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My job is making me ill
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
in Work & Study
You may or may not know that I'm a teacher. I used to be a good one. My classes were well controlled and the pupils' results were excellent.
I started at a different school in September and have hated every minute of it. I receive some form of verbal abuse every single day - ranging from basic name calling to being told that I should die.
On Thursday I was prevented from getting out of a classroom to confront a pupil, who had followed me around throughout the day, by him holding the door handle.
I can't cope with my workload for various reasons - not given enough free time, no advance warning of what is expected of me.
I have asked for help and advice from my immediate line manager and more senior staff but none has been forthcoming.
I come home with splitting headaches every night and I get awful stomach cramps in the morning. I cry at the drop of a hat. Within minutes of being around pupils I just want to run away. I am irritable. I have no interest in sex or anything remotely active. I can't focus on marking and just sit around watching television repeats but that bores me!
I don't know what to do. I have my dream job lined up for September and I don't want to jeapoardise it by taking time off ill but I can't bear the thought of going back in.
I started at a different school in September and have hated every minute of it. I receive some form of verbal abuse every single day - ranging from basic name calling to being told that I should die.
On Thursday I was prevented from getting out of a classroom to confront a pupil, who had followed me around throughout the day, by him holding the door handle.
I can't cope with my workload for various reasons - not given enough free time, no advance warning of what is expected of me.
I have asked for help and advice from my immediate line manager and more senior staff but none has been forthcoming.
I come home with splitting headaches every night and I get awful stomach cramps in the morning. I cry at the drop of a hat. Within minutes of being around pupils I just want to run away. I am irritable. I have no interest in sex or anything remotely active. I can't focus on marking and just sit around watching television repeats but that bores me!
I don't know what to do. I have my dream job lined up for September and I don't want to jeapoardise it by taking time off ill but I can't bear the thought of going back in.
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Comments
EDIT: Or, as you have a dream job lined up in September (I missed that bit of your post ) then why not do some supply until then? Or a temp job? It is still 2 terms away until then and I would seriously consider changing your current situation as 2 terms is a long time.
I do want to leave but the problem is that as my dream job is abroad, I could really do with getting paid over the summer while I get set up over there. There's also the issue that I now can't leave until the end of this term anyway and if I've got to stay 'til then, I may as well stick out the last term, where Year 11 leave and get paid over summer.
Surely, the LEA must be realising that SMT are pretty poor if they have so many teachers leaving? *Something* has to be clicking *somewhere*, surely? Can you not talk to your union about it?
It's a shitty situation to be in, I know, but if you can grin and bear til Easter, keep your head down and work your socks off, you have something to work towards in September.
I've worked through every behavious strategy pretty much but with little success. I did my NQT year in a special needs school and never had anything like the problems I'm having here.
If it was just the kids, I think that I could deal with it BUT it's the unprofessional staff that bitch to the kids about other staff, the very odd dept that I work in and so on and so forth.
Fingers crossed it will get better.
It was so bad that the senior management were beyond being able to help.
She got out pretty quickly.
I think she'd tell you that although it is really shit, it really prepares you for anything... I'm sure this experience can only make you stronger, even if you feel like it's making you sink.
My advise would be not to avoid going to the doctors... because like you say in the title of your thread, stress is an illness and therefore you should take it seriously. There's no point avoiding the doctors because you don't want it to affect the next job you'd like to get, if you get so ill that you can't even apply for other jobs.
It sounds like you're doing well given the circumstances... don't give up!
I'm sorry to hear that lack of support at work is getting you down. Littlemissy has clearly been really supportive and helpful, but thought I'd just direct you to TheSite's article on work related stress as you might find some of the tips on how to deal with it useful. I hope all goes well with doctor and union.
Take good care of yourself!
Shit.