Teachers wishing to be injured

[TeacherTutu]

A number of years ago I read something about the amount of teachers who drive to work in the morning wishing for an accident - just enough to be in hospital for a while and not have to teach.
At the time, I realised this was me, and has been creeping back into my morning routine.

I was chatting to a friend (another teacher) about this over the weekend, and she suffers from this too. We talked about thinking lots about the type of injury that would be best.

Obviously, when it has got to this stage, you must be really stressed (but, obviously you don't want to go down the signed off with stress/capability route).

Does anyone else feel this way? Has anyone resolved it?

Change it or put your efforts into preparing to leave.
Yes this is pretty clear signal that you need to change jobs!
I also had this in a previous (non-teaching) career, and actually then did break a bone, and as other have said, was sheer elation when it was confirmed broken... Was signed off for six weeks, and used that time to research another career, and engineered redundancy when I got back to work.

My colleagues and I (in two schools) have had this conversation. When I announced my 3rd pregnancy, I got more "you lucky cow - a year off" than I got "congratulations"

I've moved schools and position since and don't have that feeling any more although I still daydream of ways to escape teaching on a daily basis.

you lucky cow - a year off

Driven to work thinking this at low points. I am on more of a high now and never want to go back to wishing these things. I fear this term is better at my school and it will be the new school year and winter months which send me back to that dark place! I went to a conference with a mix of experienced teachers and NQTs - it was brought up as a scarily common thought. Scarily unhealthy too.
What a profession!

This is dreadful, and I still feel horrid for this, but earlier this year a guy I work with broke his leg in an accident. My first, awful, thought when I heard was "lucky bloody git!!"

I lost my voice very dramatically. I felt fine, but not a squeak. I had a serious chest infection and was told not to speak for two weeks at least. I could do the admin (cover manager) but no classes. It was bliss. (I communicated with staff through the medium of post it notes and email.)
I'm thinking a badly sprained ankle would take me nicely to summer.

On my last teaching job I broke my arm. After the initial pain, the morphine and the pinning operation I was elated to be off work. Later I was off for 15 months having a breakdown where I was institutionalised and had ECT. A year afterwards I had my gall bladder removed and called it a day.

In my current job I was really upset to be off for a month after surgery. I couldn't wait to get back to work. I feel lucky to have left the horrible place I taught and to have the job I now have.

I had this in my last job (lawyer). I've since moved firms and practically skip to work now.

Had all these thoughts! Was all so stressful and having near misses in car on way to school because I was crying so much!
I once had a very very aggressive parent shouting at me (found out later she had pushed a HV down the stairs) as she was shouting at me I didn't back away from her as I thought she was going to hit me and my thoughts were if she hits me I could go home for the rest of the day! Sadly she didn't! Reading that back is dreadful.

I had this is my previous school. Used to drive to school trying to work out how fast I'd need to be driving when I left the road to cause a serious enough injury to me to get a decent amount of time off work but not kill / seriously injure myself. One of the main reasons I didn't act on it was that I didn't have comprehensive insurance and couldn't afford to replace the car.

Came out of teaching for a year, back in now in a much better environment, and not thought like this since.

Scary to see how common this is.

I thought I was the only person who felt like this when it was happening to me - I used to drive the half hour or so to work willing myself to stay on the road but at the same time looking for objects to crash into that would damage the car and injure me but not too seriously. I was so relieved to finish at that school - thought I would never go back into a classroom again but have done (but in a very different setting and love it).
6 years later I still shake physically when I have to go up that road - I have become very practised in avoiding that route but had to go up it recently and the colleague I was with commented that I had gone very quiet and was shaking - I was concentrating on not crying. It surprised me how strong the feelings of dread and panic were even after that time.

So sad that others feel like this.

Goodness, I didn't know people could feel like this, it must have been horrible for you all. Frightening to think that the teaching profession has become so pressurised that people would rather be hurt or ill than go to work. I hope you manage to find something where you can use your skills and enjoy your job.

I did actually break my leg and, whilst I acknowledge the spirit behind the posts on here, trust me, you really don't want to do it! It was without question the absolute worst thing to have happened to me and 2 and a half years on, I'm still not 100% fit (was a particularly bad break though).

I reckon laryngitis is a good one - no voice, and doctors will recommend time off to allow complete rest for healing (although I know plenty of teachers who still go in to work - as I've done myself in my young 'keen' days), but you don't necessarily feel particularly ill.