To give up this "easy" money?

[DietC0keandLime]

I currently work for a fairly small manufacturing business, when I joined the office was an absolute mess and the business on the brink of collapsing, so I was given a profit share in the business as an incentive to help turn it around, but I don't own shares or anything like that.

The business has really grown over the past ten years since I started, and I have ended up being paid really well these past couple of years for what I do (around £50k, the role would normally be about £20-25k if not for the profit share) and I think that would continue to be the case for the next few years as well.

The owner of the business is really lovely, but I don't actually like the job for the most part, I find it really stressful, my mental health has been quite bad for the past year and I think it is a big contributing factor. There's nowhere for me to grow within the company, and I feel like I'm just fed up.

I really want to completely retrain in something different, I have a career in mind but I would need to go back to Uni and do a full degree to even get started in it, which would take 3/4 years and the maximum salary I could ever realistically earn would be £40k. Probably this industry would be more demanding and have it's own stresses, but I think it would be more rewarding as well.

I'm 35, no kids, but DH isn't supportive. He can't believe I'm even considering it. He thinks I've dropped really lucky with my current job and I'd be crazy to give up the "easy" money. DH earns around £70k, we've made good financial decisions in the past and we only have a small mortgage and have an additional joint income of £1k per month on two rental properties we inherited. I don't expect him to support me through Uni, I would get a loan to cover my half of the bills and have a small amount of savings too.

I'm grateful for my current job, I really am, I feel guilty for thinking about giving it up but I hate the thought of still being here in five years time. It's like Groundhog Day.

I need some perspective please. What do you think, WIBU to change careers?

As someone who career changed into primary teaching, please be aware, currently there are not enough jobs for all the trainees. Schools are getting 70/80 up applications. If you’re over 40, forget it, they only want 22 yr olds. Sounds cynical but that’s the reality at the moment. It should be the best job in the world and I love being in the classroom but all the other stuff isn’t worth it. If you already suffer from poor mental health and anxiety, teaching is definitely not a good choice

You’re 35 OP, you say you’d love to work with children. You then say you ‘don’t want your own’ but are you sure?

Is there a particular reason why you don’t want kids? If you can’t have your own, there’s always adoption.

Is kids another thing that DH has put the kybosh on like teaching, fostering etc?

Just not entirely sure this desire to work with children isn’t a sublimated desire to have children.

I’m a career change teacher. I was 39 when I retrained. Whilst I love teaching itself, the constant moving of goalposts and sheer amount of scrutiny is immense. You also won’t be earning anywhere near £40K for quite some time.
I think if you’ve been having mental health problems then going into teaching isn’t going to help at all. I personally think that giving up a £50K salary is bonkers.
If you want to do something with children then how about volunteering to be a Brownies/Cubs/Scouts leader? They’re always crying out for people to help and it’s great fun! You’d get to do things like pack holidays too.

Stay put and do volunteering. I am a teacher with 20 plus years of experience. I earn 41k. It will take you at least 9 years to get to that and ups jobs are few and far between. The stress and workload and toxic atmosphere in a lot is schools is awful especially since academies were set up.
A lot of schools will not pay ups salary either. Teachers are leaving in their hundreds. It isn’t a 9-5 Job. Weekends and evenings are the norm and expected. It is a very hard career now

1. You should clearly find something else if this job doesn't make you happy. If you can't see yourself there in another 5 years, that's a gut feeling I'd listen to.

1. Teaching might be for you, it might not be, it's really heavily dependent on your personality.

I did a teaching degree first (different country where you do an academic teaching degree plus the practical PGCE) and ended up doing a different degree afterwards. A few things I found:

• you really don't know what kind of teacher you are and what the actual challenges of the job are until you've tried it. A school setting and other child related jobs aren't comparable. I thought as a creative, child loving, confident person this would be the perfect job for me. Despite getting very good grades during teacher training, I really didn't feel happy.

I felt it was ground hog day- like (every day you sit and prepare for the next day and you're never "finished"). The constant snap decisions and changes to deal with the situations in the classroom stressed me out completely, I'm a personality who needs a lot of thinking and rethinking to make a decision. And working in a burocratic system also wore me down. On the other hand, some colleagues on my course were clearly born teachers and loved every minute. So, if there is any way at all, see if you can find a way to try it before committing to it?

Personally, I think you are being incredibly naive to think that teaching would be any less stressful if you cannot hack it in your current environment. It sounds like a pretty badly considered plan. If you really want to go down a retraining route, you should consider studying part-time, via some open university type training while continuing working.

OH, dear. I thought this would be an easy answer. My dad always told me, "Do what you have a passion for and you'll never 'work' a day in your life." So, of course you should retrain. Then I read "teacher." I cannot think of a job that is more underpaid for the effort it takes to do it properly, except perhaps nursing. Here's the thing...when teaching the primary grades, your students will be a source of wonder and joy, with occasional forays into utter chaos and insanity. HOWEVER...your real problems are going to be irate parents and unreasonable...um...headmasters? We call them Principals. And idiotic school boards. Do be aware (and consider carefully) just how political the school systems generally are. If you have done this, and still believe that teaching will fulfill some deep need within you, GO FOR IT!

Do it.
You say you’re frustrated, your mental health is suffering and there’s nowhere to grow in the company. That’s a painful place to be.
Life is for living. Any living thing on this planet is either growing or dying, there’s no plateau.
You have the financial security to make this possible.
Go for it.
I changed career aged 40 with a 1 year old. Everyone told me it was too risky. My husband was 100% behind me. It was 5 years training. Yes was hard financially but we managed on my husband’s 40k salary (I left a good income) and it was tough paying for 2 days a week childcare, studying in nap times and evenings and bits of freelance work on childcare days when I could find work + the course fees of course. We were poor - but rich in other ways.

I was alive and fulfilled and loved my new direction.
Sometimes mums say to me now (13 years later) you’re so lucky to have a career that you love that is flexible around school and family.

It’s not luck! I worked so hard.
We are the creators of our lives.

Live your dream, don’t waste your life some place “good on paper” that in reality sucks the joy out of you.
Appreciate the secure financial base you have and follow your calling.

With very best wishes xxx

Even if you go and watch someone teach, it can't give you any idea if you want to do it.

Because it's not you doing all the preparation, 'performing,' (and it is a type of performing) marking etc.

If you're miserable then you don't really have much to lose, though.

Oh my god op have you been living under a rock? Do not do this!

@Vladi10

As someone who career changed into primary teaching, please be aware, currently there are not enough jobs for all the trainees. Schools are getting 70/80 up applications. If you’re over 40, forget it, they only want 22 yr olds. Sounds cynical but that’s the reality at the moment. It should be the best job in the world and I love being in the classroom but all the other stuff isn’t worth it. If you already suffer from poor mental health and anxiety, teaching is definitely not a good choice

Yeah this was the case for me when I was thinking of doing my training over 10 years ago. I remember there only being one job in my area within a reasonable commute and even that was quite far away.

Life is short. Take the leap.

Dont go into teaching....please im begging you. Unless you want to go into work in a job that drains your soul and your mental health and eats into your home life ..and where for the first five years at least you never know if a job will be available at the start of every term time...otherwise go for it..

So much negativity on this post!

I’m a secondary teacher and in my 21st year of teaching. I love my job and can’t imagine ever doing anything else.

It is hard work and stressful but I’m never bored and this is important to me. Kids and colleagues make it enjoyable and make me laugh every day.

Do you mean that you don’t have a degree? If so, I would choose a subject which you love and study that rather than studying Education. Doing that and then a PGCE or SCITT training will give you far more options if it isn’t for you in the end.

You have far more financial security than most people - go for it!

It sounds as if your finances are pretty good and should support you changing tack. You are still young enough and you have years ahead of you to regret it if you don't make a decision now. I've seen all the negative comments about teaching however and do wonder if you need more 'coalface' experience before making your decision.
Would it be possible to talk with your boss about how you feel? You are obviously a very valued employee (and please note many teachers don't feel this) and there may be other opportunities in your present employment that you aren't aware of.
The other thing I would say is that, with your husband's income and the rent from your properties could you not avoid taking out a student loan? It will have to be paid back once you are earning and the interest rates are not fixed and no longer as favourable as they once were. My youngest son has a student debt of £45,000 and his current job doesn't pay over the threshold but it is a burden worth remembering.
Good luck with whatever you decide!

Training to teach to reduce stress - funniest thing I've read in ages.

I'm a teacher - it's hard! The hours I put in in my own time are incredible. The holidays come around and I never thing 'ah, half term', I think 'right let's sort next half term'. Coupled with the age old rhetoric from society of 'teachers have it easy'.

DH has just left teaching for the DfE and hasn't looked back. He was dep head with full class responsibilities too and couldn't do either one properly - how can you teach your class full time and do all your dep responsibilities and similarly, when on dep role, who teaches your class..?

Why not change jobs, to something low-stress and lower paid (could be TA, or a full-time office role) and study part-time with the OU?

Do a degree that interests you (check for acceptability for PGCE entry). You have leisure time, by the sound of it, so it shouldn't be hard to find the time. If your day job is occupying 9-5 but not too mentally taxing, you'll have plenty of mental energy left for studying.

Plus, who knows, you may find a change is as good as a rest, job-wise. In time, a new job might open up new opportunities. Keeping your hand in, in the wider world of work, rather than narrowing your options immediately, could pay off in unexpected ways.

Then, if teaching is still what you think you want, you'd only be devoting one year to training (and you could save for that in the meantime). That's not too much to write off, if it doesn't turn out to be right for you.

You and your DH are in an excellent financial situation. You have to ask yourselves what that comfort and security is for. If you can't make use of when needed (this is hardly frivolous) to save your mental health and make life worth living, what is the point of it?

Well lets put it this love, I'm 33, I am a level 4 qualified chef with two children a partner who works full time, severe depression and anxiety and severe dyslexia.....buuuuuut I'm doing an apprenticeship at a hospital to become a midwife. and it comes with uniform, on the job learning, fully recognised qualification to either stay at same hospital after qualification or more on my choice. and after becoming qualified, which is 18 months in total very similar to a nursing to midwife degree I would earn £33,000 per year.

Every choice is your choice. if you, and you alone feel up to the task then don't let anyone ever stop you. xxx

Have you considered setting up your own business? You clearly have the skills to do well.

And depending on what kind of business, bearing in mind if you have two rental properties you already in a way have a small business, you could possibly work and set it up at the same time for a while.

I did that a few years ago when I too felt underemployed.

I think the stress that OP is feeling about her job comes from being bored and under stimulated with the actual job, and the knowledge she can't go anywhere with it, unless I've misunderstood. Not because that job in itself is stressful.

So this opinion that going into teaching, with all the stresses that involves, would be wrong for her, is missing the point. Being in the wrong job for you is bad for your health, yes. For some, clearly, that might be teaching. For op, it is the job she's been in for too long. Doesn't mean teaching isn't suitable for her.

Many wonderful teachers find satisfaction and fulfilment in their chosen path, even though they have to work hard and endure all the stressful aspects, but of course it doesn't suit everyone.

The stress of being bored and unfulfilled with nothing to look forward to could have a worse effect on some people than the stress of doing something interesting, stimulating and fulfilling which also has difficult parts to it.

It may be that with the chosen path of not becoming a parent, the more stressful parts of a teaching career may have less impact than they would otherwise. Financially secure and with no intended dcs is a position of real freedom. If you want to leave and train as a teacher, op, I hope you go for it. The best advice anyone ever gave me was - don't be afraid to make mistakes. Hopefully your life will be a long one, with plenty of scope to change careers whenever you want to.

Your instinct to save yourself from a situation that no longer serves your best interests, is a good one. And, given your situation, you are in an excellent position to do something about it!
Best of luck

Love your post FantasticButtocks
Completely agree with you. Feeling stuck, bored, unfulfilled is so detrimental to mental health and not operating at your potential is incredibly stressful for many people - we all have different personality types. So a job that looks like “a good deal and less stress” to one person is hugely stressful to another.
I interpreted OPs post exactly the same way.
A capable woman who has achieved a lot in current job and has financial security.
So much life ahead and now it’s time for a new chapter

Teaching is horrendous, I would seriously advise against it. Especially giving up what you have for it. It’s a mundane, thankless job and you WONT make a difference. 3 x teachers in my immediate family who are soul-crushed.

If I were you, I’d maybe go part time in current job, and maybe train as a private tutor part time, as tutoring is more rewarding and less stressful.