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.

Why?

Most people have cried at work. I cried yesterday as I don’t have enough staff to get even the basics done, a clueless hr is preventing me from hiring to replace someone who has left but not bothered to tell us and I am looking at six day weeks till Xmas. It’s not just teachers who have work stress.

@Postapocalypticcowgirl I don't think it's just this country either. Things are tough, so many of us work too many hours for not enough thanks across all professions.

But do you genuinely think that is acceptable?

I also totally agree that managing the increasing number of children with complex additional needs with little to no support or training is what is causing most if the stress, in my school anyway.

But it feels like people are suggesting we just accept this? Which is madness to me.

It ought to be possible to run society in a way where crying at work was not a norm but an exception.

I don't want stressed out, crying people in any workplace!

Why?

Because it's an unpleasant thing to feel, and adds to the stress. I actually stopped telling people I was a teacher when asked. I got fed up of being told what short hours I work and what long holidays we get.

It's also upsetting to hear and read things in the media such as how we were being paid for sitting at home doing nothing during lockdown, etc etc.

I don't think anyone is suggesting that it's JUST teachers. But it is a LOT of teachers. And the teachers are responsible for hours and hours of care and education of our children, and yet more than one in every three feels like this? It isn't right. It also isn't right for one in three lawyers or nurses or architects or police officers or anyone else either, but that wasn't OP's point or the survey's point, they were looking at teachers. One in three of ANY job crying at work is an issue that needs to be tackled, not brushed off as normal because everyone else does it too, surely? And don't forget that some of those one in three criers won't just be crying once, they'll be crying daily.

@Givenuptotally looking among friends and colleagues, yeah I reckon one in three of us cries every six weeks or so. It's not like it's every day.

I’d say you need to grow a thicker skin then. It’s unrealistic to expect people to fawn over any profession. And it makes absolutely no difference to your job anyway.

That would’ve been the life wouldn’t it 😝

I don't think it's surprising 35% have cried at work. It is surprising 35% have cried this half term I.e. in the last 6 weeks though.

That said, I do think far more people than usual are feeling fragile atm. Covid was a mass trauma that we haven't quite come out of, world war 3 on our doorstep and the economic mess/real poverty in prospect, plus all the usual personal and work stuff.

My caretaker cried at work today and it's true, he earns only slightly more than half what the teachers do.

Lol. You obviously don’t work in a school. I’m a teaching assistant and I cried on Monday. It’s a tough gig and when you care about the children you work with, there are sometimes tears. Then you dust yourself off and carry on.

There are 7 posts at school local to us for immediate appointment on TES. Probably means at least 7 staff left before or at half term.

I'm fascinated (in a morbid way) about the abusive parents and what they say. I couldn't imagine it and assumed exaggeration until my DD started Year 7 in Sept. She volunteered to speak to prospective parents at an open evening and came home really upset about how rude some attendees had been to her. An 11 year old! Makes me shudder about what the same people might say to adult teachers.

@Postapocalypticcowgirl it's shit isn't it.

I don't think threads like this do teachers much good because it sounds - even if that wasn't your intention - like teachers reckon they have it much harder than the rest of us. You see it time and time again on Mumsnet - teachers who seem to believe they have the toughest jobs and highest work loads of all, which is just not the case.

Why are these posts always about teachers? I don’t hate teachers, I think they have a difficult job and a lot of responsibility for our children. But, they do not have the monopoly on stressful jobs or workload so why are there so many posts trying to prove that’s they have it the worst?

I’m not a teacher, I cry in my work because there is so much to do, not enough staff and there’s just never an end to it. I have responsibility for projects and it’s me who gets it from the client if it’s not done on time or to the expected standard, so it’s often me working all hours to deliver, even if it means working weekends and bank holidays. We don’t get the luxury of designated weeks off either, I can’t remember the last time I had two consecutive weeks off let alone 5-6. My teacher friends have all had a stressful 6 weeks but are now looking forward to a week off for half term, then they know it’ll be just another 6 weeks until their Christmas holidays. My last holiday was back in July and my next will be Christmas and it won’t even be as long as theirs.

I'm baffled by the "teachers aren't special" or "teaching isn't the only stressful job" replies on here.

I don't see the claim in the OP that says teachers are special or that teaching is the only stressful job.

The OP does question if crying in any job is acceptable which includes teaching.

I'm NHS. I regularly cry at work too. As do some of my coworkers. It's not just teachers.

It’s just that it’s always about teachers. We didn’t even need to know that the job in question was teaching. I just wrote a post above about my work and didn’t feel the need to say what my job is.

Before retirement I was a senior HR manager. I've had staff cry on me, I've cried at work once and that was in a career spanning 54 years and I think for over a third of teachers to cry at work in a period of 6 or 7 weeks is alarming.

I'm surprised some people seem to think that is OK.

I actually typed out ‘what is your job’ and then deleted it SO:

What is your job?

Your poor daughter. Put it this way, parents' evenings on the school cloud are brilliant because you have a red button to end the conversation when they start getting rude and unpleasant.

I cried at work far more often when I was a nasty corporate banker than I ever have in school.

People wouldn't necessarily know, but I quite often went to the loos for a bit of a sob.

In school the sad life stories of the children sometimes make me well up, but I don't feel the overwhelming pressure of work the same way at all.

I'm a teacher and I cried this half term. I think half the teachers in our small school have cried this half term and that's only the ones I know about. Mine was due to behaviour and lack of support/sen funding making the job near impossible.