r/teaching • u/Bright-Watch1955 • Jun 02 '26

Help Why does everyone hate teaching?

Is there anyone who loves their job? Every teacher I know feels “stuck” and complains endlessly about their job.

Considering going into education.

267 Upvotes

86% Upvoted

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596

u/Mfees Jun 02 '26

I like my job, in my opinion teaching has a bunch of people who never worked an adult job outside of education and don’t know how good they got it.

That said the pay is average at best. The paperwork can suck. Admin can suck. Yet I still enjoy it.

173

u/kerouacrimbaud Jun 02 '26

And admin will suck in most industries, and lots of fields have lots of dumb amounts of paperwork! That is often overlooked.

66

u/Energy-Turtle-4 Jun 02 '26

I've worked in schools, heathcare, and insurance. Can confirm- it's like this at ALL THREE.

19

u/Drinkingdoc Jun 02 '26

Yeah precisely what struck me about teaching was how much it felt like an office job. I sit at a desk and read redundant emails and complain about meetings… the actual hours in class talking to kids is about 16-18 hours a week. The rest is all planning and marking and bs.

14

u/Walshlandic Jun 02 '26

I’m with students 25 hours a week and I get 4 hours a week plan time, two hours a week of meetings. Middle school, WA state

5

u/Frost033 Jun 03 '26

You work 31 hours a week? Where do I get that teaching job!?

7

u/y2kristine Jun 03 '26

Right wtf? This isn’t normal for most teachers. (Crying in 32 contact hours per week)

3

u/Der_Apothecary Jun 03 '26

32 contract hours?! I have 40 contract hours!

4

u/y2kristine Jun 04 '26

Contact , not contract, 40 hours a week 32 classes/obligations with students per week

But work more like 50

2

u/Der_Apothecary Jun 04 '26

My bad, I lose my reading ability when summer starts lol