The world of teaching has become increasingly difficult, leading many teachers to leave their jobs and try something else.
One teacher who decided to do just that was shocked by how much easier she found her corporate job to be.
A former teacher left her job to join the corporate world and has no regrets.
One former teacher took to Reddit to share her amazement at how much easier her new corporate job is.
In the Teachers in Transition subreddit, she shared, “I have been in the corporate world for a little over two months and have been loving it!”
“For context, I work for a bank, and I have a shared inbox that I share with two other people,” she explained. “Task requests come in, and we essentially divide and conquer them. Super chill job!”
The woman detailed a recent meeting she and her co-workers had with their superiors. “Anyway, we had a meeting with upper management recently, and they said the expectation is ‘tasks need to be started within one hour of receiving them,’” she stated. “Not finished, just started. (Keep in mind on a normal day, I’m lucky if I get more than ten tasks.)”
She couldn’t believe how easy this sounded. “I thought to myself, ‘What?! That’s literally all you expect of me?! I don’t have to juggle 10,000 things all at once, all of which are absolutely urgent, and even though I’m trying my best, I’m still doing it wrong?!’” she said.
While this woman couldn’t believe how easy her job was, her colleagues felt very differently about the meeting. “Here’s the real kicker,” she shared. “The other people in my office were so upset about this! They couldn’t believe that they were being ‘policed’ on their work! The public outcry was so great they had to have another meeting to clarify that no one is being the task police; it was just a reminder.”
“These people have no idea how easy they have it!” she exclaimed.
She explained just how beneficial this change has been for her when she said, “The change of pace has absolutely healed my mental health, and I am so grateful to have found a job like this! I know change is scary, but it’s so worth it!”
Based on these remarks, this woman seemed to be suggesting to her fellow teachers that if they felt it was time to make a switch, that was perfectly fine.
Teachers are leaving the profession at alarming rates.
In a time where stories of preferring corporate life exist and videos of teachers explaining why they are quitting go viral on TikTok, it’s no surprise to learn that high numbers of teachers are quitting.
According to research performed by McKinsey and Company, “Over the past decade, the annual teacher turnover rate has hovered around 8% nationally and is more than double that for schools designated for Title 1 funding.”
Writing for Grand Canyon University, Dr. Ashley Betkowski examined some of the reasons for teachers leaving the profession. “Teachers are pulled in many directions and expected to perform to a top tier, as well as get their students to high-performing standards,” she said.
Dr. Betkowski also addressed the issue of teachers’ mental health, which seemed to be a deciding factor for the teacher from the Reddit post to switch careers.
“The demand and unrealistic expectations can lead to burnout and stress, reducing teacher well-being,” she said. “This often causes an imbalance in work and life, furthering the decrease in well-being. When teachers reach the end of their candle, they quit.”
As teachers face mounting pressure to do everything perfectly to nurture the next generation of thinkers, they will face burnout more frequently. This mental health struggle may lead to more teachers leaving the profession in favor of other jobs that they find easier, just like this Redditor.
Mary-Faith Martinez is a writer for YourTango who covers entertainment, news and human interest topics.