Wish I wasn't a teacher because of Covid

[NebularNerd]

In my family/friends circle, I am the only one who will be face to face with 150+ people per day with no PPE, no social distancing, nothing.

I have one relative who is not expecting to return to the office this year.
Another who now only works in the office two days per week, in a building where numbers are severely restricted, one way systems, spaced out desks etc.
Another friend who is also able to wfh for the foreseeable future.

I can't help but think that had I made a different career choice I would not now be faced with contracting a potentially life threatening virus and passing it on to my clinically extremely vulnerable husband or elderly parents.

I will go to work and try to ignore what's going on in the world and do my best. But I wish I could be made to feel safer - screens, masks, fewer pupils, something.

I hope I'm worrying for nothing, but it is getting difficult to sleep at night.

bingo is not an answer

🌟 for Miles. Good to see you back for a second season.

@Flaxmeadow

bingo is not an answer

It is when a poster has just regurgitated an unqualified cliché.

It's not an answer but it might be the answer.

at noble and Piggy.

I hope you're soaking in all the wisdom on this thread, and feeling ashamed of shutting schools on purpose then just sitting about.

@MilesJuppIsMyBitch

at noble and Piggy.

I hope you're soaking in all the wisdom on this thread, and feeling ashamed of shutting schools on purpose then just sitting about.

On full pay, no less 😉

Who says School Staff can't wear PPE? A School's SLT might 'suggest' Staff can't - but you really can, particurlarly if you are 'vulnerable'.

Any Employer that sacks any Employee for wearing masks, PPE for personal health reasons or to help prevent the spread of CV19 doesn't have a legal leg to stand on.

Frankly I think every School needs at least one Staff Member, preferably a Teacher, fully clad in PPE all day, as a reminder to the DC that they still live in CV19 Times.

@SaltyAndFresh

We can't have PPE in the classroom (which is where it's needed).

@MilesJuppIsMyBitch, a new low was achieved this morning with someone claiming that teachers were behaving as if they were being sent to the gas chambers in Auschwitz.

Spoilers!

"Sitting about?!"
I'll have you know that I've been paddle-boarding and everything!
And my garden has never looked so good.

@CallmeAngelina

"Sitting about?!" I'll have you know that I've been paddle-boarding and everything! And my garden has never looked so good.

Now, I'm sure you've been spoken to before about openly having hobbies and not even being ashamed, tsk tsk.

@CallmeAngelina

"Sitting about?!" I'll have you know that I've been paddle-boarding and everything! And my garden has never looked so good.

Yes but we all know you only got the garden looking so good so you could sit about drinking gin!

Good evening, all.
We've had quite a few reports about this thread and would like to point out that OP started a thread about her own personal experience, and asking for support. No matter what your opinions about what is happening in the wider world, we would ask that you please post civilly and kindly.

@KimMumsnet

Good evening, all. We've had quite a few reports about this thread and would like to point out that OP started a thread about her own personal experience, and asking for support. No matter what your opinions about what is happening in the wider world, we would ask that you please post civilly and kindly.

Thank you

I work in a school in Scotland and this is an unusual attitude. We are all just mucking in and pleased to have the kids back and getting on with some learning. We can wear ppe if we like, I choose not to as I work in primary 1 and occasionally primary 2 and nursery. Some 1:1 staff are wearing shields and masks but we're all fairly relaxed.

@midnightstar66

I work in a school in Scotland and this is an unusual attitude. We are all just mucking in and pleased to have the kids back and getting on with some learning. We can wear ppe if we like, I choose not to as I work in primary 1 and occasionally primary 2 and nursery. Some 1:1 staff are wearing shields and masks but we're all fairly relaxed.

Well, maybe that's the case in your place, but can you not see that it's not the case for everyone? The OP is anxious, and clearly not relaxed, so she deserves some support on here, not the shit that's been offered by some familiar names (and some name-changers).

hate it's so easy for everyone to forget, adults chatting, the dc.

It's why I really feel, visors at the very least should be worn and or masks.

Remind everyone.

It's impossible to sd in a staff room.
Impossible.
There is no where else to go except perhaps ones car. But we have to stay with students!

I've already got my flu jab booked in but October was the earliest I could get.

I'm wondering is a pneumonia Jab worth it?

• dreading winter.

Start taking extra vitamins now, including vitamins d.
Take vit c and zinc.. Keep exercising or moving.... Watch diet.. Tons of garlic, get some sun.

@CallmeAngelina I absolutely agree with your last post. and I really don't think you've spent all your time in the garden with gin

Well, not all, but quite a lot.

Thank you for the responses on this thread, and thank you for the posters who have been supportive and spoken up against the absolute bile that has been directed at teachers on this thread, and others.

It's disappointing that so many supposed parents have so much contempt for the people that they entrust the education and care of their children to. We spend our days, evenings and weekends, often at the expense of our own families, working for the benefit of the students we teach, and yet, during a pandemic, when we ask for the basic safety measures that have been afforded to most other workers, we are accused of being work/shy, bedwetters, and worse.

I'm not losing sleep over the return to school although I am anxious, as many other people have been across the globe during this pandemic.

I am also looking for a route out of teaching.

What a thankless profession. The amount of abuse we encounter from parents (see this thread and others), the media, and now being catastrophically let down by the government. No job should be done at the expense of your health and that of your family - and I don't just refer here to Covid.

Well done to all of the teachers out there, and best of luck for next week.

@NebularNerd

Thank you for the responses on this thread, and thank you for the posters who have been supportive and spoken up against the absolute bile that has been directed at teachers on this thread, and others.

It's disappointing that so many supposed parents have so much contempt for the people that they entrust the education and care of their children to. We spend our days, evenings and weekends, often at the expense of our own families, working for the benefit of the students we teach, and yet, during a pandemic, when we ask for the basic safety measures that have been afforded to most other workers, we are accused of being work/shy, bedwetters, and worse.

I'm not losing sleep over the return to school although I am anxious, as many other people have been across the globe during this pandemic.

I am also looking for a route out of teaching.

What a thankless profession. The amount of abuse we encounter from parents (see this thread and others), the media, and now being catastrophically let down by the government. No job should be done at the expense of your health and that of your family - and I don't just refer here to Covid.

Well done to all of the teachers out there, and best of luck for next week.

This makes me so sad. I’ve not kept up and won’t scroll back to their nonsense but I can imagine.

There are a lot more of us on your side. My letter to our head made it clear that a system that expected any teacher to work in less covid secure workplaces wasn’t a system that I wanted to be part of.

You deserve better.

You sound like a lovely teacher who has no doubt been making the world a better place. Teaching is a noble profession.

I’m currently a SAHM and LOVED the job but won’t be returning until there is legislation to ensure that teachers are never treated like this again. And I’ll be directing my kids to other jobs too!

I think things will get better though.

Numbers are going up and quite frankly I’m hoping for a sharp increase now (for those that hopefully felt happy with the risks of covid - I know I’m kidding myself and that this won’t necessarily be the case) as opposed to October time (for those that have been forced into taking unnecessary risks with potentially higher viral load) so that better measures have to be put in place. And so that people decide to vote with their feet with the clear message that it’s not good enough - for our kids, our teachers or society as whole.

Take care 💐💐💐

@MilesJuppIsMyBitch

Hi everyone!

I, like many of you, this teachers are work-shy whiners, and am compiling handy come-backs for if they ever dare to complain.

This thread has some stonkers: good work.

I mean, I'm only caught up to Thursday, and there are some real bobby-dazzlers.

Here are my highlights so far:

The amount of hand wringing on here from teachers gives us all a bad name’, ‘perhaps you should consider being signed off work if you cannot rationalise the risks involved’, ‘What about the supermarket workers who have been in close contact/no PPE throughout the pandemic. The hospital workers who have been exposed? Bus drivers.’, ‘This virus needs to be lived with.’, ‘you either suck it up or don't go in’, ‘I'm not sure what else you want to happen’, ‘This is so out of proportion it's unreal’, ‘Are you scared of flu?’, ‘they don't put people on ventilators as much’, ‘Sick of this shit’, ‘This fear only seems to have gripped Mumsnet’, ‘This is not the bubonic plague’, ‘children have suffered the most throughout all this and if you (teachers) can't see that then maybe you should take up a different career’, ‘these teacher on here are wetting the bed every night about a tiny risk.’, ‘mental health in children has always been there’, ‘what other job would you feel safer in?’, ‘they just don't have the option to sit home on full pay,’, ‘It could be worse, we could be in Beirut or Colombia’,

Excellent work.

Love it 😂

Flaxmeadow
Why should teachers be any different to everyone else?

This is what we are asking
Why shouldn't teachers wear masks?
Why shouldn't teachers get Social distancing?
etc etc.

Yet you seem to be arguing against it.

I'm supposed to be starting a degree in a few weeks on the path to teaching but the completely awful way they have been treated throughout all of this has really made me reconsider. Genuinely can't believe that people are OK with the hand teachers have been dealt.

Flaxmeadow: "Why should teachers be any different to everyone else?"

Exactly. Thank you. Why should we be any different from anyone else? So, we should be afforded the same safety protocols, yes?