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.

It's cried at work to be clear. Crying about work once you get home is one thing- crying at work quite another.

OP it's 38 % - a further 2 % cried in front of a class.

I fully supported the barristers when they/you were on strike- the working conditions they're dealing with are awful. And I'm sure there are similar problems in other areas of law.

My school doesn’t have a toxic culture per se - management are actually pretty decent and my colleagues are great. We have some challenging kids, but I can handle that.

It’s the workload. The sheer amount of work expected of us and the amount of need. It’s overwhelming.

And so many parents are so aggressive and entitled and rude.

I’ve absolutely had enough of breaking my back and neglecting my own family to care for other peoples children and be abused for it.

I've cried at school a few times over the years, either due to feeling really stressed about the ridiculous amount of tasks on my to-do list, or due to nasty, aggressive abuse from parents.

Although, my maths may be out of course as the 2% could also be in the 36%. Apols to maths teachers.

Posted too soon...

And those are the reasons why I'm no longer a teacher after 23 years.

FWIW I do agree with this- SLT in particular can be really awful (I'm lucky to never have worked anywhere where colleagues on the same level were nasty).

I think part of it is that they are under so much pressure, they push it down. It's not right, of course.

I'm a strong and resilient person. I cried whilst I was teacher- it was so stressful. Never felt I was doing a good enough job. It's why I left 14 years ago. Never cried at work since and I've worked in social care teams/ nhs and local authorities.

I've returned to teaching but abroad, not in the UK, and this is the first half term since I qualified where I haven't cried or even felt like crying. I actively enjoy teaching again.

The head is a realist, the kids are lovely and my laptop stays at school every night.

Long may it continue.

Narrowminded and ludicrous to suggest it's only teachers who have a stressful job.

When covid hit there was a massive outpouring of sympathy for NHS staff which was completely fair. However, over the past year teachers have been taking the brunt of the effects Covid has had on our children - there's a massive increase in behavioural problems, learning needs that have gone undiagnosed, mental health issues and children that just aren't engaged. Parents can't or won't do the things that they should be doing at home, for whatever reason, and teachers are having to pick up the slack. We didn't go into teaching to babysit your children and to sort out your children's emotional problems.

Now there's no money to support all these children with the additional needs. What do you think a class will looks like with all this going on?

That sounds like the dream!

A head who is a realist, and has reasonable expectations makes a huge difference.

But then in the UK, I feel schools are expected to fix the world on a shoestring budget, and that must be very difficult for heads.

Just 100% agree with this post

One year we eyed up the 6 NQTs and guessed which one would cry first

This is what I mean. Why in the name of holy Mary Jesus and Joseph would you DO that?

According to Google there are more than 600k teachers in the UK.

Don't know about support staff.

8 k is not a decent sample proportionally.

Teachers are also fairly unique in having such short bursts of concentrated working interspersed with gaps of time off

I'd agree with this- at the moment, also, due to covid and due to cuts, I think schools are picking up the slack for a lot of other public services, such as social care, MH etc. In many cases, schools are supporting whole families- not just the kids, because no-one else is.

That's not a criticism of social care or CAMHS etc- I know they do the best they can with the budgets they have. But the waiting lists for CAMHS etc are so long, and children get discharged quickly if they "don't engage" that schools often end up picking up the slack. And the thresholds for social care getting involved often feel very high too- or else "they're nearly 16, so we need to direct resources elsewhere".

Schools can't look away, because the kids are with us all the time.

And yes, SEN is a really complex issue. I think a lot of parents don't get that yes, their child has additional needs that should be catered for, but so do maybe 6 others in the class, and it's often impossible to do what I should be doing for a class of 32 +. This is actually one of the things I hate, because obviously I want to meet everyone's needs, but sometimes I just can't.

You also sometimes have the issue of really conflicting needs in the same class.

I’m not a teacher but I cry at work. Very nearly cried today. Life can be brutal.

Teachers are also fairly unique in having such short bursts of concentrated working interspersed with gaps of time off... your point being?

Do you work in social research to oping than nearly 8ooo isn't representative? The press quite often use TeacherTapp results as have the DfE. It's by far the largest spot survey of teacher experiences.

Many famous bits of research have sampled far fewer people. 8K is definitely generalisable.

oping = opine.

It's a horrible world we've created where frequently crying at work is being brushed off as normal.

And it's surprising that parents aren't more worried to find that their child's teacher night be on the edge of tears when they should be teaching them maths

Psychologists often generalise from studies/surveys with far fewer respondents to the whole population. The survey is specifically directed at teachers, so support staff aren't relevant anyway.

If it was <500 respondents, I'd agree with you, but at this level of response, I think it's certainly indicative of a problem.

I agree the working pattern is unusual, and it has actually been suggested by "proper" studies that the working pattern may have a detrimental impact on teacher health- but I'm not sure what the solution to that would be. Nobody would be happy with longer terms and teachers taking annual leave during term time, I don't think?

In my case (I am one of those Tappers)?

We had Ofsted.
It was an awful experience. They weren't interested in anything we do well. Their approach was to disregard the positive, and only focus on the negative. It was honestly a soul-destroying experience - not at all balanced or supportive.

Yes, it's actually really concerning me that so many people feel this is normal.

If this is genuinely the case, I think something has really gone wrong on a societal level.

people think this is normal? really? look around your own workplace, is one in 3 people crying on average once every 6 weeks?

For me the feeling that so much of the population hate us was another contributing factor.

It's not normal for so many people to be crying in the workplace (possibly in the NHS too) but this is MN and the majority of people seem to hate teachers so will claim that 70% of people in their workplace cry daily.

I have taught 20 years. Can only remember crying once or twice in my whole career but I've cried twice this half term. We are so over-stretched at my school. The younger children are still so affected by the pandemic but to the higher-ups it's as if Covid never happened.