I am a GenX'er that fell off the “standard job path” over 20 years ago and have finally decided to stop lurking and start posting. Remember that your management isn't necessarily evil they are just
1) absolutely clueless as to what it is like to be a worker
2) all of their incentives often run counter to worker health, wealth, and well-being
3) aware that sociopaths get promoted first
Advice: have something else lined up before you eject. I was struggling as an engineer with the same moral injury/injustice that many of you feel and did not have anything lined up when I was rif'd. Now I am looking at 50 with multiple degrees and I have not worked a job since that I was not desperate to have. Let me repeat: for the last 20+ years I have sat in the few interviews I could get, knowing that I punch above my weight and the manager sitting across from me would exploit me… and I was DESPERATE to have the job. Some white collar, most somewhere in between, all had me by the shorthair.
Teaching is hard and the pay makes it harder. Which used to be great for me, bc a desperate science teacher can get a job tomorrow… but they are still treated like an American teacher.
I loved teaching. Loved the great kids, loved the knuckleheads, honored to be a part of “light bulb” moments. Best, most rewarding job I ever had; also one of the most stressful and exhausting.
At the end, I worked for a “good” district that paid equivalent of other “good” districts, so above the state and national average. Despite that, 60-70% of my take-home pay went to day-care and health care(2 kids). I had about $800-1k left to provide food and housing. So I worked a second job and was blessed to be married to an amazing woman.
Planning on being a teacher? Here are your top 4 keys to success (#4 will shock you).
1) Get your degree on scholarship
2) Work multiple side jobs – exotic dancer is lucrative, but work out of district! Far, far out of district
3) Have an SO that earns more than you.
4) Be born wealthy, live with your parents, have multiple roommates.
GET ON WITH IT!
Last day of in-service always starts with another wonderful administrator led meeting in the cafeteria. Our head admin gets up and goes through their “what did you do this summer to recharge” speech which mostly entails what they did this summer.
I was in a foul mood, admin was giving me the run-around about my teaching schedule (kids on Monday btw) which I knew meant my favorite elective to teach was cancelled. I was also exhausted. I had been working at home depot the prior year and I picked up a breakfast server shift at a nice hotel over the summer. During in-service week I was closing HD (7p-12-ish) three nights a week and working Sat+Sun (5a-12p) as a server. It was a trial run for the school year.
I am sitting at the cafeteria table trying not fall asleep when the admin starts talking about his daughter. Read this in a folksy Tx accent: Well y'all ***** is gonna graduate this fall and this summer she had to do her internship to get her credit. And you know *****, she had to intern at the best, so we went to New York City to find her a place to live. And do you know, those New Yorkers want 3 and $4,000 a month for a place! I was floored! I mean, wow that's a lot of money! Whelp, ya gotta pay it.
Yeah, ~$1k take home is $12k for the year. This MF-er just blew that on off Central Park housing for his kid's summer internship. I got up and left. I went back to my room, sat in the dark, and fell apart. A grown fucking man stretched so thin that his ass-hat of a boss humble-bragging about his income shattered him. I dragged my ass through the rest of that year, found work in fine dining and have never gone back.
Times are far worse for teachers now. Go give your teacher some love. They are burnt out, unappreciated, and under assault from all sides. That one that was cool, demanded more of you, treated you with respect? Find them on the directory, send them some positive waves, they need it!