Tired of teacher friends complaining

[Anonymous]

In response to the OP, this isn't really about a profession or about the complaints from your 2 friends who happen to be a part of that profession. What I hear is that you are unable to set boundaries or communicate your needs with those 2 friends. My recommendation is this: Tell your friends you love them but you don't want to hear them complain about their job. Period. Be a grown up and communicate. Set a boundary and if your friends don't respect that boundary, find different friends. This is what adults do. If you are unable to do this, there are therapists available who might be able to help you learn this skill.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Normal for many teachers. They don't realize that they get paid more than other professions like social workers as they get summers off if they choose. They have a cushy deal.

A cushy job, LOL! I have a cushy job. Im paid 298k to do it, get to work from home whenever I want, get to expense so many nice meals, get to take time off whenever i want to see my kids events at school or volunteer in the classroom. Can work out at lunch if i have the time, I'm respected by the people around me, I get really nice gifts from vendors around the holidays, very frequently get box seats at all sporting events and many big name concerts. My kids have never been to a sporting event that hasn't been in a catered box, all curteousy of vendors or my company, and my employer pays 3k per quarter towards any continuing education I would like and it doesnt even have to be applicable to my job.

Teachers are horribly underpaid and over worked. It's really awful how they are treated. I've spent enough time in the classroom to see exactly why the tune over and burn out of so high. I couldn't be half as good as my kids best teachers.

[Anonymous]

There isn’t be a course in college that teaches them a o complain. They all seem to do it to their own detriment. Yes, all of us have jobs and most of the time they suck too. But I don’t get the summer off!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Normal for many teachers. They don't realize that they get paid more than other professions like social workers as they get summers off if they choose. They have a cushy deal.

A cushy job, LOL! I have a cushy job. Im paid 298k to do it, get to work from home whenever I want, get to expense so many nice meals, get to take time off whenever i want to see my kids events at school or volunteer in the classroom. Can work out at lunch if i have the time, I'm respected by the people around me, I get really nice gifts from vendors around the holidays, very frequently get box seats at all sporting events and many big name concerts. My kids have never been to a sporting event that hasn't been in a catered box, all curteousy of vendors or my company, and my employer pays 3k per quarter towards any continuing education I would like and it doesnt even have to be applicable to my job.

Teachers are horribly underpaid and over worked. It's really awful how they are treated. I've spent enough time in the classroom to see exactly why the tune over and burn out of so high. I couldn't be half as good as my kids best teachers.

Trust me, it's a hard and stressful job. It's really the sort of job you have to try for a year to experience it to fully understand.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Imagine you had to run a meeting 6-7 hours a day. You had to lead the meeting--agenda, content, presentations, discussions, work output, materials, everything. During that meeting, you can't check email or make a phone call. And in between the 6-7 hour meeting, you have smaller 20-1 hour meetings.

Imagine 25 of the 30 participants do not want to be there and don't have the ability to pay attention or follow directions. And you have to keep them on track.

Imagine you had to give immediate feedback/evaluations from today's meeting to every participant.

Imagine after running that meeting, you have to plan and prepare for tomorrow's 6-7 hour meeting.

Imagine if your participants fail to perform or have substandard work product, you are blamed.

Imagine never having an off day. Never spending a day just dealing with the little things.

Imagine it keeps going, day after day. It's exhausting to have to plan and manage every minute of every day for 30-150 participants.

I used to be a teacher. I miss it every day. But I'd never go back. The daily grind with no support staff to handle things was just too much. If I got a secretary, Id totally go back.

Until you've done it, you just don't understand.

Amen Amen Amen -former teacher

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:My two teacher friends constantly complain about how much work they have & how little they get paid when ever we get together. They act as if teaching is the hardest job & that anyone who works any other job doesn't work as hard as them when school is in session. But most jobs are difficult in certain ways & a lot of jobs pay the same range but without the added benefits. And I can't understand why they complain about pay when they chose to go into the field knowing the pay range. Is this normal for teachers or is this just an isolated occurrence?

Oh look! A teacher basing thread. What a novel idea.

Op, if you don't want to listen tell them to zip it. Say "yes, you've said that before." Then change the subject. Tell them to find another job.

I know a lot of teachers. None of them complain constantly. Yes, June is met with a groan because kids are nuts then. But the constant complaining I read about on DCUM? I've never heard it in real life.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In literally every other job, if you need to go to the bathroom, you get up and go. Have you ever considered that? If a teacher has to go to the restroom, they have to wait a few hours for lunch, or somehow magically find an extra adult that is certified to be alone with the children in the classroom, without leaving the room or using a phone.

Someone pointed that out to me, and that is tortuous.

Wait a few hours for lunch... what about recess. That's an opportunity twice/day to go to the bathroom.

So nurses just leave the room to pee whenever they need to?

I had a desk job for awhile in an office where we could only leave our desk for breaks.

That one doesn't fly.

[Anonymous]

Aww...the underpaid teachers who enjoy their trips to Switzerland, Portugal, Ireland, Australia, France, Hawaii...

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:In response to the OP, this isn't really about a profession or about the complaints from your 2 friends who happen to be a part of that profession. What I hear is that you are unable to set boundaries or communicate your needs with those 2 friends. My recommendation is this: Tell your friends you love them but you don't want to hear them complain about their job. Period. Be a grown up and communicate. Set a boundary and if your friends don't respect that boundary, find different friends. This is what adults do. If you are unable to do this, there are therapists available who might be able to help you learn this skill.

I agree with this poster. This isn't about teachers. This is about a non teacher who cannot maintain and enforce boundaries in her own life and is choosing to blame others for not being about to do so.
OP, stop complaining about other people's complaining. Complaining about complaining is tiresome. Cut it out.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Aww...the underpaid teachers who enjoy their trips to Switzerland, Portugal, Ireland, Australia, France, Hawaii...

Right!! My teacher friendstake the best trips in the summer....while they’re off. Since they aren’t paid for not working in the summer.

[Anonymous]

This two teacher family has taken exactly ONE family vacation for longer than 2 nights, farther than 2 hours away in 20 years. That was to Florida to Disney. Outside of that, we have always done day trips, or a two night trip to a water park. We have never been outside the US, never taken our kids on an airplane. Maybe other people can afford trips, but we can't. We work all summer because we save for retirement. We aren't stupid enough to believe pensions will still exist when we retire.

[Anonymous]

Guaranteed holidays, weekends and summers off. At least one hour per day of "planning" time, generous sick leave which is often used as personal leave, absolute job security after tenure and good pension plans. I think a lot of teachers have a pretty good deal compared to the average working stiff, which is why there is fierce competition for many teaching jobs in the suburbs.

[Anonymous]

How much do teachers get paid? A starting teacher at APS, for example, or one who has been teaching for 15 years?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:In literally every other job, if you need to go to the bathroom, you get up and go. Have you ever considered that? If a teacher has to go to the restroom, they have to wait a few hours for lunch, or somehow magically find an extra adult that is certified to be alone with the children in the classroom, without leaving the room or using a phone.

Someone pointed that out to me, and that is tortuous.

Wait a few hours for lunch... what about recess. That's an opportunity twice/day to go to the bathroom.

So nurses just leave the room to pee whenever they need to?

I had a desk job for awhile in an office where we could only leave our desk for breaks.

That one doesn't fly.

If you happen to teach elementary school, you might get a 20 minute recess break at lunch time, where you can try to pee, get to the copy machine etc . . . but it won't be twice. Twice a day recess is a rare thing these days, and when it happens teachers will generally be assigned to cover one of the two slots.

When I've been in hospitals, nurses come in, they spend a few minutes, and then they go out to chart, or see the next patient, or talk to a doctor. Same thing with the pediatrician, the nurse is never in the room for hours on end. I assume that if they desperately need to pee or change a tampon there's a chance they could fit it in there somewhere. Surgical nurses and maybe ICU nurses are obviously different.

I now teach high school, in part because my body could no longer handle not peeing the way it needs to to teach elementary school. We get a break every 90 minutes when the kids change classes and in an emergency I can run to the bathroom then.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Guaranteed holidays, weekends and summers off. At least one hour per day of "planning" time, generous sick leave which is often used as personal leave, absolute job security after tenure and good pension plans. I think a lot of teachers have a pretty good deal compared to the average working stiff, which is why there is fierce competition for many teaching jobs in the suburbs.

What school has at least an hour per day of "planning time"?

Also, what profession are you in that you plan 1/8th of your working hours? You make it sound like an hour a day (which is certainly not the norm, at least in elementary school) is a luxury, but I know lawyers who spend MONTHS planning a case before they set foot in the courtroom. Do you complain about their planning time too?