A concerned husband received more than 27,000 upvotes and 1,800 comments on social media for a post about his wife, a teacher, who was recently reprimanded for “only doing work during working hours.”
An English teacher in Washington, D.C., recently had a two-hour meeting with her assistant principal after she decided to reduce the amount of work she was doing for the school outside of paid hours.
The teacher, who teaches 5th grade, was dealing with burnout and had recently decided to scale back the number of hours of her work, as advised by her husband, her therapist, and her union representative.
During the meeting, the teacher admitted that she stopped putting in 20 extra unpaid hours, to which the assistant principal remarked, “We can tell.”
The assistant principal further expressed concern that the teacher’s students were suffering due to her no longer working outside of her regular work hours.
These remarks demonstrate the harsh reality teachers face in this profession, and it serves as a warning to those considering entering it. According to the husband, the teaching profession can be “toxic,” and his advice is to “stay away.”
Read More: The Real Reason Teachers Are Leaving In Droves (Hint: It’s Not Because Of Pay)
Commenters Shared Their Opinions On The Viral Post
The husband’s post, which detailed his wife’s story, quickly went viral on social media. Many commenters shared their experiences in the teaching profession, expressing empathy for the teacher’s plight.
“Just told my school I’m not coming back. I’ve interviewed for non-teaching jobs. I don’t know what will come, but I am done!” one person commented.
Another person responded to the post. “I found a job working for the local government. Took a pay cut. I also took a stress cut. Life is too short to be overworked, underappreciated, and completely stressed out.”
They showed their backing to the teacher. A user expressed their gratitude and offered their apologies for all they have done: “The systems designed to take advantage of altruism have got to go; they do the same thing to nurses, and EMS, using their natural caring nature to manipulate them,” they stated.
“I am glad you are taking care of yourself, and I hope we remember how teachers should be treated one day. It seems we won’t know what we’ve got until it’s gone,” they continued.
Is Teaching a “Calling” You Should Avoid?
“The ‘calling’ doctrine messed up teaching so badly. Any profession that gets turned into a ‘calling’ becomes a profession where they intend to exploit the sh** out of you, and teaching is horrible for it. I can’t wait to get out,” another teacher admitted.
“I like to tell people that I quit teaching to go to law school so I could work fewer hours with nicer people,” one person mused. “People think I’m joking, but it’s 100% true.”
The post sparked a much-needed discussion regarding the state of the teaching profession and highlighted the need for better working conditions and protections for teachers.
As it stands, the grueling unpaid workload leaves many in this career feeling burnt out, unappreciated and undervalued.
This article, 20 Hours Unpaid Extra Work Leaves Teaching Profession “Toxic”, was produced and syndicated by TPR Teaching. This article was inspired by Reddit and does not necessarily represent the views and opinions of TPR Teaching.
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I'm an Irish tutor and founder of TPR Teaching. I started teaching in 2016 and have since taught in the UK, Spain, and online.
I love learning new things about the English language and how to teach it better. I'm always trying to improve my knowledge, so I can better meet the needs of others!
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