To think it's not normal for over 35% of teachers to have cried at work this term?

[Postapocalypticcowgirl]

Whenever we talk about teacher working conditions, teacher strikes etc on here people always point out that lots of others have really stressful jobs. But this can't be normal in any job, surely? It's not even people who've cried about work- just people who've cried at work.

I think this is really indicative of the stress a lot of teachers are under, and the real reason a strike is on the cards. But it's hard to strike about workload/stress/behaviour/parental and SLT expectations- whereas striking over pay is legally straightforward.

I think if my workplace did this survey it would be a lot higher. Lots of jobs are stressful unfortunately.

Well it would be one more but I can’t cry anymore because my teaching has landed me on antidepressants!

To be clear, I am a teacher, I'm not surprised by this, but I do think it's unacceptable.

I don't actually think it's ever okay to cry at work- and if it happens regularly in other jobs, then those people deserve more support, too.

Because it's not.

I have cried about work about 3 times in 25 years. Not once in the last half term (6 weeks). I would be flabbergasted if 36% of my colleagues had cried about work in the last 6 weeks.

There may well be other jobs/roles where it is more usual to cry than in mine. But it is not normal and should not be accepted as such.

I don't think "teachers aren't special" is a helpful argument - 35% of people in any workplace shouldn't be routinely reduced to tears by their work. What the hell sort of a life is that?!

I have never cried over workload etc as if it’s not done on time it’s not done 🤦‍♀️ In a particularly awful job i cried most days. I love my job at the moment but I still burst into tears today over a safeguarding issue. The lack of provision in Social Care is really having an affect on kids and it’s heartbreaking to see 😔

Twenty-one years a teacher. Cried, often. Cried at work, often. Cried in front of pupils (11-16) occasionally (once because the form group lined up in front of me wasn't the group I'd had for the five previous years, who'd grown up and left...).

It's a nightmare job, and when you're in it you don't see it. You're trained and acclimatised into feeling guilty for not being able to work miracles.

Then you meet the children and some of them don't have anyone to love them. Some of them are full time carers and come into school when they can. Some are put on the game by parents (usually but not always, fathers) and can't come into school often. Some are knocked down by cars and killed, some are murdered, some lie down on the tramline to try to commit suicide. Some come in with self harm scars up their arms and some are sleeping under bushes because their mothers have thrown them out and 'miss, can I wash my school shirt in food tech washing machine?' They all need to scrape the number of exam passes they need for college and brighter futures, and some need encouragement to aim high because they are so very able. So if you turned away to protect yourself, you'd be letting people down. Young people, who need even the little you can give. And meanwhile, these needy children will abuse you because they don't know anything else.

Anyone still in the job, cry. Cry anytime you want to, and know I am crying with you, still.

This. I've worked in prisons, treatment centres, homelessness. With abused and abusive people. And no, except for poorly run and supported places, a third of the staff aren't weeping in cupboards once every few weeks.

I would be horrified to think of DD's teacher feeling like this.

Bar teachers in specific safeguarding roles- who I think deserve a lot more support than they get- I don't think teachers come across "heartbreaking situations" that often. Yes, we deal with safeguarding situations etc, but I don't think most teachers cry because they've heard a disclosure. I do think more support is needed, around this though, because the expectation is that you very much get on with it.

But I think for most classroom teachers, it's not common enough to get the sort of disclosures that really upset you for this to be the sole reason.

I also think people are more likely to cry over this sort of disclosure when they're close to the edge with stress.

Thank you.

In my catalogue of misery, I missed out 'Some die of cancer.' Not forgotten.

I think it's worse in some schools than others. With the last HT of the school I work at there was a high turnover of staff. One year we eyed up the 6 NQTs and guessed which one would cry first.

There is a lot less crying with the new HT, certainly not 35% so far this term, but I would imagine 90% will have cried at work by the end of the school year.

Do estate agents cry at work? Do bus drivers? Architects?

This is from Teacher Tapp. PP don't need to make it about other professions. It's about teachers.

Have you ever worked in a school? Sometimes it does feel like everyone hates you, constant grinding abuse from parents can make you feel that way.

To be clear, since I became a teacher, I have cried in work. It wasn't due to any specific thing, but more a toxic workplace getting on top of me. I've since left that school.

I've had other jobs before teaching, and the only time I cried at work was when I worked at a stables and a much loved horse was put down.

I'm not saying other people never cry at work, and obviously there are other stressful jobs. But I don't think in most workplaces it's normal for nearly 40% of staff to be crying in a six week period. And if your workplace is like that, you have my sympathy and my solidarity.

Kids are kids, I wouldn’t cry over their behaviour but no one warns you about how abusive some parents can be

How many people on here saying it is normal cry at work themselves every 7 weeks?

There aren't many professions which are losing staff at the rate teaching is right now- and the country isn't recruiting teachers at a fast enough pace to replace them. Surely that suggests something is wrong.

I do agree there are other professions e.g. in the NHS that are facing similar, and something also needs to be done about working conditions in those areas.

Higher rates of suicide in teaching than the UK average

www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/primary-school-teachers-suicide-rate-double-national-average-uk-figures-a7635846.html?amp

There are certain names I’ve never been called until I worked at a school and I’m not talking about the students

I think this is pretty normal in most careers. If anything, it's quite a low number.

I love my job but I've cried because of it twice in the past three months.

Me! But more frequently than that. I'm a lawyer.

Also, I think 7800 is a representative sample by anyone's stretch. It would be great to see comparisons from other professions, but to suggest 7800 people is not a representative sample is pretty ridiculous.

I’m going to stick my neck out here and say the biggest problem teachers have is other teachers. Bullying, nitpicking and showing off have a horrible impact over time.

Well, I have to say, this thread has shocked me so far.

I genuinely don't think it's normal to cry regularly at work. And the fact that people are suggesting it is normal in so many jobs honestly makes me feel like something has drastically gone wrong in this country.