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?

Both tough in different ways.

Nurses (very wide field here) deal with terminally ill people, terminally ill children, mentally ill unpredictable patients. Adults and children die in front of them. I'm not sure I could deal with that after having my own children. They have to try and switch off from that when they get home, even if they aren't marking and lesson planning.

Teaching teenagers? Every day?! I couldn't.

An incredible primary teacher I know quit a couple of years ago because she couldn't handle the work load after 8 years. She had an absolute breakdown because of it.

Stress is stress it's all valid.

You could simply have reported that post, but you want the thread deleted because it isn't going your way.

I’m a teacher, know loads of teachers - we are all happy to acknowledge the holidays are a perk of teaching. I don’t know anyone who would say - this is the most stressful job ever - so I think you are being goady as you must know ‘teachers’ do not all do this competitive stress thing.
I am sure I couldn’t be a social worker and think being a doctor or nurse would be just as stressful although in a different way - I actually think I would be better suited to a healthcare setting personally as there isn’t the planning element. As many PPs have said teaching has its unique challenges and one of those is facing constant criticism- yes people can be martyrs about it, but I would never start a thread saying ‘oooh nurses I wish they would stop whinging’. People seem to reserve that for teachers.

Wow yet another thread that will probably go like this:
OP: turns up and starts a thread about how teachers (nice big group of people who are identical) think they work so hard, blah blah blah. Their job isn't as difficult as...

Teachers: point out this is inaccurate, but yes there are stresses and here they are

Other posters: pile in with digs about holidays, etc

Teachers: correct misconceptions

OP and anti teacher posters: See! See! They love complaining about how their job is so terrible and awful and nobody works as hard

it's like playing chess with a pigeon

"What on earth did you expect"?

A sensible conversation where people can post their perspectives like adults without getting aggressive and telling me to fuck off maybe?

I'm confused: was someone else supposed to be helping with your posts but they didn't turn up?

Before you go, OP.... I was a teacher. I've been in hospital. I took my marking. Your working life is a piece of piss compared with teaching.

I think teachers tend to talk about it because of those who think it’s easy

This ^^

I don't think teaching is more stressful than other jobs, but I think a lot of people think teaching is a 9-3, term time only job, and that we spend half the day in the staff room drinking tea. I get so many comments about 'ooh must be nice to finish at 3/have 3 months off a year/just stick on a video if you need a break' etc. etc. Yeah it would be nice, if any of it was remotely true!

There's a lot of misconceptions about teaching in the current education system. Less so about other professions. I'd bet money that no-one has ever said/implied to you that nursing is an easy job. We almost have to defend our profession at times, so it does get spoken about more.

Well that saves anyone asking for peace and love.

A sensible conversation

Yes, of course that’s what you wanted.

I hope MN don’t take this thread down just because the OP didn’t like the responses she got. That’s not normally how it works.

For what it’s worth, I have NEVER met a teacher who has claimed their job was harder than anyone else’s. Ever...and I know a lot of teachers.

What I have seen is a lot of people claiming teachers ‘have it easy’ or work part time or play with sand etc and then teachers respond saying, ‘actually, we do work quite hard!’

Then someone very goady piles in with, ‘you think you work harder than anyone else then?!’

A bit like this thread really.

a day off for Christmas Shopping

Thats great news for me - I'm owed 25 days as I have never ever been given a day off for Christmas shopping

I have however attended training events in my own time and given up weekends to enable pupils to go on residential holidays.
I've also come into school at weekends to allow pupils to rehearse.

Holly
Whereas I'm almost at the point where I don't even bother trying to explain the challenges in education with goady idiots.

There's always going to be people who love a dig and think that because they get X holidays then nobody else should have more, who can't understand that each profession has its benefits and drawbacks but you take the package when you sign up, people who think because they went to school they know it all. There's generally little point discussing with them because like anti-vaxers, flat earthers or anyone else with a chip on their shoulder, anything you say will be selectively drawn on to confirm their world view.

When the "let's whine about teachers" types start asking questions and debate proper education issues in good faith, then it's worth engaging.

@lazylinguist
Your user name belies how eloquently you made your point. I'm fed up with how teachers are considered fair game, too.
This thread is just another excuse for teacher bashing. If it was so easy everyone would do it. It has also ruined my tea break, I'm spending my Saturday planning interventions for children when I'd rather be spending it with my own.

@fedup21 I agree on every single point you made.

I’ve worked at three schools where we got a day off for Christmas shopping, traded against all the attending concerts, and fairs. Not since the Millenium though.

So you mean you got TOIL 20 years ago?

Both Teaching and Nursing are difficult professions .I think that all of this competition between whose job is the most stressful ,is detracting from the real issues of underfunding by the various government departments .Many teachers seem to thrive on their jobs ,while many seem to struggle .I admire both greatly and feel that they would both be difficult to undertake TBH!

That's more annual leave in one go than many people have for the whole year

No it isn't. Its five weeks of mandatory unpaid leave.

For the millionth time teachers get exactly the same paid holidays as everyone else, they also have mandatory unpaid leave built into the year.

How many threads do you see on here complaining that nurses and solicitors have an easy life? Its exactly this kind of thread which generates the defensive reactions.

I think it’s the combo of high energy, high intensity, high stress and work that follows you everywhere and robs you of any free time.
Many jobs have one or two of these but not many have all of the three (some obviously do).

And yet in teaching it just seems to be a culture of teachers all saying 'no-one else works as hard as us'.

I think you’re talking shit. Everyone moans about their job (I actually really like mine, at least currently). Every job has its issues but it seems to be a real MN thing to slag off teachers and moan about them. Not one person I know on a staff of 40 teachers says no one works as hard as them. We know fine well other people have much more stressful jobs.

I don't think anyone should moan to a nurse about how tough their job is, I think any of the jobs that are public service if you know what I mean, are ones that people do appreciate, and know that are hard!

If it was so easy everyone would do it. It has also ruined my tea break, I'm spending my Saturday planning interventions for children when I'd rather be spending it with my own.
Now now. You know just by pointing out that you're lesson planning on a Saturday means you're clearly bragging about how hard you work, which is essentially saying you work harder than every human on the planet, like, ever.

I’ve never once said, nor believed, that teaching is the hardest job in the world.

I do believe that some people have no idea how stressful teaching is, and I’ve been told it’s a 9-3 job with 13 weeks ‘holiday’ a year (obviously by people who aren’t teachers). I don’t think it’s necessary to explain again how untrue that is, because there’s been so many posts about it before.

The people I’ve read posts from on here who are most vitriolic about teachers are those who are jealous about teacher holidays.

If they want the teacher holidays, they can surely retrain as a teacher.

Well many teachers are rather full of their own believed self importance.

Many jobs are hard, stressful and under huge pressure to perform. Nowhere else can you get the work life balance of having a quarter of the year off every year.

I think many teachers just hate the job so much they can't see the woods for the trees anymore.

I work part time as a teacher (3 days a week). I get into work at 7:30am and I leave anywhere between 4pm and 6pm - depends if there's a staff meeting/observation feedback meeting/team meet/huge load of paperwork to complete due to child protection issues etc etc etc.
I work at home during weekends and holidays, as well as my 'days off'. I am subjected to scrutiny lots at school, my pay increases are performance related, often including data targets, which aren't supposed to be allowed. In a deprived demographic, stating that 100% of children have to make 6 steps of progress during the school year is impossible when you have children that are barely in school, have abusive home lives, are falling asleep in class etc. These are things that you have zero control over and yet they are used to judge whether or not you should get a pay rise. That's like telling a GP that they're only allowed to have 35 dermatology cases a year, or a police officer that they have to arrest 150 burglars that year.
Every single other profession is able to choose when they go on holiday, and therefore have the option to go during cheaper times of the year.
I also don't hear of any other profession being told how easy they have it at work. Being scoffed at for only working 30 hours a week, when you're actually closer to working double that, being sneered at for just 'playing all day', when you're working so hard, and so intensely, that you struggle to ever switch off. That's extremely demoralising but it seems that everyone and his dog has an opinion on how easy we have it.