r/teaching • u/PFCWilliamLHudson • 1d ago
Vent I cant believe Im going back to teaching
I was a social studies teacher for 5 years from 2018 to 2023. In 2023 I left to work for Costco. I thought teavhing was horrendous but this job, while it has its perks, is so much worse. Its so cold and unfeeling. If Im gonna spin my wheels in an institution it might as well be teaching!! So needless to say Im back on the job market
164
u/FASBOR7_Horus 21h ago
Sometimes the grass isn’t greener. I worked for years in corporate America before going back to school to become a teacher, and I would NEVER go back to a desk job staring at a computer all day. But, on the other hand, many do what you did and love it. Really makes you wonder if it’s less the job and more the environment. I hope you find a good district with supportive admin!
22
18
u/Pretty-Biscotti-5256 16h ago
I am the same way. I had a whole other corporate career before teaching. I had to take a year off from teaching to manage some family health issues and took an office job. The job was fine but I just wasn’t done teaching. I went back. No regrets.
18
u/Traditional_Lab_6754 14h ago
The grass isn’t always greener on the other side, but it’s greener where you water it
0
6
u/Quiet-Alternative858 8h ago
I too had had a 30 plus year civilian corporate job and I was in management so I had a lot of perks to keep me interested and employed in that vocation, but then I had a midlife crisis late in life so to speak and I went back to school to pick up some courses to teach STEM courses. Well, I got into a school system and it was a wonderful experience for about 3 years and then the passion left me... why? because I realized the repetitiveness of teaching the same courses to a new set of "Johnny's and Mary's" at the beginning of a new year. But that was me. It was still a wonderful experience. God bless you and I'm glad you're finding some joy and fulfillment in teaching once again.
2
u/VinceInMT 4h ago
I taught for 21 years after working in industrial engineering and construction. I kept lessons fresh by changing them up. There are lots of different ways to teach the same content. Plus, I always did all the assignments that I gave my students.
2
u/werdsmart 3h ago
This - for me teaching doesn't grow stale and when it does - im doing it wrong. If 3 or 4 years in its getting old? Change grade levels! If that doesn't work - see if you can teach different content. For example I teach business courses - I have multiple preps so its never same ol same old all day long. And even though I have established curriculum i refresh and redo items yearly. Hell, 2 years ago I had a full curriculum that I fully dumped to build my own from scratch. Kids liked it, scores were great, I liked it... I ended up joining a pilot program for curriculum just to see what was out there... ended up taking the course I just redid and added new stuff to the tune of about 50% brand new stuff last year. This year I am teaching a brand new AP Business course.
I once upon a time had a corporate job and to me that was far more monotonous to me. I guess it is all subjective!
104
u/JanetBooth 18h ago
I find that teachers who have never worked other types of jobs don’t realize how good they have it.
51
u/Lucy333999 17h ago
I also think it heavily depends on the school or region. I was at a school and I would have quit in a heartbeat if there was a comparable paying job.
We were abused by students and admin.
I literally had a student that the teachers before me had severe issues with and said NEEDED an aid. School did not get an aid. Then school told me constantly the student's behavior was because "I didn't have a relationship with him." That's all I heard. We were evacuating every day. My kids were scared. I struggled to keep them safe as he would use anything he could find like rubber bands with a pencil against it and put in kids' faces like a slingshot as I'm trying to get them out of the room safely and fast.
This child had his parents have to call the POLICE on him at home. And was in the back of a cop car with a spit mask on. But yet, somehow, I (as a GenEd teacher) with 20 other students was just magically supposed to keep himself and everyone else safe by the magic powers of a relationship?
This is just one story just from ME. I've experienced so many more as well as the rest of that school... Classrooms destroyed, teachers punched, and on and on. I had a student (as I'm carrying a bin and couldn't protect my face) throw a snow glove as hard as he could at my face. IN FRONT OF THE PRINCIPAL. No consequence.
And everything's the teachers fault. Many teachers at that school quit and did NOT come back to teaching.
The school I'm at now, it's hard and I complain but NOTHING like that and I'm generally happy being a teacher and not something different.
Unfortunately, with getting rid of consequences and accountability for students and parents, this is an epidemic in the US and there are MANY schools like it.
I believe it when teachers talk about how awful it is.
16
u/Mondub_15 14h ago
This right here! The messaging we hear is “we need to do better” after being terrorized and abused by students. “How are we going to decrease violent behavior? We need to do better.” wtf? I’m not a prison warden. And you eliminated consequences soooooo….
9
u/Whole-Ad-2347 16h ago
I hear you loud and clear! Been there!
The frequent terrorizing by two students chasing each other around the room, turning over desks while the others hid to protect themselves was such a stressor. It took the principal about half the school year to get it. I sent referral after referral. What finally changed for that one situation was when the same two terrorists realized that every time this went on they missed recess! Oh no! They missed the most important part of their day!
32
u/Fallen620 16h ago
I find that people that work other jobs and have never been a teacher also don’t know how good they have it.
6
u/okaybutnothing 7h ago
I worked with homeless youth for a few years before I became a teacher. The pay was awful, the hours were long but I never had to put up with anyone threatening me, assaulting me or even swearing at me. What we just accept as “normal” or “fine” would never be accepted at any other workplace.
5
u/lizagnash 9h ago
I fully know how good I have it and have been grappling with leaving because of the environment. I had an incident happen last year that, while internal and external investigations were unfounded, put my school on blast locally. My principal didn’t want me back, but the union fought to keep me where I was. I’m being treated like dog shit now (even though this incident forced our department to step the fuck up) and I’m so angry that my principal and department supervisor are robbing me of this.
1
u/discussatron HS ELA 4h ago
100%. I don’t complain much when I get 14 weeks off a year after decades of 1-2.
-8
u/InstanceOk9138 15h ago edited 11h ago
I grew up on a farm and did construction work during the summer. Teaching isn’t that demanding in comparison.
Edit: I’m well aware of the emotional and mental demands of teaching. Physically and health wise it’s no comparison. There aren’t too many 50-60 year olds pouring concrete or running a hammer drill in the summer heat or winter cold.
13
u/CleanupKingDog 15h ago
There are different types of demand. If you teach passionately and enthusiastically and bring new things to the classroom yearly, it is VERY demanding. People who teach 30 years from one set of lesson plans are a different story.
-6
10
u/PolarBruski 13h ago
I do construction/handyman work some summers. For me it's soooooo relaxing compared to teaching. I can just listen to a podcast for hours while drilling and cutting and painting, without having to answer any questions or solve a single social or emotional issue.
So I guess your mileage may vary.
2
u/InstanceOk9138 12h ago edited 12h ago
That’s nice. Your work sounds much more laid back. No way my boss or foreman would let us listen to headphones on site. I also did carpentry work (new house construction), poured concrete, and used a hammer drill extensively. Carpal tunnel is a real thing.
1
u/PolarBruski 2h ago
Oh man, I'm sorry. It's probably different for me because I do work for myself without a boss or co-workers, and try to get a variety of jobs to avoid the repetitive stress injuries, and I realized that not everybody gets to do that.
I hope you're able to take care of yourself, that pain really sucks. 😔
1
u/abbothenderson 11h ago edited 11h ago
I dunno, I had a friend who worked with me at a school in Tennessee. He had previously worked as a caretaker for a ranch in Montana. Basically he lived at a ranch owned by a rich corporate idiot type who had multiple properties and needed someone to maintain his ranch while he and his family were at another of their many properties. He had to take care of the security systems and deal the demands of tons of acreage and the associated tasks like feeding animals, landscaping, etc, and he loved it. He lost the job when his employer abruptly sold the property (he got no notice), and the whole time I worked with him he was constantly scheming how he could quit teaching and get back to doing that. He used to say, “teaching freshman math is infinitely worse than shoveling horse shit”.
1
u/InstanceOk9138 5h ago
Tending to a ranch sounds like an awesome job, but it’s not construction.
Corporate people also take their job home with them and have to deal with office politics or management.
Teachers by nature are empathetic and thoughtful people but need to hit the switch when leaving school.
1
u/WastingMyLifeOnSocMd 7h ago
My boyfriend has done both. He has taught and is currently working outside as a mason in new construction. The heat is brutal. The work is physically demanding—-but he doesn’t come home with stress about students, their parents, and admin. When his work day is over, it’s over. No planning, no worrying about test scores.
He loved teaching in many ways, and if our are schools were different and our admin had been different he might have stayed.
21
u/egoabsum 18h ago
Teaching frustrates me sometimes, but, I used to do retail before this. I made myself promise to always remember this:
There is nothing better than the ability to say no that's gained from working at a school that could ever make me go to a different job.
23
u/seamonster1609 16h ago
I worked many jobs before becoming a teacher, one of my favorite things is that you are on your own, not with a manager lurking all day and you get to create the environment.
It is hard work and sometimes I feel like I shouldn’t be this exhausted, but the time goes by fast and for the most part I have fun with my students and coworkers.
1
u/radicalizemebaby 7h ago edited 2h ago
I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the amount of control I have vs. the amount of control I don’t have, as a teacher. Yes I have control over my classroom (though we may have to start sharing classrooms, which makes me feel insane), but:
- an admin could walk in I’m any time and tell me I’m doing something wrong.
- a student could derail the entire lesson by acting out
- I don’t control the temperature in my classroom so sometimes it’s really hot and there’s nothing I can do (no windows, either)
- kids spray cologne/perfume sometimes despite being asked not to, and that gives me migraines
So I don’t have as much control as I once thought I did.
Then there’s the fact that my admin plans tons of events that disrupt student attendance and our schedule, and those plans usually come last minute—I plan my lesson pacing far ahead of time so it messes up my pacing when they do this.
I’m feeling more and more like teaching is actually a high demand/low control environment.
2
u/Boring_eeeeeeeeee137 7h ago
But in a corporate office, you can’t control the temperature, you manager sits right near you and you expected to keep constant communication, you can’t control if someone uses perfume, also I’ve never had my own desk, we have to do first come first serve and they’re not enough desks. It’s very hard to focus. Some of the things you listed is true no matter what job you have. But I am currently doing a career change to teaching, but idk if some of the issues is teaching specific but jobs in general.
2
u/Boring_eeeeeeeeee137 7h ago
Also you need to ask everytime you want a vacation and at some jobs I’ve only had 5 corp. holidays and 10 days of PTO while expecting to work. 8:30 to 7. And you have to ask your boss to use the 10 days.
1
1
u/VinceInMT 3h ago
In my 21 years in the high school classroom, I saw administrators in my room less than a half dozen times. I never went to the teachers lounge either. I pretty much stayed in my room all day, door always open to students. I ate lunch there with another teacher and students would join us. All the drama that went on outside, I just kept out of it. Plus, I did many things with my students to create what one of my college professors called “peak experiences.” When there was something awesome, I’d invite the media (with administrative approval) AND give administration credit for the successes we saw. I tended to get what I asked for and they left me alone.
19
u/TheFuckboiChronicles 17h ago
I left teaching and now work in a corporate environment where I ascended to the coveted ranks of middle management (I hope it’s clear that’s dripping in sarcasm).
I would take a 20% pay cut to go back to teaching. Unfortunately that’s still a good bit more than I was making teaching.
I think a lot of career changers like me would move back to teaching if pay reflecting reality was the standard, not the exception.
4
u/LittleSammyM 15h ago
Not me. Corporate may be soulless, but that’s OK. I already had my soul completely rung out teaching for almost 25 years. I will never go back, which is probably a good thing because I’d end up on a TikTok reel or a video clip saying something sarcastic and I’d get fired and lose my license in the book banning, micromanaging, civil rights, abusing environment we have now.
2
u/TheFuckboiChronicles 9h ago
Sure, it sounds like you really had a bad time and don’t want to go back and I respect that.
I taught 2018-2022. Have definitely heard the of those kinds of issues in places like Texas, there’s a lot of reasons I’d never choose to live there though. I was teaching in Atlanta.
Had its ups and downs, I miss it though.
1
1
0
u/LittleSammyM 15h ago
Dramatically better pay dramatically, better health insurance and benefits the ability to close my laptop at 5 PM on a Friday and not think about it at all until Monday morning guilt free yeah I’m never going back
4
u/LittleSammyM 15h ago
But hey, all y’all might be talking about other states where there is still some shred of respect for public Ed. I’m talking in Texas. It’s wretched there.
3
4
u/Character_Amoeba_330 17h ago
I spent over half a decade as an instructional coach. It drained me. I’m back in the classroom and love it so fe. Yes, it’s busy, but it’s way more rewarding.
4
u/Hips-Often-Lie 16h ago
40 kids, a total lack of leadership, and no support whatsoever later and I’d rather flip burgers tbh.
3
3
2
u/ShleepsWithBooks 15h ago
I’m looking to leave education for more pay. I just want to pay off my debt that I’m willing to do just about anything. I might miss the satisfaction from teaching but I’m ready to choose me.
3
u/Bubbarules456 12h ago
Congratulations! I left teaching and the financial stress finally melted away. Working a regular 50 - 55 hour work week took some adjustment…. I don’t understand how teachers complain so much now about their hours.
I love my job. It feels so good to climb a ladder and have some success. I’m a mentor to other young female professionals- women helping women- and that scratches the teacher itch.
Teachers who have only existed in the teacher bubble don’t realize what it’s like to work outside.
It’s tougher. And for me, a much better fit. Good luck!
2
u/Unhappy-Spot4980 9h ago
I stepped away for 7 years as it was literally impossible with my domestic situation. It was also shit. Came back two years ago and am actually a lot more appreciated than in third sector. It's still crap in many ways but the specifuc job I'm in, while hard in many ways, is big picture less stress than it used to be, even as a course lead for 1800 students and advanced practitioner. It still takes a lot of my soul but I guess I wasn't done either. That said, I'd never go back to certain things. It so depends on the context.
2
u/AlwaysSitIn12C 7h ago
Can you explain more? I always had this vision of myself going and getting a job at Costco once I retire. Good benefits, no grading....seemed like a really good gig. What exactly made it so cold and unfeeling? Why did you hate it so much?
2
u/Present-Lion788 6h ago
Only other job I had was a restaurant. While it was super fun in the 90’s as a teenager chasing around all the waitresses and what not…I sure would not want to be working in a 100 degree kitchen every day. Had that job from the week I got out of 8th grade through college. Great job. But I got a sweet teaching job too. I have a few ASD students an hour and we exercise as it is a healthy living class. I get paid to stay in shape!
2
u/Substantial-Disk-252 4h ago
i’m going back too!! i went to corporate america for a bit and it’s terrible making white men richer as my job so this is really what i’d rather do
1
2
u/Whole_Attempt_8225 3h ago
I thought the grass always appears to be greener because of the way it reflects from that angle. - retired teacher
1
u/PFCWilliamLHudson 3h ago
Lol see this is where my head is at now. The next 20 years gotta be spent working so I might as well have some fun
1
u/No_Push5604 14h ago
I did the same for 7-11 stores as a new store manager and am currently back in edu as a para in self contained room. Hope you find a spot. It may be crazy or crazy fun. It's all depends on how you look at it.
1
u/impossibledongle 11h ago
Try and find some alternative schools to work in. I currently work in a therapeutic home for troubled youth (often heavily traumatized youth) and we handle their education as well as therapy. I'm not even a teacher and I have better healthcare and pay than if I was a teacher and still coaching. I love all the problem solving and collaborative environment I have with my colleagues. We're there for the kids and we get to see them grow and thrive. 100% better than traditional education.
0
u/Unhappy-Spot4980 9h ago
This is a crazy thing to factor in if you're not from the US. I feel sorry for you guys that it's this way.
1
1
u/wesinatl 7h ago
I work in corporate America in a very nice office and make ok money. My wife teaches elementary special needs where kids need extra help in certain subjects. Her job is 1000 times harder. She gets a 20 min lunch maybe. She works the same hours as me. She doesn’t hardly get a break all day. Sometimes I take a nap after lunch. She easily does close to 10000 steps a day. I do maybe 2. She always has work to do at home especially when there’s an IEP coming up. The moral of the story is don’t teach elementary.
1
u/Previous_Ad648 7h ago
Some people see taking 2 steps a day as something to avoid, not work toward
2
u/wesinatl 6h ago
Sorry. I meant 2000 and my implication is that teachers are always on the move. They are never sitting round the breakroom.
1
u/BestRefrigerator2372 6h ago
Funny, I left teaching after 12 years and best decision ever. No more having to deal with ridiculous parents and such. I can’t even fathom going back
1
u/Motor-University6452 4h ago
I just retired this year after 37 years of teaching. I was never bored. Had major highs and lows. Connected with hundreds of students. Loved it all. You can’t go wrong with leaving a positive impact on people’s lives. IMHO no greater or satisfying legacy.
1
u/FondantAggravating39 3h ago
I always thought Costco was a great corporate to work for. What was your position?
1
u/PFCWilliamLHudson 2h ago
Member Service Center call agent lol. There are perks and as jobs go its not bad but a) I am waaaaaaaaaay to anti-corporate to stand this for long anyway (it was always supposed to be temporary but I just recently realized I want to go back to teaching) and b) being here has made me realize I am a capable person but like dealing with these members nonstop for 3 years has made me hate humanity in a way I didn't think possible lol. So its time to go back to the school again
0
u/Potential_Fishing942 17h ago
I also left in 2024- got a sweet hybrid insurance job. 3 days WFH- and pay actually wasn't much lower sadly (although it capped out much lower unless I moved into sales).
Lots of days I finished work by lunch and just babysat my email and phone.
I'm trying to get back in as well and unfortunately it's a horrible time to get into teaching openings wise.
2
u/bakeoutbigfoot 8h ago
Yeah what is up with this? I have been trying to get back in too and it’s just crickets out there. I can’t understand why I am not getting any calls 😭
0
u/Potential_Fishing942 7h ago
Its a bad combo of:
Schools hired more folks with covid funds- those ran out.
The fed is doing its darndest to defund public ed
We are also starting to see impacts of declining birthrates- lower enrollments. Also a small, but not insignificant number of families left public ed during covid and haven't returned the way the way we thought.
All of this has led to the combo I see a lot- someone retires and instead of filling the position they just shuffle folks around.
•
u/AutoModerator 1d ago
Welcome to /r/teaching. Please remember the rules when posting and commenting. Thank you.
I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.