Has anyone ever had such a high workload that they've forgotten what a normal workload is like?

[BrainLife]

My workload is huge. I have a caseload. I have reports to write. Training to deliver. Meetings. Emails. Research. Etc. I've reached a point where it's actually impossible to do my job properly, to a high standard. I've actually forgotten what an appropriate and manageable workload is like and I'm struggling, significantly. Does anyone else have a hectic job but one they love? Did you have to leave eventually? Did you ever just carry on to burnout?

Teaching!! I'm smart, organised, have a PhD, experinced... and yet no matter how hard I work, all the hours, often working past midnight... the work is never done. And never good enough. I am constantly failing.

🤣🤣🤣
I thought this when I first passed my PGCE and went out into my first proper job. I had a very hard awakening when I got my contract suddenly ended after 1 term for basically doing my job but nothing more.
Good luck passing your ECT. Really. I hope it's smoother than my NQT was.

My workload is huge. I did a 12-hour day today with approx. one 15 minute break.
But I'm a primary teacher so we must not complain and "accept it as part of the job."

There are too many of us in this situation, it’s not a private or public sector thing nor a minimum wage or profession divide. I really do think it’s got to a critical point.

Back in the olden times the unions got us the 5 day/40 hour working week in recognition that healthy people, productive workforce, wider society needed that to function. We’re boiled frogs. How do we get it back? What are the options for collective response and action now?

I couldn't agree more. Everyone I know is being asked to do more, with fewer resources, and feeling burnt out.
It's just not good for anyone, or society as a whole.

My subject doesn't have textbooks.
Our clubs are built into the school day and can't be cancelled.
Peer marking = nope, maybe in a different world to the one I work in
My subject changes parts of the syllabus annually, I can't just bring out last year's resources.

I've been teaching a LONG time and I know what corners I can cut, and still remain both employed and a mother. For me, the answer has been to go 0.8, which in other industries would be called "full time in compressed hours" and not suffer a 20% pay cut for 100% of the work. TLR paid at 0.8, responsibilities not reduced accordingly, as per Burgundy book believe it or not.

HTH.

Given that so many are hanging on by a thread and can demonstrate that they should be taking sick days (migraines, stomach issues, infection immunity depletion, just stress in general terms) but don’t for reasons mentioned in thread.

What if we all took that sick day at the same time?

Or another one to think about,

What if everyone stood together and said ‘work to contract this month, nothing more, nothing less’?

I say ‘everyone’ but maybe that should be ‘enough people’. These options are not feasible for people on zero hours contracts for example. Don’t want to get detailed into a debate about exceptions, there are always exceptions, just spit balling here.

Worrying state of affairs for our country 😔

Yes. NHS. I took early retirement thereby forfeiting a chunk of pension. This was 4 years ago and I still have an internal panic attack and churning in my stomach when I hear a certain landline ring tone.

I've just retired after roughly 30 years of teaching. You show a worrying level of naivety for someone who has just qualified to teach.

Do you genuinely believe that thousands of qualified and experienced teachers are so DIM that they haven't come up with your brilliant solution to the workload crisis that is to simply say 'no' and fail to do half your job? You sound very young, and a little patronising. If you 'can't understand' something, has it occurred to you to ask a more experienced member of staff why this is?

You are required to have lessons planned. You are required to follow a SoW, which quite probably doesn't follow a textbook. You probably don't actually have a textbook for every pupil in every class. You are required to teach the lessons you are timetabled for - some of which might not even be your actual subject, and might not have resources/planning in place for you, in which case you are expected to produce them. You are expected to set and mark homework, and mark books. You are required to produce data, and work to targets (many of which are unrealistic and unachievable). I cannot be bothered to list all the many, many different demands on your time, but simply saying 'No' or not bothering to do it is not an answer.

You will not pass your ECT if this is your belief. You will be managed out very easily. It's also depressing if you've managed to pass a PGCE and still hold the belief that teaching means shove a textbook in front of them then sit back humming and getting on with your own work.

In my school teachers have started to say no to running trips, doing paid duties and putting on clubs. Goodwill has run out.

It isn’t as simple as doing textbook lessons - I’m monitored by my Head of Department and I am expected to follow schemes of work. I have been teaching for long enough now to have something for most lessons but they still need adapted/improved and I still want the students to enjoy being in my classroom. In regards to marking we don’t mark for the sake of it, we mark work that is purposeful and leads to progress. We couldn’t cut out any more teacher marking without cutting it out all together and where does that leave teaching?

I think the main thing you’re missing is we get 3 hours of PPA on a full timetable without responsibilities. The workload that is created from doing the bare minimum is what is not sustainable, not the extra. What is 3 hours? It’s absolutely ludicrous. Marking, planning, assessment feedback, reports, data drops, preparing for open evenings, compulsory duties, behaviour management and sanctions, updating seating plans, communication with relevant staff to make sure you’re meeting the needs of all of our students. All in your 3 hours a week and that is if someone doesn’t put in a meeting that time (meant to be protected) or pop in to ask a question or call on a favour. Then on top of that your actual teaching timetable.

If I was to say no I’d be saying no to the basic requirements of my job and would be facing a support plan. The problem is we don’t have enough PPA and staff across the school. Everyone is completely maxed out. If everyone said no to the basics we would be failing the students and no one went into teaching for that…….which is why so many are choosing to leave instead.

I'm a community midwife and I'm physically and emotionally exhausted. My caseload is huge. I see patients one after the other all day long, each in a 20 minute slot which is not long enough for the care i need to provide. This means their appointments overun, and swallow up my unpaid mealbreak, so most days my afternoon clinic runs straight on after my morning clinic with no time in between. Last year i was in hospital with a kidney infection as i never go to the toilet when i need to. I have no allocated admin time, if a woman delivers or rearranges her appointment, her slot is quickly filled by a postnatal check or urgent telephone calls. I finish work, drive home for an hour, log the laptop on again to do the day's admin unpaid in the evening. I live in constant fear of missing something and someone coming to harm because of it. I reduced my hours because I'm always too exhausted on my day off to get anything done or take the kids anywhere, however the result of that is that I now log on on my day off and do some of the neverending admin I haven't time to do in my 4 day week. It's relentless.
I'm also a single parent of school aged kids who never get the time and attention they deserve. I don't know how much longer I can go on like this.

@Shardonneigghhh

I'm also a single parent of school aged kids who never get the time and attention they deserve. I don't know how much longer I can go on like this.

I can really empathise with this. As a teacher I felt that I gave all my time and all my attention to other people's children and had little left for my own. I can imagine midwifery being similar.

University told us that noone should be working evening or weekends once we start our teaching careers. It must be possible, just not for the major it seems 😓

I wonder this. But more collectively- why do humans just go along with this? It’s clearly gotten way out of hand.

Yes it’s normal for me to work until 1 or 2 am (secondary teacher).

Yes for a large American corporate adhesives company. I ended up in hospital. They had given my job to three other people to cover while I was off and I had to fight for my place again when I came back.

@Unusualllly you can't simply 'just do a textbook lesson' for many reasons. Behaviour would be awful, they wouldn't just sit and comply it would be an absolute battle, curriculums are mapped to within an inch and there is very little wiggle room, learning walks checking you are complying with school agreed standards to do set things in the classroom. Etc etc.

Believe me, nobody is doing the extra work for the fun of it. It's simple maths, too many students and too many classes.

Because we want to keep our jobs.

If I suddenly said I'm not doing X, Y or Z because it's out of my 'working hours' I wouldn't be getting my job done. The kids' work wouldn't be marked. Lessons wouldn't be planned so I would have nothing to teach. I'd get loads of complaints. And I'd be pushed out.

That's utter rubbish and you (should) know it.

It isn't possible. When do you - or your university - imagine lessons get planned and work gets marked? Did you do ANY research into what teaching involved before you signed up for it. Do you have any idea WHY there is a recruitment and retention crisis in teaching and why the unions and staff believe the workload is unsustainable and a major issue?

I frankly now do not believe you are a teacher. No one who has spent any time whatsoever in a school could possibly believe that teachers do not work evenings or weekends. If you do, then you are in for a very rude awakening indeed.

I can tell you, that last year I taught 210 students Y8 - Y11. I had 4 GCSE classes which were full, so 120 GCSE students. I also taught 52 A level students. I teach History.

How long do you imagine 52 A level essays take to mark? I was setting a minimum of one a fortnight. If we ignore A level, then I had 210 books to mark, never mind the GCSE questions/essays. 5 minutes a week marking each pupils book is 1050 minutes - or 17.5 hours marking. Therefore, if I want to spend a mere 5 minutes every week marking each student's work I've got a minimum of almost 18 hours marking a week - or 3 hours a night for 6 days of the week. Even if you teach Maths, or something much less essay based, you still need to mark books and give feedback.

HOW does your university imagine this can be done without working evenings or weekends? Or do you not realise that books get marked in your free time?

Of course. Everyone would need to collectively revolt but because employees do make it work, it just carries on.

It’s a harder argument to make for schools because the children’s immediate and long-term welfare is involved. Which is convenient for those up top that keep piling on the expectations.

Another teacher here, have since left the profession. I was just about clinging on but having my own children and having absolutely nothing left in the tank for them finished me off. Have been out a year now and still adjusting to the more gentle pace of a normal workload.

Yes I'm a mental health nurse and whatever area I have worked in, its been so busy and pressured.

I left inpatients due to burn out and now I manage a caseload, which brings about its own stressors and we are all over worked.

I sometimes think about giving up clinical type nursing and doing something non patient facing to see if its less stressful but I do enjoy my job.

Do you really think all the qualified teacher who are stressed/desperate/leaving/have left/are on capability for not meeting targets just haven’t thought of these little ‘workload’ gems?

Yep - exactly. So we get the guilt as well - 'it's the children who will suffer'. And that's an awful feeling. Wed be risking job security as well as knowing that we are letting the kids down (well really the system is, but ultimately is it framed as we are making the choice not to help them when they need it). Individual teachers have no chance of making a change. We need some huge, radical reform.