but it's the right job for her.

. I personally enjoy the challenge that it brings and it's never anything I'd ever really complain about to friends....

Your answer is here, your job is stressful as you need to make 100 correct decisions per day. This gives you satisfaction as you are using your brain to make calculations and are most likely helping people most of the time

Teaching is stressful in a different way.
You must employ all of your interpersonal skills so that you can respond to how the learners are progressing through the work you have given them. You must assess what is going on in their brain via body language and guesswork to see if the material you are teaching isn’t going in. Your focus is entirely on other people all day. You reach the point where you simply can’t find a further alternative explanation for a concept which you have been working on for months and then you must find a reserve of patience and respect your learners inability to comprehend the ideas.
When you get home, you do not want to interact with anyone, even your gorgeous children who you adore. You just don’t have any of that time of energy left. You cannot find it in yourself to ask them about their day at nursery or school, and god forbid they actually ask for input with their homework.

There is a direct conflict with teaching and parenting. One person simply doesn’t have the mental reserves to be able to do those type of interactions all day at work and then at home too. Unless they are superhuman, like all those teachers out there! Hurray for you all, keep going, doing the best you can.

Ps, op, most teachers do not recommend their job in the way you just have. Surely this says something?