To think that teachers are responsible for the school year

[Babymeanswashing]

Obviously, no other country has long school holidays in the summer. Five and a half weeks is obviously a lot, and given that non teaching spouses and non school age children get to take advantage of nice cheap holidays, I really think teachers need taking to task for this.

OK, there was obviously a heavy dose of sarcasm there in case it goes over anybody’s head, because I’ve been flamed for having the tenacity to teach and am ‘lucky’ because of the holidays.

I’m not fucking ‘lucky’! DP is paid over 80k a year, PLUS a car, PLUS a phone, PLUS gift cards for places like Argos on a regular basis for ‘loyal service.’ And while he has slightly less holiday than I do, he also has a lot more flexibility not only in the year but in his working day.

AIBU to say - go and train as a teacher if you think we are lucky. And I bloody love teaching BTW!

NHS worker with own caseload. Myself and my colleagues, see clients in working hours and each individual seen takes 45 - 60 minutes to document in our own time. Sometimes more. Not unusual to be typing at 9pm. Notes and extras like reports and referrals very regularly get done at weekends. Online training done in own time. Employer just tells us we shouldn't be doing that, but if we don't and caseload documentation or contacts falls behind we are in trouble. I do get sick pay and decent holidays - though I almost forgot- my job was also downgraded a few years ago, with no change to responsibilities or workload, just decreased pay. I know lots of other people, in jobs other than teaching, who work way more hours than paid for, and have far worse terms and conditions than either teaching or my role. Teaching is hard but so are lots of other jobs.

@SuperCaliFragalistic

YABU for starting yet another thread about how hard done by teachers are. I respect the profession and the work undertaken by teachers but why are you so special that you need to whine about your hours, holidays and how your DP gets argos gift vouchers?? Try talking to social workers, prison officers, foster carers, nurses and many other challenging professions and realise that other people do difficult jobs too.

Read the OP:

OK, there was obviously a heavy dose of sarcasm there in case it goes over anybody’s head

In your case: Whoooooooooooshhhh

For those losing their shit over @ChainJane post:

I agree, I mean you work from 9am to 3pm for 36 weeks a year, people should cut you some slack really.

Please continue reading:

Seriously though,

SHE/HE IS JOKING

To everyone saying that teaching may be stressful but it’s not as stressful as X, Y, Z or it’s not the only stressful job….

Do you say things like that to people complaining of pain? Ah but it’s not as painful as… It’s not the only painful thing!!

Do you say it to people who are sad? Do you say it to people who are strapped for cash?

If not, why not?

99% of the teachers I know and read posts from don’t think we have the only stressful job or the most stressful job. Far from it. We should be allowed to rant occasionally without other people jumping on us continually.

Do you say things like that to people complaining of pain? Ah but it’s not as painful as… It’s not the only painful thing!!

No but I would if they said that their pain was the most painful thing in the world and nothing else could ever be so painful, dismissing everyone else's pain as so much less than theirs.

Most people were responding to the poster who said that no other job was as hard as teaching.

Most people were responding to the poster who said that no other job was as hard as teaching.

That doesn’t explain the exact same responses on the other 4 million teacher bashing threads.

As a teacher, I don't think that it's a harder job than anyone elses, particularly in the public sector. But I wouldn't make comments on anyone elses jobs if I I'd never done the job myself. However, teachers over any other profession seem to get bashed the most by non teachers who really know nothing about the job. Having friends or family who are teachers doesn't count... You don't know unless you've tried it. I wouldn't criticise what being a nurse is like as I've never done that job.

Teaching is unique though. I've had parents from all different work backgrounds say, I could never teach 30 4 and 5 year old, you must be crazy! Lol!

This is one of my favourite quotes that sums up teaching. I'm not sure if there are any/many other jobs like this...

"On teaching:...the job seems to require the sort of skills one would need to pilot a bus full of live chickens backwards, with no brakes, down a rocky road through the Andes while simultaneously providing colorful and informative commentary on the scenery.” Franklin Habit

@Hardbackwriter

DH is a teacher and when people go on about the holidays he just says 'I know, bloody brilliant, isn't it? I don't know whether to spend August asleep, drunk or a bit of both!'. It tends to shut them up.

I do this. I pull a very convincing air of sincerity and say "I know! It's brilliant. And the work is really pleasant too, I have no complaints at all. I don't know why everyone didn't retrain like me."

I don’t think teachers are lucky at all. Most of them now seem to be working from 8-6 when you account for prepping and marking. Holidays are ok. And the pay is utterly shit.
Wouldn’t do it for anything. Back in the day, it was much more relaxed affair and the job you went into if you wanted a career change post kids for an easy life with long holidays. But now the stress levels trump everything. No, you’d need to triple the salary before I’d even consider it.

There are obviously huge problems in the teaching profession because they have such a huge drop out rate. It also seems that the job has become more difficult over time and a lot of people are voting with their feet. It's very very common for salaried roles to involve significant, regular and unpaid extra hours work so I don't think that this is the only problem in teaching.

Looking at drop out rates in different professions I think is quite revealing. NHS Nursing is another one with a high drop out rate.

Maybe teachers and nurses have an unrealistic idea of what the job will
be like when they choose it,eg assuming it will be more family friendly than it is.

Private companies would be addressing these issues quickly or they would go out of business but state organisations are too slow to respond.

Public perception is a different thing. I'm sure it can be annoying if you are a teacher to be told that your working hours are short and your holidays are long but to be honest many jobs attract this kind of comment. Accountants are always boring people with boring jobs. Sales people can't be trusted and are pushy, flashy and highly paid. The police are unfaithful and corrupt etc etc etc.

There are a lot of problems in the UK about how work is structured that could be changed. Working from home as an option is one example of how many people were told this was not possible until the pandemic proved it was perfectly possible.

I'm an advocate of the standard 4 day week.

@showerbeer

Teaching is fucking exhausting. I’m at work for 9-10 hours a day which is not really abnormal but the thing I find hard is I LITERALLY DO NOT THINK OF ANYTHING ELSE 90% of the time. I find it so bloody hard to switch off. I wake up and the first thing I think about is work, and then I lie in bed at night thinking about the current children who are falling out/need pastoral support/aren’t meeting expectations/should have had an intervention but there wasn’t an available slot… this is not unique to teaching and it’s a total me problem in that I need to learn to switch off, but I find it far, far more exhausting than the hours physically worked.

The starting salary is also wank.

This. I had a pastoral issue that blew up on Thursday. Spent all my ‘free’ periods on Friday sorting it out and am writing reports today. In between dealing with upset emails from parents who think I can miraculously sort teenage girls friendship issues. I love it but it does invade your head . I’m ok with that but as I’ve said elsewhere fed up of negativity and misunderstanding about teaching as a profession.

YANBU, I totally agree. It's not a family friendly job, I'm lost at how many parents decide to do it really. Terrible work/life balance.

Isn't it more like 39 weeks a year?