Honestly, I love my job so much that it's crazy. I work with toddlers with special needs and since I care so much about the kids on my caseload that I often find myself doing work off the clock- organizing observation sheets, writing up notes for parents, coming up with curriculum adjustments, etc… When you factor in my commute (20-60 mins either way depending on the busses), I'm usually gone from home 9-10 hours a day M-F, then I pull another 30-60 mins of work related activities when I'm at home, and another 1-2hours of school work. Oh yeah, and there's some very unnecessarily complicated OSHA and NLRA violations that me and my head teacher/union steward have been dealing with, including my coworker having to file workman's comp bc she permanently fucked up her back working w a kid w mobility issues and all of her physical concerns were ignored by supervisors. Needless to say, I've been burning out, and so has everyone else.
So, for the quick math. In the Early Intervention dept. (the people who work directly with SpED kids 1:1/1:2) there's 4 Teacher Assistants (me, workman's comp coworker whom I'll call Avery, and 2 others that are legit bad at their job- like, people have told me and Avery that kids get worse working w these other 2), 3 Early Interventionists, 1 Speech Therapist, and 1 psychologist. 1 of the Early Interventionists was already fired for “being difficult to work with” (she was always hard to work with, but she only got fired bc of union activities, but our workplace managed to get away with the narrative that they fired her for her personality because they hired some super big shot union busting law firm to cover these tracks and, for some reason the higher level Early Interventionists aren't in the union- thankfully the TAs are though)
So, obviously due to probably having to go on (at least temporary) disability, Avery is leaving. I'm leaving. The Speech Therapist is leaving, the psychologist is quitting, one of the remaining Early Interventionists is leaving sooner than later because she was training under the Speech Therapist to be one herself. There are about…..~50 kids in our center receiving services, and everyone is already overloaded in their caseload.
But, here's the thing. I would feel bad about leaving, but I can't work a job I like anymore. Spending so much time off of the clock is ruining my life. I need to work somewhere I care less about for my own sanity because this? This is nuts. We haul so much ass daily, not just the EI team but the general ed classroom teams too, and we keep getting screwed. One small example: right now the CEO is trying to tie some GOVERNMENT FUNDS into union negotiations because she wants to be the hero that saves us from poverty or whatever? She runs 5-10 other centers that are not in the union yet, and they've all received this money already.
TL;DR: Quitting teaching, which is a job I adore, for something more emotionally sustainable like law school (only half joking, I am legitimately considering law school since I have been playing w the idea for years now anyway). Maybe I'll learn how to fuck shitty companies over and make enough money to pay for both rent and food in a couple years lol