I'm a career changer and have worked private sector and charity before teaching. There is no comparison in terms of burnout (in my experience - I have not worked in the NHS, emergency services etc. I have worked shift work in hospitality also). Genuinely the most exhausting and relentless job I've ever done. Yes, that headline was incredibly annoying and no doubt it misleads the under-informed.
My school has let us take one of our (3) 50 minute planning periods from home if it's at the start or end of the day. We already have to take work home evenings and weekends to prop up the school system, unpaid and all year, whether we requested or can take those 50 minutes or not. That's not taking into account open evenings, parents' evenings, options evening or after school meetings that mean we make up that planning time on top of what we were already bringing home, after a 12+ hour day in person at school.
Last year at a new school I was working on average 12-14 hours a day (on a normal day when not required to stay in school late) including planning time at home. I've managed to reduce this by returning to the same school this year and working through pregnancy, but am still working outside contact hours.
I wake up at 6am and many of us work past 7/8pm at night. It makes it difficult to carry out activities after school plus dinner and house chores, childcare for those with children, school pick-up etc - the flexible WFH time allows people to do some of these once a week. Alternatively, if it's in the morning, they may be able to get to school for 9am instead of 8am (though most of us arrive before the required contact hours eg. 7.30am or earlier in order to prep, print, plan etc before any before-school meetings or children arriving). A friend of mine with an ill parent regularly gets up at 5am to prep lessons, those I know with small children are often planning in late hours of the night or early hours of the morning.
In office jobs, I never used to take all my annual leave (as someone with a medical condition that often causes exhaustion). It would often end up piling up in December or needing to be rolled until the next year. In teaching, much as there can be moments of joy every day, we are crawling to the holidays and they really are burnout prevention. It's also very difficult to get to doctor's or dentist appointments during termtime and creates extra work (making, leaving and following up cover) to do so, including for my prenatal appointments. Flexible PPA can be used for this also.
We cannot take breaks when we want, and often can't take advantage of the scheduled ones. I have just worked 4 full days with no free periods, two before school meetings and two hour-long after school meetings. I have not taken any (30 min) lunch breaks, eating at my desk in a hurry and working through. Breaktime is 15 minutes, eaten into by children staying back with questions and basically my time to get to a bathroom - we cannot use the bathroom, get a drink or take a breather when we want. I have worked at least 7.30-4.30 each day.
I know the headline is deliberately inflammatory and I'm surprised at it from the Guardian, but hope this gives some context. When I had office jobs including as a manager, I could work from home at least once a week and got a lie-in until 9/9.30 - far later than would be an option at school, and I never had to work as many hours except during peak deadline time, for which we had informal TOIL and lighter periods to make up for it, plus breaks when we wanted, the ability to book a morning or afternoon off for a medical appointment and not have the expectation to return to school as soon as possible that day.
It is a shame and definitely misinformed to think teachers are going to be slacking off as a result. There is a deluge of capable teachers leaving the profession, particularly mothers. An A level class at my old school had to be taught online at 7.30pm across London as there were no Physics/Further Maths teachers able to take the class - that is the grim future of education. A bit of flexibility I fear is not enough for parents or for the immense pressure educators are under from schools and externally, I've seen lots of people crack and have mental health affected.
Genuinely curious what job you do though and how it compares to teaching?