Okay, about teachers...

[KitKat1985]

Okay I'm being brave here. I know a few people who happen to be teachers. Whenever they talk about their jobs, there's a real 'no other profession has to work as hard as us' vibe to their speech. I am fully aware and in agreement that it's a stressful job with long hours and ridiculous amount of pressure if you don't count the long holidays but it's hardly the only profession that has these issues. I myself am a nurse, and 14 hour shifts on an under-staffed ward with no breaks and several severely ill / abusive patient to look after are hardly a picnic either. But whenever I discuss work with teacher friends there's a definite 'if you want to talk about stress you should try being a teacher' element to the conversation, and it's starting to really get on my nerves. Lots of jobs are stressful, teaching isn't the only one! And it's only teachers I know that seem to have this general attitude about their profession. AIBU? Is it really more stressful than any other profession out there?

Dorsetdays
ANYONE who chooses to make sweeping, inaccurate generalisations about entire groups of people is an idiot.

ANYONE who starts a thread seeking to whip up the same old echo chamber targeting a whole group of people is being goady.

I feel the same way about goady threads like:
OP:I'm not saying it isn't difficult, but what exactly do SAHP do all day? I manage to do everything they do and work. They should try working and then knowing what hard work is like.

1. Sweep generalisations based on inaccurate and stupid assumptions about SAHP
2. Starting a goady thread where the fairly obvious intension is to get everyone with a chip on their shoulders about SAHP to jump in with why SAHP (that vast group of same experiences) must have it so much easier, don't know hard work. Then, if any SAHP explain why it's a silly goady thread, take it as confirmation that SAHP really do think they have it tough.

Same old thing: an OP shows up with their daft little chip, makes sweeping claims about SAHP (with the usual faux concerns or recognition that if course they're aren't saying it's easy but totally are going for that angle) and then if any SAHP tries to counter the idiots then those who have the chip take whatever SAHP say as more proof of their tragic generalisations.

Well aren’t you a joy? Calling people idiots, goady and have chips on their shoulders.
See above.
People who start goady threads and/or turn up spouting ridiculous nonsense are goady idiots.

As I said at the start of the thread, the problem with goady idiots is that anyone calling them out on being ridiculous only gets taken as more proof that their silly little conspiracies are true.

You can't have a discussion with a goady idiots.

In real life nobody goes around worrying about what teachers think. Nobody waits outside a school in order to goad a random teacher.
In real life most people are sensible, rational adults have so much going on in their lives that they haven't got the time or inclination to be whining and speculating and generalising about whole groups of people.

Equally, in the real world most people who hear a friend have a bad day manage to be sympathetic without needing to go online and say "OMG my friend who is a cake model maker said they were so stressed in wedding season and that it's nothing like my job! What is it with cake decorators in thinking that nobody else ever in the history of the universe ever has any stress? Please join me in sharing about how we all know this is the case and if any cake decorators say that we are wrong or tell us about the pressure of wedding season, that just proves how much they think their lives are worse than everyone else"

I mean, seriously. Who does that other than goady idiots or drama llamas?

@Lola

I think you used the word ‘ goady to describe a valid opion held my many due to personal interactions with teachers.

A quick look on the staff board threads. There are many many posts from teachers complaining about exactly how the OP describes..

A quick look on the staff board threads. There are many many posts from teachers complaining about exactly how the OP describes

I bet you can’t find any where a teacher has said their job is the most stressful one ever.

I think you used the word ‘ goady to describe a valid opion held my many due to personal interactions with teachers
And yet funnily enough, your personal interactions with a few teachers don't justify sweeping generalisations about a whole profession.

It's really not a difficult thing to understand.

A quick look on the staff board threads. There are many many posts from teachers complaining about exactly how the OP describes
Shock horror, people in a profession discuss some of the challenges in a profession with others in the profession (so, oh wait... Not what the OP is claiming that staff think their jobs are a million times harder)

You seem to have a worrying overinvestment in trying to prove a whole profession thinks their life is difficult and worse than everyone else's. Pray, enlighten me, do you look on employment boards for all professions in your free time to judge whether you think their concerns about issues are valid enough to be worth discussing?

It comes back to what many of us have said on this thread: people who don't work in education make silly goady comments and then when challenged on their own ignorance don't like it and claim that being challenged proves their point.

I honestly couldn't even contemplate having so little in the way of interests that I'd spend my time online making pointless generalisations about professions I'm not in (even going as far as to find employment boards to scan over).

The difference is as this is a parenting site many many people have daily interactions with teachers.
So yes people make their views on what they see and hear

And Actually I’ve met some wonderful inspirational teachers and have had some wonderful teachers teach my kids.

Unfortunately my experience is that the majority do moan an awful lot about stress and tiredness and pressure . When in fact the reality is in teaching if something goes wrong , and a complaint is made and upheld nothing changes !

fedup21
The types of people who are heavily overinvested in whining and bitching about professions that have nothing to do with them don't care for reality. They just like to prod and prod and then claim victory if challenged.

The top few threads in Staffroom right now:

• text choice in y9 English
• sharing workload with part time working
• suggestions for teaching unseen poetry
• money issues in school
• questions for people in pastoral roles
• 2 threads about the pay rise awards
• a rant about working with NQTs who take up huge amounts of time over non issues
• teaching with young children
• exam marking and maternity leave
• career advice for TAs
• Ofsted
• application advice
• teaching a level sociology

It is, as we can see a hive of people who think their working lives are worse than anyone in the universe

The difference is as this is a parenting site many many people have daily interactions with teachers.
And..
So yes people make their views on what they see and hear
They make their views on the people they meet and the schools they encounter. It doesn't qualify them in any way to comment on a whole profession any more than me going to my GP surgery qualifies me to pass comment on the broad professions of nursing and medicine.

Because to think my interactions with my health centre remotely qualified me to do such a think would either be goady idiot behaviour or arrogant behaviour or both.

@Lola

On the staff room the overwhelmingly most commentated on thread .... the only one with over 100 posts .....

‘Anyone else had enough’

I might start a goady thread on office workers. Who do they think they are sitting at a desk all day?

Retail workers - how dare they get staff discount, why aren’t I entitled to one?

Library workers. They just read books all day, lazy!

When in fact the reality is in teaching if something goes wrong , and a complaint is made and upheld nothing changes

Ah I see. This makes your position clearer.

silly248 et al. Why are you reading the Staffroom obsessively? I don’t feel the need to read a forum about plumbers and then post goady comments.

By the way, UCAS opens next week for teaching PGCE courses if you want to apply! Show ‘em how it’s done.

On the staff room the overwhelmingly most commentated on thread .... the only one with over 100 posts .....
‘Anyone else had enough
See also - there is a recruitment and retention crisis.

Also, not what the OP is on about as this is staff talking to staff about challenges in teaching.

Please explain to me what exactly your issue is with teachers talking to fellow teachers about the current struggles in the sector.

I'm also going to assume you do indeed trawl the internet for all professions and have concluded that no other workforce ever discussesnthe challenges they face between themselves?

I have to admit, again, for someone not in the sector you seem awfully awfully over invested in trying to prove this very silly little thing you've got going if your new argument is "teachers clearly think their working life is worse than anyone else's anywhere because on a staffroom board teachers have shared challenges in the workplace".
It's getting a bit desperate.

Basketof. I assume it was read as it’s relevant to this thread? It’s an open forum, therefore assume anyone can read it if they want to.

But why bother? Don’t people have more important things to worry about than what a teacher thinks? If they once heard a teacher / nurse / circus performer say their job is the hardest in the world who actually cares?

I just really do not get it. DH is military. He likes to have a good moan. I don’t resent him finishing early on a Friday. I don’t feel the need to post goady posts on military forums.

Oh heaven forbid anyone should let off steam about their job during their time off - and to a friend nonetheless! I'm guessing you never say anything about the demands of your job in these conversations, OP?

Fuck off with your thinly-disguised teacher bashing. People have tough jobs, nothing will change by pitting profession against profession. If you resent your friends for their career choice, get new friends.

Basket. I think the OP is being misinterpreted. What was actually said is that they find it frustrating when they have the occasional moan to friends about their own work as their teacher friends seem to turn it into a competition eg if you think you have stress now, try teaching etc.

The question that was asked was, AIBU, is teaching actually the most stressful job as their friends seem to make out.

You don’t mind your DH having a moan about his job, do you think your DH would find it supportive if you turned round and made it a competition as to who was most stressed? Possibly not....

Dorset
I don't think they're being misinterpreted at all.
Someone turns up saying they're "being brave" by posting a done to death topic, stating that only teachers have this attitude that their world is so much more difficult, all because their friends have a "vibe" when they talk.

As predicted the usual nonsense happened and people with their own goady nonsense and generalisations pile on etc and then anyone who challenges it has to deal with "see see they complain".

If my friends were having a rubbish time, it wouldn't cross my mind to come on MN being "brave" about their "vibe" and making silly generalisations based on my friends who've had a rubbish time.

In another school, teaching was bad for my mental health and home life. I nearly left the profession. Thankfully I got a much better school. It's a good job my friends weren't arseholes being "brave" when I was working in a really toxic environment, instead they were actual friends.

I am guessing at the end of your long shift you go home and forget about work (if you can) until your next one. In teaching we are expected to do more than would actually fit even if we only stopped working to eat and sleep.

This means you are in a constant panic because you know that at any moment you could be picked up on something you haven't done. In the current climate of everything a teacher does being scrutinized. This means that you spend every waking moment worrying about the things you "ought" to be doing. It is extremely easy to end up on capability procedures dressed up as "extra support" which means even more work and even more observation.

For what it is worth, I am a successful secondary maths teacher who chose to go part time to try and regain some work-life balance (unsuccessfully).

DH is military. He likes to have a good moan. I don’t resent him finishing early on a Friday. I don’t feel the need to post goady posts on military forums.

My DH is military. I can't remember the last time he had an early dart on a Friday. DS1 is, also, military. He's been away for more than 4 months this year and still has another 7 weeks of exercises here, there and everywhere before Christmas. Sometimes he gets an early finish on a Friday however it doesn't make up for all the Saturdays, Sundays, Bank Holidays, etc that he's worked.

Just give it a month and no one will be moaning about teachers, there will be thread after thread about how the Armed Forces don't deserve public support because they chose their job and no one is going to buy a poppy.

145 posts on a staffroom thread is hardly a tsunami of complaints. There are loads of teachers on MN, way more than 145.

I haven't read the thread, but I suspect they don't all say they have had enough either.

TheFairyCaravan
Maybe the month after that we'll be into Christmas bugs season where the delightful types will be complaining they just HAD to go to A&E for a sniffle and a cold because it says "chest pain". They'll then come on MN and make generalisations about all doctors because they've had some interactions with doctors, which naturally qualifies them to pass comment on the health service and conclude the doctors don't know what they are talking about and should shut up moaning.

Those pesky doctors who go on the news around this time of year warning about cuts to services and staff conditions will be such feckless lazy arseholes who should work 45 hours a day because some miserable sods online resent doctors having a professional salary.
You know if only doctors worked a bit harder and a bit longer then there'd be no issues in the NHS. And I tell you what, they better not discuss the cuts because that will prove how much they think their job is worse than anyone else's, ever in the universe.

Aha! Just looked! The first 30 or so posts make very sad reading , to the extent that people express concern about someone's wellbeing. What then drives a GF on to a staffroom thread to pile in and tell highly stressed professionals that they are a bunch of moaners, who knows. Lack of compassion, I guess. But, anyway, approximately half the posts are someone being a GF. Their voice in fact dominates the thread. And it's another public sector worker wanting to give teachers a good kicking.

Sorry - so now teachers cant talk to other teachers about struggling?

Seriously, you need a hobby. This is bizarre over investment.