Teaching- any other jobs that make you cry regularly?

[Whosaidthattt]

I quit teaching last year, after years in a negative, toxic environment, which I thought was my fault.
Most days, I cried on the way to work, at lunchtime in a cupboard or driving home. I now see that this was the culture rather than me. It took changing a 20 year career to see this.
Is there any other job out there that has staff regularly crying before/during/after work? It's so wrong!

Veterinary.
Someone in the team cries most days.

I think you've hit the nail on the head. Myself and all my friends feel overworked in a variety of careers. My parent and inlaws don't understand why. There is no off switch any more. Everything is expected instantly due to email, everyone works outside of working hours. I can remember when I began teaching if you wanted to send a note to someone you would have to write it on a slip, walk to the staffroom and you might get a response in 2 days time. Now everyone can send a message instantly so instead of maybe one or two notices a day in my pigeon hole I get about 20 emails per hour whilst I'm busy teaching. I am sure this is part of the issue in many jobs...that and underfunding in other public services so staff are expected to do more and more. Then there's just the way people communicate these days, people (who are probably all very stressed out by their own jobs and workload) are more impatient and used to instant gratification (from the internet) so can become very disgruntled, very quickly if things aren't going their way. I think we all just need to slow down...not entirely sure how we achieve that though.

Agreed :(

This is a real eye-opener -had no idea so many people were distressed at their jobs I’ve had very stressful
jobs-including teaching for several years and rarely cried. I did have a really horrible boss who drove me out of a job I’d enjoyed for years, but I left rather than be subjected to more bullying.
If every job is making you cry though it indicates you are the issue rather than the job and you need to look at a different career.

This couple have convinced themselves that this all for their children and that the children are better off in institutions ( posh ones but institutions) so that the parents can make the money for them all to go posh ski-ing in half terms or to Thailand for Xmas. Where of course, nanny still comes along because the parents still have to work part of it…

I think the thing I find hardest about working in education is that it takes over your whole life and you can never really get away from it. Even when you are at home there is always loads that needs to be done and no time at school to get it done. Then there's being constantly on edge waiting for the next parent email or even Ofsted. Not to mention trying to balance the vastly varying and incompatible needs of everyone in a classroom.

OMG. My friends DH is a vet and cries all the time, she says! Borderline suicidal but won’t leave as it’s all he’s ever done.

Working in Child Protection dealing with child abuse. Full on daily stress.

What is amu?

I’ve read quite a few books about teaching from the last 150 years or so and in all of them the teachers get emotionally involved with the life of the school and often upset about incidents. So it’s certainly not just modern teachers who are fragile little snowflakes.

I also used to work in a call centre, coincidentally dealing with Teachers pension AVCs (NHS and local government too) and was on the receiving end of some awful behaviour by teachers calling. I cried a couple of times. Not on the calls, but after.

It’s the same for most of them! The animal cruelty, risk of injury and constant death side is depressing enough. Then we have the awful clients and the pressure from huge corporates to think about nothing but how to make them money or how much debt is created when clients don’t pay.

Our large corporate is also making redundancies at present which mean those who are left will be expected to work even harder to cover the shortfall.

Healthcare. The lack of support from up high and the level of individual responsibility. It makes you feel really vulnerable.

Really sad reading though this thread as jobs being mentioned (nursing/midwifery/medical, teaching, social work etc…) are, in my opinion, the cornerstone of our society. These aren’t jobs, they are vocations - we need more support for people in these roles - they shouldn’t be feeling like this.

I work as an Accountant within the public sector, didn’t choose that route, kind of fell into it - the worse I can report is some days being a bit mundane, like what I’m doing doesn’t really matter. It’s so sad to see so many of the roles where you’re able to have a real positive impact on people’s life’s mentioned here.

You’re all doing an amazing job - THANK YOU!

I was a Clinical Director and cried all the time and thought I would be letting everyone down if I left. Eventually I did hand my notice in. Now 4 months on I work as a locum so I choose when and where and how much I work. I am much happier and healthier. I took a whole month off to recuperate first.
My husband has now admitted he was terrified that I was going to attempt suicide as he felt too much was being asked of me.
Sadly the business has lost me, some one with 26 years experience and now I go elsewhere I realise I am damn good at what I do. But my manager did not manage me correctly and pushed me harder when I was burnt out. This is going on all over the industry and sadly people are taking their own lives because of it.

Working in healthcare with children.

yup, unsurprisingly a nurse. To be fair it’s a lot better now in ICU as we are generally much better funded and better staffed although it still has its moments. Working in a gasto medical ward was the most horrific 7 years of my life. The constant stomach churning worry driving home that I had missed something and something terrible would happen because of it was awful. Because no matter how many times you read on here that nurses are lazy and just don’t care isn’t true but one nurse looking after 14 sick patients and being expected to do and remember everything just isn’t possible.

Social worker here. I love my job most of the time but last week when I was driving to work, I was wondering whether a small car accident might get me a few days of rest. I love working with my children and families but the endless admin is too much, leaving too little time for the families we are suppose to be supporting. I’m about to log in to catch up with admin. Just enjoying my coffee first.

My last job at the supermarket. The current store manager bullied me over my dyslexia. I was the 8th colleague to leave due to his behaviour. He made a similar ratio of staff leave at his previous store, including two decent managers. Everyone’s thinking he is still a store manager due to his religion. They are scared of him playing the racism card if he’s sacked.

Then customers who scream obscenities, being rude, nasty towards me when they are at fault but bloody deny it. These people don’t know how they are making staff leave.

Finally the selfish shelf stripping 5 years this week. We kept strong during the trade hours. Seeing 95% of the shelves being empty was soul destroying. The only things left on the shelves were sun cream, posh face creams, champagne and expensive whiskey. The situation increased the cortisol levels in me and I had covid a few days before the first lockdown. Didn’t get tested at the time as nearest test centres were 40 miles away! Had an antibody test in the early summer and I had COVID. I had covid in July 2022 and had LFT confirming this. Exactly the same headache. Something constantly hitting my left temple

Yup. Sometimes at lunch if I ever got it.

Solidarity too to the vets here… I have several patients who are vets and worry about them because vets have access to such lethal stuff … also I think the suffering of animals is just so so awful.

SEND Caseworker, the constant abuse from parents and especially so called parent advocates who tell you that you are failing child/young person. When the requests are beyond what is reasonable. The lack of support from senior management who have no clue what you do. Blame the CWO for senior management decisions. This whole being expected to manage a caseload of 450 16-25 year olds.

Observing that children with knowledgeable parents who have the financial means, have packages that are easily higher than the fees for Eton, Harrow, Cheltenham Ladies. Yet children with corporate parents or care leavers have limited support. I believe in a fair system of distribution, recognition and pluralism this is currently not happening. Those who shout the loudest have access to an elite SEND education while the rest have to get by on scraps. All children and young people deserve an equality and equity in education and opportunities to thive.

There are those who work in SEND and I wonder why, is an ego/power thing. I work in SEND as I was failed by education, social care etc… I want to make a difference, and hope the SEND reforms change some things.

I’ve been a teacher for over 20 years and I’ve never cried at work, I was thinking this only the other day as colleagues regularly cry. I do get bothered by stuff, but I manage to keep it in. It’s awful people feel like this.

That was the exact trigger for me leaving (family lawyer, mentioned upthread).

I was driving to work and wondering where I could go off the road- not enough to kill me but enough to be able to rest. I just wanted a rest. I had a colleague commit suicide the year before by jumping off a bridge. Ordinary high street law firm.

In my case it was a toxic environment combined with the relentless push for money. There was no sense of collaboration with other colleagues- we were all pitted against each other. No sense that you might go and ask a more experienced colleague for their take on something. That would take them away from their quest to put in billable hours and might mean that you did a better job than them. I can't explain all the toxicity because some of it is quite outing if anyone knows me on here and very specific but I have literally never experienced such a poisonous atmosphere. I recall going to work on my first day and saying to DH that night ' There is something very strange about this office'. But we had moved to start a better life in a lovely location and that was the job option that opened itself up to me.

I taught for 36 years, in secondary schools. All ability levels but mainly exam years, with lots of course work to mark in holidays. I averaged 60 hours a week in term time and half terms and Easter holidays were spent marking. My daughters are City lawyers,nearly 20 years qualified, They earn so much more than I did but their hours are ridiculous-14/15 hours a day. The stress is sky high. I think many jobs make people unhappy. Looking in, other people’s jobs often seem ideal.