I am not sure I agree that Teachers have absolutely exhausting jobs - much more so than most jobs - as said by man on r4 this morning

[RevolutionHere]

i am not sure what my dh, former welder would make of this statement

this is an argument regarding long summer holidays,

I think it's exhausting, I think there are also lots of other exhausting jobs, I work in criminal justice and think police officers, probation officers, prison officers, social workers, mental health practitioners to name just a few are all exhausted underpaid and work beyond contracted hours. (And the public still begrudge our pensions)

i think its because they have to work in slots

Yep part of the package.
Did you not know you only had to work part time before you took the job? Which bit of it did you not understand?

Well, I'm guessing it's not really an option for you OP.
Thank god you won't be teaching my child with such a nasty attitude.
Teachers deserve every £ and every hour holiday they get in fact they deserve more.
Teachers might in theory be off for six weeks but they have plenty of work related tasks to do.

These posts are a perfect example of why this country is such a shit hole.

I work 13 hour days 4 days a week most weeks, i have just worked 12 days in a row in a customer facing role with lots of complaints etc and I would still rather do that than be a teacher, let them enjoy their holidays they have earned them!

We aren’t paid for our holidays yet most teachers work through some if not all of them

Most teachers work through the holidays? So when shortening school holidays is discussed, why do so many teachers say that they would leave then because holidays are the only perk of the job. It doesn’t sound like a perk if they’re working through them all.?

Part time?

Because without the time away from teaching the children, nobody would be able to do all the bloody extra stuff.

Yes 39 weeks.

Dealing with children and their social, emotional and intellectual development clearly isn’t a bed of roses, or we wouldn’t have such a significant fertility crisis.
It would seem almost everyone finds having their own children stressful, let alone having to take responsibility for everyone else’s all day, plus have multiple parents refuse to accept your authority or competence at the end of it. Schools are increasingly expected to take responsibility for society’s growing list of ills. It’s no longer acceptable just to expect to teach academic subjects, you have to make up for inadequacies in parenting, social care, mental health care, policing and nutrition, teach basic self-care, emotional regulation, social skills, and worry about allergies and increasingly complex physical health conditions and learning disabilities. It’s not unreasonable to expect regular breaks from the growing list of society’s ills being inflicted on schools, treating schools as though they can make up for the increasing number of ways young people are being let down by society as a whole.

Why does it bother you, OP? Are you envious? Do you want your own job to be acknowledged as being exhausting? Or the welder? Poor welder, well done for being so hard-working.

For about 30 years my friends and I have occasionally asked why we didn’t go into teaching. Then one of us always replies, ‘You know why. It would be exhausting in every imaginable way, even more so than the jobs that already bring us to our knees.’ If you can’t imagine why teaching is exhausting, then fine. Stay innocent. But it is.

Well I suppose :

37.5 x 39 /52 is 28.13

You really have no idea. The tyranny of trip advisor/ google review/ booking.com etc. A bad review can mean then end of a job. They just don’t walk away. To think so is unbelievably entitled.

Because they would, perhaps, like enough time to see their own families once the planning, data, classroom updates, SEN support plans, timetables, resources, curriculum planning etc. are done. There is no other time for these to be done.

So the perk is to be able to catch up on school stuff through the six weeks summer holidays and not have any time off?

I did 20 years in an exceedingly busy A and E dept went off to train to be a teacher finished my training but hated it and returned to A and E then became a ward sister.
Teaching was very hard work and stressful at times and personally but TBH I also found it boring and repetitive at times and actions and requirements laid down by the SLT ridiculous.
Working is A and E doing 13 1/2 shifts can be an absolute slog some find it stressful and emotionally draining I don’t I thrive on the constant unpredictability of it but I found it physically more exhausting than teaching and emotionally it can be draining at times like teachers I’ve been pushed punched had knives and guns pulled on me and put up with endless abuse but you do walk away handing over your work load to someone else and everyday is different.
Being ward sister in a busy constantly changing area where patients regularly and suddenly became very unwell, plus your managing a large team of staff and also responding to the demands placed on me by the trust was exceedingly stressful and emotionally exhausting I felt I was on duty 24/7.
I guess what I’m trying to say is we’re all different and do better in certain environments. I also don’t think any one job is more stressful than many others. I actually was most stressed teaching because I hated it, when you’re stressed you cant sleep you feel tired and everything is an effort. I’m was least stressed in A and E because despite it being physically very exhausting and mentally very challenging and at times scary (I don’t like guns) I loved the constant variety and unpredictability the not knowing what’s going to happen in the next 10 mins.
Of course there are some cushy jobs out there but most people what ever their jobs work hard and from experience I don’t think teachers have necessarily it any harder physically or emotionally than farmers or HCPs or chefs (that’s a job I wouldn’t do for all the money in the world) or carers.

@cardibach I have no idea how she does it to be honest as I am not a teacher and have no experience to judge but the conversation came about because of comparing careers with an Aldi store manager and a management consultant, both of whom had very long hours in comparison.

I do think there is a problem within the profession of competitive misery which manifests in many negative ways. I remember someone who works in mental health once telling me she saw a disproportionate number of teachers and her feeling was that there was more bullying in the staffrooms than in the playgrounds. Obviously that is anecdotal but I thought it was an interesting view.

But I don’t think this is at all unique to teachers.

Many professional and vocational roles put high demands on new entrants, and don’t pay by the hour. Junior doctors, early years solicitors, social workers, lots of corporate roles.

But a minimum wage waitressing job offers much less in the way of progression.

how many weeks class as full time?

But in the monent do you have the authority to regain control? Compose yourself? Unlike a waitress who just has to deal with it along with sadly inevitable sexual harassment. Honestly I’d take a classroom of unruly 5 year olds every day over a stag do.

Then why stay waitressing?

Lots of over worked, underpaid, exhausting, difficult jobs out there especially in the public sector.
At least teachers get a pretty decent wage and long holidays. They’re not working throughout all the holidays.
Pros and cons!
I wouldn’t want to do it, but there are other things I think would be just as relentless hard work for less money, less general respect and certainly less holiday (paramedics, children’s services SW, housing and homelessness council jobs, some nursing jobs, hard manual labour, high needs care work as examples).

More than made up for by the regular 11 hour days, evenings, holiday days and weekends. Imagine if teachers were able to claim time in lieu- it would be way more than the 'extra' unpaid holidays.

45 i think