Stress and getting signed off?

[redsquirrel07]

Hi everyone,

Some friendly advice needed please 😊

I'm a secondary teacher in my 20s and have been struggling hugely with stress for a few months now.

It's started to affect me physically (dizziness, fast heartbeat, intermittent pain in chest) and my blood pressure is 139/99 which is too high for my health and age.

Would it be possible for me to get signed off temporarily?

I feel so stuck. Can't afford to leave without another job to go to, and don't want to take another teaching job elsewhere. There are some jobs I've got my eye on but it's a case of waiting for a vacancy.

Any advice would be much appreciated. I've never experienced this before.

Thank you ♥️

(I have also posted on life after teaching FB group)

If you're too ill to work, then yes

I mean, I can physically go in to work, but it's taking a huge toll on me and I'm worried about the effects chronic stress on my body which are already starting.

Then see your GP and get signed off

I suppose I was partly asking how I would go about doing that. Presumably just booking an appointment, explaining my symptoms and hoping they can offer the right advice/support?

I’m seeing so many teachers in their 20s and the early years of their career going off with stress or leaving the profession because they cannot cope with the demanding workload. Reading between the lines, do you think teaching is actually for you?

I do really enjoy teaching and I'm efficient in terms of work meaning I'm not working crazy hours, it's less the workload that I find difficult and more that I just feel so fed up of dragging unwilling kids through courses they have little interest in, behaviour and rudeness, and all the other stuff we have to do solely for the benefit of management tickboxes.

Obviously I know I'm still early on in my career and have lots of developing to do, but I'm at a decent level with work, behaviour management etc. The main thing is that I just feel that the challenge of getting kids to be interested and to do the work on a day-to-day basis is really starting to outweigh my enjoyment of it.

I'd like to think I am generally a resilient person who copes but I just feel I've reached a point where I'm totally disenchanted with it all. Of course I expect this job to be stressful and challenging at times, but not to feel the level of chronic stress that I have been. Perhaps I'm not as resilient as I think, but in most aspects of my life I manage and make the best of it.

Thanks for your response x

Yes you can self certify for a week and in that time you can book a GP appointment to describe your symptoms and get some advice.
Who can you speak to at school about this? Let's say you get signed off for 2 weeks - what will happen when you go back to school? Have a think about what might be able to be put in place that can help you and make you feel better?

Thank you for the practical advice.

I definitely need to think about what I want to do, and how to make the meantime survivable whilst I work that out.

I'm really close with my HoD and she picked up on how I was feeling a month or so ago, but I haven't brought it up since and it's definitely gotten worse since then. Will catch her at some point this week.

I agree about needing to look ahead to what happens if I'm off and then go back.

Appreciate all of the support on here, thank you ♥️

I understand how you feel. Yes, you can get signed off. You can go to the doctor, explain how extremely stressed you are, mention you're a teacher and they will sign you off. But are you planning an exit? The problem is, there will come a time when you will need to go back and it never gets any better. I could quite easily go off tomorrow but I know that I just won't want to go back.

Thank you. I completely understand what you (and others) have said about time off not being the solution to the problem, and yes, I am planning an out. I've set the end of the year as the time to resign and will work out my options in between now and then x

Take care 💐