But my job is inflexible too. I have to decide what’s important in my child’s life and book leave for. It can more often than not be a ‘no’!
For example, I work in the building maintenance industry. We do planned and reactive building work and maintenance for 3 major supermarkets and 4 local academy trusts. When are the busiest times for supermarkets? Christmas and Easter - do you think we can book time off? Nope. Schools - when do schools plan their building maintenance? In school holidays. Do you think we can book chunks of time off during school holidays?! Nope. We work evenings and weekends and often, due to the reactive nature of these customers (you’d be shocked how crap supermarket roofs are and how flimsy the flip flap doors are!) we can’t just ‘be flexible!
We were on the list of key workers during the pandemic but you don’t hear about the people who were making the only places people could go to, safe!
I don’t think anyone is disputing teachers work hard. But no harder, or less able to be flexible than so many of us! Life’s difficult, it’s been difficult for centuries!
It’s funny because I’m currently reading ‘Black Diamonds’, amongst other things it talks about the lives of men, women and children in mining villages across South Yorkshire in the 19th and early 20th centuries. The majority of those women didn’t ‘work’ in paid employment and still, on balance, had it much harder than us! What my point is, working women, work hard, teachers no harder or no less.