I am getting fed up in my current job – not just “fed up” but “Really fed up”
I want to spend time with my mrs and my daughter, i want enough t live by, and to enjoy work as part of my life.

Where do i find out what suits?? Feel a bit of a **** at 32 not knowing what i want to do but hey ho

Bike shop

if it paid i would!! Trouble is al i do not have a clue – very fed up mate very fed up

What do you do just now? What are your skills and where do you want to be based?

Thought you were a teacher? Great holidays and pay non?

Can you afford to take a pay-cut whilst you re-train?

As there’s a recession on and employers have their choice of the job market it may be better to review your attitude to your current work.

If you go with an open mind to some ‘life coaching’ or similar sessions then adjustments to your outlook may help. You are currently on a reasonable salary that will be challenging to field elsewhere and get more time for your family. Remember most people only get 30 days a year holiday and most people earning more than £30k are probably lucky to only be working 38 hrs per week.

Try speaking to an adviser at Next Step on 0800 100900.

Of course one of the benefits of teaching is you can get work pretty much anywhere, and you can do ad hoc supply work if you choose to pursue other avenues on a part time basis.

Cheers Will a none piss take answer

Was being serious Rob – you are right into your bikes?

Otherwise..I have little to go on. If it helps you are not alone!

The classic route for teachers used to be to go into Management, however this may still involve working from the bottom managing a team of upstarts who are no better behaved than the kids you teach already.

That doesn’t interest me to be honest will. Al – need x amount of money a month and i don’t think a bike shop would cover it to be honest mate

Your’e still young at 32. I’m now 37 and looks like I’ll have to change careers due to recession & unemployment but have absolutely no idea what to do and definitely cannot afford more education.

Could you just go to a different employer doing the same work?

I’m not sure what it is you do, but perhaps the management where you work are just rubbish. It does actually happen.

And I’ve always found that when that happens it make me feel rubbish. Whereas somewhere that’s better managed can make it at least bearable.

What are your priorities? If its more time how much time does your commute take?

You say you need x amount of money per month, if you were to move closer to work to a smaller mortgage and travel costs this could make a substantial difference. How much do you realistically need? We recently looked hard at our budgets as my wife is getting close to quitting her job and we could just scrape by on my salary. There’d be no room for luxuries but is that really important?

If its the place of work consider moving. It could be that interviews / visits to a couple of other places may put things into perspective. Is it the actual job your doing or the place of work / way of doing things / politics?

If you can break things down into smaller chunks it’ll be easier to tackle and you may find that the root cause of your disagreement is very different to what you actually perceive it to be.

I’m a teacher and felt similarly, it seems, to you; bogged down in the politics and systems of work, lacking autonomy and the time and energy to make a change. A pretty depressing situation, I felt. I decided to go part time in order to pursue some other voluntary and paid projects and also to have more time for my wife and baby, due next year.

The distance I’ve been able to put between me and my employer has been refreshing. I’m more enthused about my work and am doing more of the work I enjoy. I earn less but it’s worth it to be happier. Eventually it may morph into a complete change of lifestyle but, for now, it’s a good compromise. Best wishes.

Clive

https://nextstep.direct.gov.uk/Pages/Home.aspx

I’m another teacher looking at other options. You’re not alone.

Looks like teaching’s out then…

Priorities are:
Mrs and baby
where we live
enjoying my self (personal time) biking
Friends
money
work

Hmmm, seems I’m not the only one wanting to move careers.. ( I’m not a teacher mind)..

Still trying to debate the whole “move to Oz” thing.

I thought about oz and nz (and Canada), and there are certainly jobs in my field (town planning), but the wife won’t entertain it as she ‘needs to be near her family’, so she’d rather me be unemployed it would seem…

Try another school?

Seems to me that there are some right idiots in the teaching world (both parents were teachers) so look around to see if there is a better school or work hard to get yourself in a situation where you can change things by becoming a department head or similar.

My mum move more into the partoral stuff to change her focus and found it very rewarding.

To be honest, if you don’t have enough time for your family as a teacher, then I suspect you’ll need to go part time to make a significant difference.

I suppose one of the main issues i have is that i am quite reactionary in what i do – routine kind of kills my enthusiasm.
Things are rarely planned in my free time – just seem to happen, plans make me feel trapped

Last night was a bonus, no meeting meant i got a whole 2.5hrs with my daughter before bed – not enough. But at weekends i need some me time otherwise i go mad.

To be honest, if you don’t have enough time for your family as a teacher, then I suspect you’ll need to go part time to make a significant difference.

Any 9-5 job would give significantly more family time than teaching.

My parents were both teachers and those big long regular holidays with them is one of those things that I really cherished.

Who else manages to take their kids away for a month in the summer to France / Spain, 2 weeks at Easter, then a week every 6 weeks….

Its all swings and roundabouts and somewhere along the line something has to give, whether that be money, me time, where you live….

I don’t know if the grass will be greener, I usually see my kids for 30 min before they go to bed unless I have to do the nursery pick up. 9-5 often takes up 7:30 to 7, I get less holidays, I’d love 13 weeks to spend with my kids rather than 5 plus Bank Holidays.

Me time? you are a parent and there is no such thing!

Any 9-5 job would give significantly more family time than teaching

Especially during the 13 weeks holidays 😉
Swings and roundabouts

for some people, me time is essential to avoid going mad. That is what my therapist told me! (not joking)

I am not critical of teachers, I just don’t think you’re going to find that you have a lot more free time working in a “normal” job. If you want to work 9-5 without overtime then you are going to be in something that is very routine (exactly what you say you hate)

There must be option in teaching to get what you want (you didn’t say you hate teaching), maybe you need to be creative to find them

How about teaching handicapped kids or getting ajob at a boarding school as a house master or an international school in another country…

Pieface – Member

My parents were both teachers and those big long regular holidays with them is one of those things that I really cherished.

Who else manages to take their kids away for a month in the summer to France / Spain, 2 weeks at Easter, then a week every 6 weeks….

Its all swings and roundabouts and somewhere along the line something has to give, whether that be money, me time, where you live…

stop talking sense will!!

Its harsh but perhaps a dose of MTFU and look forward to the holidays? On a more constructive note, there are a bunch of websites which will allow you to do a bunch of tests to determine the job you would be happiest in, perhaps giving you some left of field ideas about what would make you happier? Ive just become a dad for the first time, and at the moment, I work 0830 till 1700, but with commute, its leave house at 7 and return at 1830 or 1900 and thats on a good day. Depressing when the long nights are here, but is better during the summer.

you want money and free time
you dislike structure, but you want the structure to allow you time with your mrs & kid
you want to live where you do and keep in touch with your friends.

life is about compromise mate, you dont seem particularly keen to.

…to enjoy work as part of my life.

best of luck with that, very few people get to do something they truly love to earn a living, that’d be why its called work and not a hobby. Of the few who do, they often find that they dont enjoy their ‘hobby’ as much when its full time.

soobalias money is way down my list – time is my main “want”

part time then innit 🙂

Thats what i am thinking – a part time job and then topped up with supply teaching when funds run low

I’ve given up my highly paid safe job to spend a year writing a book. It’s risky as **** and will probably fail BUT if you want the priorities you state, income has to come under your control. I know as I’ve done it before, hence going back out there again

I think there is a lot of sense on here. You aren’t being very forthcoming in what it is about teaching (presumably that’s what you do) and what it is you don’t like. Be honest, is it the hours? Is it your subject? Is it the school? You seem quite hot headed without explaining your reasonsing on here for people to be able to advise you sensibly.

You have to compromise somewhere. Re-jig your finances, people want to earn X as that’s what they get used to when reality suggests if you had to you could live off Y. It’s just about lifestyle change, assessing what you want and being open minded. I can’t be any more specific than that at the minute as you haven’t given us anything else to go on. Good luck though. I wish I had 13 weeks off a year rather than every time I put a leave form in it gets bumped and refused (so I’m organised all of 2011 annual leave is in including Christmas).

“Nothing is more damaging to the adventurous spirit within a man than a secure future.” – Christopher McCandless

A comfortable salary and a nice pension are difficult to leave.

Teaching is by no means the “hardest job in the world” but to do it with any sense of professionalism requires seemingly endless commitment of energy and time that isn’t demanded by many other jobs. The “weighing and measuring”, work to prove you’ve done your job (as well as doing your job) together with standardized systems of work requiring evidence of compliance (not just the fact of compliance) stifles creativity. Taken with a lack of professional trust… It can all be very demoralising.

Part-time helped me put it in perspective, energized me and opened up new avenues.

Farming?
You will never have a day off ever again, or time to think about holidays, but some people live for farming and the food.

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The Awards programme will be on Radio 4 at 9am on November 26th.

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