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Original poster

Jobs you have done you would NEVER recommend to your children

211 replies

OneUmberJoker · 28/12/2025 21:50

McDonald's

OP posts:
MrsSkylerWhite · 28/12/2025 22:32

OneUmberJoker · 28/12/2025 21:50

McDonald's

Tbf, it’s been brilliant for ours through sixth form, university and establishing career in chosen field.

Personally, holiday let cleaning. Owners are often really tight and I had to leave them less than I wanted.

arlequin · 28/12/2025 22:32

Worked 4 in the state sector then 10 in a selective independent school

Muddlethroughmam · 28/12/2025 22:33

NHS & Health and Social Care

chocciebiscuits · 28/12/2025 22:33

Waxing

Mrsnothingthanks · 28/12/2025 22:34

@arlequin That's good going! I did 20 but never in independent (they don't fit with my ethos) but I imagine there are advantages. And disadvantages too, of course.

Lardychops · 28/12/2025 22:34

Sex Work

AngelinaFibres · 28/12/2025 22:34

ChristmasChroniclesBookFairie · 28/12/2025 22:26

Where do I begin?

Teaching became a role that was structurally impossible to do well. The demands placed on teachers are so extensive and often conflicting that even sustained, exhaustive effort never feels sufficient. You work relentlessly, yet are left with a persistent sense of guilt for falling short of an unattainable standard.

When the reality of the workload is accounted for, the notion of generous holidays quickly dissolves. Calculated against the actual hours worked, the salary often equates to less than minimum wage, revealing a profession that is both emotionally and financially undervalued.

The ideal of inclusion, while well intentioned, frequently exists more as a policy aspiration than a practical reality. In many cases, students are placed in environments that are not appropriate for their needs, with little or no additional support, to the detriment of both those pupils and the wider classroom.

Parental engagement presents another challenge. Poor boundaries, limited accountability, and unrealistic expectations placed on teachers have become increasingly common, further eroding professional autonomy and respect.

Compounding this is the absence of meaningful consequences for extreme or persistent misbehaviour, whether from pupils or, at times, parents. This undermines classroom stability and places an unreasonable burden on teachers to manage situations without adequate authority or backing.

Finally, the role is dominated by relentless paperwork and an ever-changing landscape of initiatives. These shifting priorities continually move the goalposts, creating an environment where compliance often takes precedence over effective teaching and meaningful learning.

Show quote history

My best friend and I trained as teachers in the 80s. Both now 60 and should be doing another 7 years. Not a chance. Friends DIL is German. She taught in Germany first then retrained to teach in the UK. She only lasted 2 years and then changed jobs completely. The thing that amazed her is that in Germany the teacher delivers the curriculum and it is up to the student to absorb the information, work and pass the exams. If the student fails it is their fault NOT the teachers.In this country you can flog yourself into permanent illness trying to get badly behaved, disengaged, poorly parented young people to achieve even a basic level and it will still be your fault that that child is throwing chairs at you, calling you a cunt and is incapable of getting even 1 GCSE.

thereare4lights · 28/12/2025 22:34

Also teaching. Utterly thankless and poorly paid. And sales. Whether cold calling, door to door or working in a bank. All of which I've done. All better than teaching though.

RedRiverShore6 · 28/12/2025 22:34

Teaching, Care

Enko · 28/12/2025 22:35

Anything in retail.or catering.

Sasha07 · 28/12/2025 22:41

Care work in care homes.

CatWithThreeLegs · 28/12/2025 22:41

Local Government. I hated it. It was soul destroying. The only positive thing about it was that it's given me a pension.

DH also worked in (a different) local government for a while, before we met, and had the same opinion.

arlequin · 28/12/2025 22:43

@Mrsnothingthankssorry you didn’t have the best experience! Doesn’t really fit with my ethos either 😄 but works for family life. My own kids go to state schools

ByLemonFish · 28/12/2025 22:44

Childcare

Namechange2211 · 28/12/2025 22:45

I worked as a chamber maid when I was young. 24 bedrooms and bathrooms a day. There was something quite satisfying about it.

Now I’m NHS and really enjoy it. Although there are so many different NHS roles that simply saying NHS is awful doesn’t make sense.

Eifla2o18 · 28/12/2025 22:46

wizzywig · 28/12/2025 22:20

Would you all say its the front line public sector roles that are awful and that it is better when you get into management in those roles?

Nope!! Out of the frying pan and....

ChristmasChroniclesBookFairie · 28/12/2025 22:52

wizzywig · 28/12/2025 22:20

Would you all say its the front line public sector roles that are awful and that it is better when you get into management in those roles?

Absolutely not. A few years after I left the Head Teacher quit and they could not fill the role for over a year. No one wanted it. For good reason too.

They could have contacted me and offered me 4x my previous salary and I’d turn it down without a second thought.

For the record I want to develop my career (and have successfully done so since leaving teaching).

NormasArse · 28/12/2025 22:52

I really think Bridget Philippson should read this thread.

I also came on to say teaching.

AutumnAllTheWay · 28/12/2025 22:52

Teaching is doing a full time job on top of a full time job.

And being harassed every other moment of the day by adults and children alike. Changing targets the whole time. Constant different ideas to be implemented, which stifle your autonomy and creativity. Applied to classrooms where teaching, progress and behaviour is good as well as in classrooms where the opposite is occurring, meaning the more successful learning is affected detrimentally as an across the board ideas strangely arent a one size fits all when it comes to a range of teaching and learning styles.

Rushing about every minute of the day, getting in at 7/7.30am, setting up lessons/ resources/ (this involves implementing the latest initiatives doled out the evening before in a meeting), greeting children with smiles, perhaps having to listen to two sets of parents tell you something or other while worrying what the other pupils are getting up to while you're delayed), teaching children all day, setting up multiple lessons in between, checking which children haven't read etc and doing something about it, trying to get all the individual IEP targets met for the 12 or 13 SEN children in your class as well as move the others towards attainment targets. Deal with a fight/ friendship problems between children through lunch. Having to find time to to put up a corridor display with all the copying, cutting sticking that entails/ prepare for book inspections or a lesson observation. Have 60- 90 books that need marking, as well as an after school meeting to go to. Having to stay with two children whose parents haven't turned up to collect them,which takes up 10 to 15 valuable minutes of the two hours left before the school shuts, an hour and a half of which is made up of meetings. Assessment data to analyse. A phone call to make re the class trip next week, a phone call to take from a parent who didnt like something you said earlier. Planning, planning, planning.

Teachers taking home 90 books as they had no time to mark them before 6 when the school is locked. So sitting up till midnight marking them (using a pink/ green highlighter with next steps for improvement written out for each pupil to try and respond to the next day at the beginning of the lesson, or whatever the latest initiative is)

I did mostly enjoy teaching to be fair, but left when I had my own children.

Ive quickly written out a few things there, sure others could add more!

Badgerfurpurse · 28/12/2025 22:53

Policing. Left recently after 20 years due in part to being diagnosed with PTSD. Not because of some of the horrific incidents that I had to deal with (children dying in road accidents and teenagers being stabbed to death were a particular low light) but because of the bullying I received from the management. Disappointingly my experience of being managed by women in the police was significantly worse than being managed by men.

ThatLilacTiger · 28/12/2025 22:54

Teaching. I had some really wonderful students who I still think of ten years later but I would rather shovel shit barehanded than go back.

Sparklybutold · 28/12/2025 22:56

Medicine

Justchilling07 · 28/12/2025 22:56

ComedyGuns · 28/12/2025 22:15

I remember with both births that a lot of the mid-wives seemed like a bunch of tarty bitches. Not nice.

Show quote history

Tarty!! Some are unprofessional yes, but tarty bitches is a very strange thing to say.

Diamondsbutnoknickers · 28/12/2025 22:57

Retail
Call centre
NHS admin

NCTDN · 28/12/2025 22:59

Kibble19 · 28/12/2025 22:12

Amazed at how many posters are saying teaching.

What is it that makes it so bad? Is it the parents? Workload? The kids? I imagine it’s lots of factors, but would really like some insight.

Well I was coming in to say teaching but you’ve all beat me to it !!
My children actively discourage friends who mention it.
i love working with children. I love the actual teaching. However, the workload is beyond unmanageable.