If you left the corporate world to go into teaching what was the biggest shock?

[coodawoodashooda]

Just wondering. Usually we have threads from fed up teachers. Im a teacher, not looking for a fight. Just interested.

You can't have a single thread where non-teachers don't feel the need to come and have a dig can you?

@Libertaire it's asking what the biggest shock was not the biggest difference. Pay attention boy! ( or girl)

@Libertaire

I’m not a teacher, but I would imagine that getting 13 weeks off a year (or 16 in fee-paying schools) instead of 5 in the private sector would be a pretty major difference.

Yeah they definitely have all that time off

I always think the fixed timetable and being on all the time would finish me off within a week.

I can't even handle the noise of helping at Beavers for 30 minutes once a term. I'd be a terrible teacher I don't know how they do it!

@Libertaire that’s because you aren’t a teacher. The holidays aren’t all holidays. Don’t get me wrong I get a lot of time off, but having worked in other jobs I find that the time off is always spent thinking about, doing something for work or recovering and that there are very few weeks when I truly relax. Probably no more than I had before. Most of the time by the time the holidays come around I am on my knees and if I’m not working I’m sick. The worst bit is no one believes you and makes you feel guilty for having the holidays. I never was made to feel bad for taking down time before. I hate the public perception of teacher holidays.

I've not worked in the corporate world as such but I'm an ex teacher . I never drove to work without having butterflies as a teacher. Other than the inset days there was never an 'easy day' and every day was unpredictable and non stop. Also it's quite lonely as you're mostly with classes of kids and you can never let your guard down or really be yourself . Also in teaching things like being seen as 'too soft' can be really soul destroying and it can feel impossible to reestablish yourself - kids are unforgiving and if you make a mistake in teaching it's really hard to come back from and you can feel a real failure and it's hard to get support. Teachers are very competitive and very critical . Observations can be totally brutal . I know people in the corporate world will say that's the same in their profession but when working with adults they're usually a bit more reasonable and accepting of strengths and weaknesses. I don't think many people in the corporate world get told to their face what their physical imperfections are for example in the first five minutes of walking in to a cover lesson !

No quiet times. In my previous profession I could schedule in quiet times occasionally. say if I was feeling under the weather I might postpone a meeting to give myself a slower morning but in teaching there’s no possibility of that. Every single day is full throttle all day. I really have come to hate it and I long for my old life.

@Libertaire

I’m not a teacher, but I would imagine that getting 13 weeks off a year (or 16 in fee-paying schools) instead of 5 in the private sector would be a pretty major difference.

You do realise that teachers only have approx 5 weeks of it paid?

(No I’m not a teacher, but I do know this)

@Libertaire

I’m not a teacher, but I would imagine that getting 13 weeks off a year (or 16 in fee-paying schools) instead of 5 in the private sector would be a pretty major difference.

I work in a school but back office and all year through so 5 weeks leave.

Nothing could induce me to teach. The holidays are very much needed even to an outsider who ‘sees’ it.

You’re always on, you are pulled in a load of directions, you can’t have an off day, you have to manage the most ludicrous expectations from parents etc.

I’ll keep my quiet office and 5 weeks holiday thanks.

@LethargeMarg

I've not worked in the corporate world as such but I'm an ex teacher . I never drove to work without having butterflies as a teacher. Other than the inset days there was never an 'easy day' and every day was unpredictable and non stop. Also it's quite lonely as you're mostly with classes of kids and you can never let your guard down or really be yourself . Also in teaching things like being seen as 'too soft' can be really soul destroying and it can feel impossible to reestablish yourself - kids are unforgiving and if you make a mistake in teaching it's really hard to come back from and you can feel a real failure and it's hard to get support. Teachers are very competitive and very critical . Observations can be totally brutal . I know people in the corporate world will say that's the same in their profession but when working with adults they're usually a bit more reasonable and accepting of strengths and weaknesses. I don't think many people in the corporate world get told to their face what their physical imperfections are for example in the first five minutes of walking in to a cover lesson !

I think the insets are the worst.

You do realise that teachers only have approx 5 weeks of it paid?

This is really misleading,

The salary is still an annual one and they’re still paid in 12 equal amounts.

The advertised salaries aren’t prorated.

@LoudParrot

I'm not a school teacher, but I left the corporate world (financial consultancy) to go into the public sector (uni lecturer) and it's been good. Less money but a lot less stress!

Did you need a PHD for this @LoudParrot? It's a career direction I'd love to exploy

The lack of respect for the teaching profession in general, the bad attitude from teenagers at secondary level, the constant pressure to perform and never feeling good enough, the hierarchy in primary schools, the way there is always still work left to do at the end of the day, the pay is so low compared to the level of work expected from you.

But after nearly 18 years teaching, (5 in the City before that) I still wouldn't want to do anything else 🤷

I was a teacher, quit when I had my son, worked in part time admin until recently and now I’m back as a TA.

Things I’d forgotten -

The smell. A warm classroom if 30 under 10s after lunch just smells like fart all. The. Time.

How shit it is when you have a poor SLT and how that impacts on behaviour.

The sheer outrageousness of the behaviour that we are expected to put up with. I’ve been spat at, sworn at and called a stupid bumhole, walked away from, millions of eye rolls, hit in the face with a football ‘by accident…’

I left what I "thought" was a stressful job to go onto teaching. Omg I honestly had no realisation of the pressures.

Also @Libertaire, when I was teaching I worked so many hours outside of school (most nights I wouldn't finish until gone 11 and most weekends I'd work at least one full day. And I STILL had things on my to do list still to be done) that the holidays only just made up for all the extra time I'd put in. Literally, if I added up the extra hours it was enough to fill all these extra weeks you are so sneery about.

And most of those weeks 'holiday' (that I actually worked in, if you count the hours) aren't paid, despite the misconception that they are.

Attitudes like yours are infuriating. And exhausting.

I didn't leave the corporate world but I left clinical nursing and became a teacher in FE then HE.
HE differs from FE in that you rarely have to manage poor behaviour. What shocked me was that there was a pride in being a nurse and individuals and patients respected you and your skill and knowledge. In teaching ( in FE) very few people give teachers any respect for their skill and craft. Even their own management.
Which is the hardest jo? Teaching is. Marking until late at night because no one thinks you deserve for your own time to be just that. Preparing useless crap for OFSTEd or dummy OFSTEd inspections that they will criticise you for anyway just because they can. Management making a massive deal out of petty crap that they think is actually life or death.

Why did I change? I teach nurses now and that experience was a necessary evil!

@monkeysox

You're always"on". In corporate you have deadlines but not five per day to differing audiences with different needs. For school Work before work so have work to do at work that creates more work for you to mark. Relentless

You weren't a lawyer then

When I worked in the corporate world I had flexitime (core hours 11-2) and no one cared when I arrived/left so long as I was around during those core hours.

I got paid overtime - and it was greatly appreciated.

I got freebies such as works nights out paid (meal and drinks) as well as corporate gifts and unlimited supply of basics such as stationary/tea/coffee etc.

Complete autonomy - very very rarely ever had to "check in" with bosses.

There were processes and procedures and they stayed the same with very minor (if ever) tweaks.

You could be open and direct with everyone and it was appreciated

Teaching:

• unpaid overtime is required to complete bare minimal workload
• many parents, given the fact they themselves were pupils, feel they are "experts" in education and seem to delight in questioning/complaining the most bizarre things (e.g. a parent in my class went to the Head Teacher directly to complain that the seats in my class were 2 slightly different colours)
• very little autonomy especially if you are in a big school with multiple classes per year group as same year group classes can't be seen to be "different"
• the "in vogue" teaching style constantly changes
• you have to be EXTREMELY careful what you say to parents. For example I can't say, "In my opinion your child has ASD and I think you should seek a referral for a possible diagnosis". In fact, I can't even tell a parent their child has head lice as, and I quote, "I'm not a qualified medical professional".
• You also have to live with the fact that no matter how hard you work and how many unpaid hours you do you will always be seen as a work shy jobsworth by the general public/mainstream media

@Libertaire

I’m not a teacher, but I would imagine that getting 13 weeks off a year (or 16 in fee-paying schools) instead of 5 in the private sector would be a pretty major difference.

Yep but you work much harder during term time so it balances out. I've just changed from term time teacher hours to 52 wk contract where I work at full pelt but without the school holidays. I'm not sure I can work at 110% all the time.

Having to pay for the dishwasher tabs for the staffroom dishwasher.
I mean the tea and coffee fund I can get my head around - just.
But teachers having to fork out for that? I find it insulting to them. (not a teacher, school Admin)

Teaching is by far the most challenging role I have ever done - physically, emotionally and intellectually. People see it as a step down from what I was doing before but really it’s given me a challenge that I just wasn’t getting before. It’s hard but it’s wonderful at the same time.

I hadn’t anticipated:
How reactive you have to be
Not being able to get a tea/coffee when I wanted one
How any ‘free’ time which is desperately needed to plan and prepare is eaten up by cover, duties, extra-curricular clubs
The excessive amount of emails. How did schools operate pre email?! So many emails per day, and no time in the working day to actually attend to them
In previous roles I would block out a half day for ‘admin’. Now I can only dream!
That if we didn’t have school holidays where communication dries up every 6 weeks, we wouldn’t need to operate at 150% capacity the rest of the time. But the holidays are great

And I am not a ‘proper’ teacher, I am support staff with a small teaching role. I take my hat off to teachers because you work incredibly hard!

Lawyers are non cimparible to any profession.

Biggest shocks:

• lack of time to do job properly
• corporate-style KPIs still there but it’s impossible to apply them to children’s learning, whatever Ofsted say
• appalling pay
• strange employment rules unlike anything generally recognised as employment law in England & Wales
• expectation to do anything requested however unreasonable ‘because it’s for the children’
• HR will always support the headteacher
• HOWEVER the best teams and ‘work families’ are to be found in teaching, because none of it is about money (saving the positive point til last!)