To think working in 'the professions' is not all it's cracked up to be?

[malificent7]

I think the major professions do a fantastic job by the way.
Teachers, doctors, nurses, police, social workers etc are amazing.
Im an x Teacher ...now retraining in health care and ive been passionate about both roles. If course the benefits are great...pensions, regular wages, holidays...cannot fault it.
But omg...the stress, accountability, hatred from public, politics.
Is it worth it?
For me probably yes for stability but I am not a natural.

@Didiusfalco

Almost everything is stressful in one way or another. If you have a low paid job you have the stress of paying bills and getting by. If you get paid more in the public sector roles you describe there is security and decent pay but a sense of overwhelming responsibility. If you have a job like my dh which is neither of the first two then there is the stress of financial targets and looming redundancy. You just have to pick which stress suits you best.

This.

A lot of my family are in public sector roles and complain endlessly about the stress and difficulty and how I was paid so much more. My brother stopped complaining so much when I did a pension calculator to show how much his benefits were, quieted a bit when my exH became seriously ill and they saw how insecure that makes your job in the private sector, and they've all paused temporarily (except the teachers) when I was made redundant mid-pandemic and alone with young DCs to provide for, while their jobs are bulletproof.

I grew up thinking that the private sector was a bed of roses next to the martyrs of state service, and while I do that the responsibility is higher and pay can be lower, there is plenty of bureaucracy and stress in the private sector, and higher salaries don't always compensate for lack of job security and benefits, and the sense of meaning that many public sector roles provide.

Those professions you listed OP nearly all make me think they are jobs where you have to (or at least people tend to) put their own needs last. Often the needs of their families also have to come last.

Putting themselves last ranging from struggling to get a break to use the loo or eat and drink to not being able to attend your childs school play or sports day.

I couldn't do it. I'd rather work in a lower paid job and be able to meet my basic needs and leave work at work. Working in a call centre, retail, care, office admin and even in waitressing I always got breaks even if in the call centre you were "in trouble" if you were 1 minute late back from a break.

My mum was a teacher (now retired) and could never attend anything at our school. My husband is a teacher and it doesn't seem anything has changed there - except he is part time so can do things that fall on his days off.

When I had my youngest son I saw the staff member helping me back on the ward rush around for a full 12 hour shift and apologise when she ducked behind the desk for a sandwich and tell me we could disturb her if we needed to. I don't know how anyone works like that.

I disagree with the term "Profession" and prefer "Self appointed professionals".
They are just people doing a job they are paid for, and in some cases not doing very much for the money.

Putting themselves last ranging from struggling to get a break to use the loo or eat and drink to not being able to attend your childs school play or sports day.

I've had shop jobs where I put off having a drink. My sister is a teacher, she's never missed a nativity or sports day. I think it's very much dependent on the headteacher/school.

In my experience civil servants are not in control of their workload, they do not do cushy jobs, are not well paid, not well pensioned (relatively to responsibilities and resulting low pay) and we do have to work unpaid hours routinely to get the work done which means staying late and taking work home and often catching up on work at weekends

Just on pay: www.instituteforgovernment.org.uk/printpdf/6719
This says ‘Across the whole civil service, the majority of staff (55%, or almost 250,000 civil servants) are paid below £30,000 – with nearly a one in 10 civil servants (9%) paid under £20,000.’

I don’t think that means the typical civil servant stands out as ‘well paid’ compared to other public sector workers but happy to be proved wrong..

@Jellycatspyjamas

Anyone can call themselves a teacher, for instance (or doctor, for that matter). What you can't do is make out you have qualifications, authority or expertise that you don't have.

To practice as a social worker in the U.K. you must, by law, be registered with the regulatory body for your home nation. To practice as a doctor you must be registered with the relevant regulatory body. You can call yourself whatever you like, but you can’t practice in a regulated profession without being registered.

But not as a teacher, one of your initial examples. And since I was talking about common usage of the term "profession", not about registered professions, the relevant bit is the examples of common usage I gave.

• "regulated professions"

But not as a teacher, one of your initial examples.

Depends on where you are, in Scotland we don’t have unregistered teachers.

@Jellycatspyjamas

But not as a teacher, one of your initial examples.

Depends on where you are, in Scotland we don’t have unregistered teachers.

Focusing on the fact there are some professions where titles or activities are regulated by law isn't sufficient to back up the nonsense you wrote about those roles being the only thing that people consider to be professions.

And on this example, even if we're just talking about teaching, the idea of it only being a profession because it's regulated doesn't apply to over 80% of the UK's population. So undermines, rather than supports, your assertion.

Stress, accountability and office politics are part of many jobs - and hatred from the public a good view. Without the job security. So...

@longandwide ..... which is part of the mismanagement and bullying and another reason why after two decades I'm probably going to leave and do something else.