Am I mad to leave teaching for a low-paid job?

[LapsedTwentysomething]

I started at a new school this term and it's just not for me. Behaviour is poor, teaching content is all prescribed and there's always a criticism behind every comment the head makes (not of me personally, but the staff seem to be perceived as wayward slackers).

The job is FT so family life is mad. I leave too early to have much to do with the DCs and every bedtime is stressful as I need then to get to sleep so I can work. At the weekend I'm doing half a day's work just to keep up, never mind meeting all the demands to perfection.

The new job would also be FT, but 9-5, which would at least allow me to do the school drop off. I would lose the hols but I calculate that I'm working a day to a day and a half extra every week anyway (50ish hours).

The pay is a less than half my current salary though. I'm considering it on the basis that I would study and get experience while working towards becoming a fee earner, which is what's being suggested.

But. Life isn't going to be easy financially. School hols will become a bit of an issue.

WWYD?

I don't blame you for wanting to get out of teaching, but a word of warning about law. I'm assuming that you're being taken on as a paralegal with a view to getting onto a training contract and then qualifying. People definitely do this but it is quite common for firms to promise the earth re training contracts/qualification and then keep putting off making it official while the paralegal actually does the work of a trainee for less money. Not saying this will definitely happen but something to check up on and be aware of.

Lapsed - I feel the same about the hours of work needed at night just to survive the next day, and its every day, relentless. I don't have any problem doing work in the evenings if its productive or useful.

I agree so much about starting a new performance every 50 minutes, and the feeling it can never be "good enough" or a good job. I similarly crave job satisfaction (as I had in the jobs I had prior to teaching!) I love teaching when it goes well, and when I can manage the workload. I just couldnt go back full time at the moment!

I am listening re making sure my eyes are open and I'm in two minds. I'm reading a lot about the misery of law at the moment too, and my cousin, an employment sol, says don't! I have no intention of training as a solicitor btw. I see becoming a chartered legal exec as an end in itself.

The law I'd definitely not the place to go for shorter hours , law is still very much a work as many hours in the day as possible profession.

Certainly leave teaching it is ruining your life, you only have one life but don't forget to factor in the loss of your final salary pension fund.Very few private sector employees have a pension that will pay very much at all , as a teacher you will get a guaranteed pension and a lump sum of 3 times your pension , that is definitely worth considering .

It might be worth requesting a part-time position at the school. The head can only say no. If you are teach a core subject and they had to rely on supply teachers in the past, the head might prefer part-time rather than nothing at all.

I do agree it is impossible to do the job justice and devote time to your family. However, the 13 weeks holiday a year does balance things out a bit/a lot.

I understand everything you say OP, it can be the best job in the world, but if you're in a school where the culture is to expect you to give give give, and where you're made to feel nothing is ever good enough, it must be the hardest job.

Just a word of warning about going PT: first, think long and hard about the pension. It may sound a long way off, but because the pension works exponentially, if you reduce your days you will never get anywhere near a full pension, even if you keep going til 65. If you play around on the teachers' pension calculator (google it) you can see the difference between working different hours and tbh it's quite an eye opener
Secondly, I know a number of p/t teachers who end up doing a full time job on p/ t pay, so be careful you don't end up feeling just as stressed but with less money

If I were feeling as unhappy as you, I would consider looking for another teaching job elsewhere, or doing something completely different. Just my opinion but I think staying in the same job on fewer hours will mean continuing discontent, plus you're the one losing out financially

You have my sympathies but I honestly think that most workers (public and private) are being shafted.

Unison members are striking today because of pay. Overall, they are still better off than private sector workers. DH has a good job for a tech company. He finally had a pay rise this year for the first time since 2007!!! His company do not contribute to his pension and he has no benefits.

I wouldn't go into private sector if I were you. Are there any opportunities in the education department?

I used to work in the law as well and agree with other posters that it can be stressful, long hours and unqualified staff can end up being exploited. Also the continuingly changing landscape around legal aid and conditional fee funding means job security isn't great right now

I also haven't had a pay rise of more than 1% for 5 years

Are they going to encourage you to qualify as a solicitor or a legal executive?

Lapsed, I can certainly see why you want to leave teaching and I honestly think of you can make it work, it is worth it for the long term gain based on what you say.

However, check your new contract/field very carefully. I left a legal career five years ago to become a teacher, and whilst teaching is stressful, the hours and stress are so much more manageable for me in reaching than they ever were in law. A normal day pre teaching was 7am- 7pm and involved taking work home over evenings and weekends, as well as frequent late meetings. I took a 35% pay cut to go into teaching and will unlikely ever reach my previous earning potential in teaching but consider it worth every penny. This was not as a solicitor although I was qualified as one and that had been my previous role, this role was as an inhouse legal advisor to an oil firm.

If you think the new role adds up, for the sake of your family life, it would be worth it but just check carefully.

Well I have given this a lot of thought, having also read a few previous threads, and taken some advice from my solicitor cousin.

I have a second interview tomorrow and will go just to be sure, but I think I will go with the suggestions to try another school. I have the issue that I am an expensive teacher, but astonishingly I can say that Gove has done me a favour in that respect because pay portability isn't guaranteed anyway.

Thinking more positively about the advantages of my current job has also helped a lot this week.

Thank you for the advice