Bringing work home (or not)

amother

Amber

Tue, Aug 29 2017, 12:39 pm

I am a high school teacher, and I find the fact that I constantly have to do significant amounts of work at home to be very stressful and draining. Sometimes I feel that it is outweighed by having summer vacation and other vacations, and not working until 5 like many other jobs. Other times I feel like I just can't take it anymore and want to retrain for a career in which I can leave my work at work and not have to be busy with it at home.

Not sure what my question is exactly. I guess I am just curious how others feel about this, and whether there is anyone out there who has a job for which she does not have to do work at home. Does such a thing even exist, or do most jobs today involve bringing work home?

amother

Navy

Tue, Aug 29 2017, 12:50 pm

I am a PA. I work in a private office. All charting is electronic. If I don't complete my work during my office hours, I have to bring my laptop home. All on my own time, unpaid. Will happen more frequently during the busier times, like school holidays etc. I hate bringing work home, so I work like a dog to stay on top of my charts, however sometimes it's inevitable. No advice, just commiserating.

rzab

Tue, Aug 29 2017, 1:11 pm

As a teacher, I completely relate. I almost dropped teaching this year and took a job as a secretary in a dental office. If you calculate my salary I get paid minimum wage but that only counts the teaching hours, not prep and marking time. And forget about all the staff meetings etc that I'm expected to attend.
I stuck it out bc I love my students and teaching but I'm not sure how much longer I can do this. Especially bc most of the work gets done after my kids go to sleep at night

amother

Honeydew

Tue, Aug 29 2017, 1:38 pm

I always took work home to mark when I taught (before I was married) and after a long day teaching and all preps at home as well, marking was so time consuming.
I'm another one who can only sympathise- can't advise
I taught younger classes and did some marking durng davening time to take the burden off at home, but wasn't always enough time, sometimes they needed more attn during davening etc..
I now live far away and no longer teach- I must say that I miss it a lot. I miss my students, I miss the teaching... I don't miss all my 'homework' though!

amother

Amber

Tue, Aug 29 2017, 1:55 pm

rzab wrote:

Thanks for sharing. At least I am not the only one. I just can't figure out how to get all this "homework" done while also taking care of my family.

Shoshana37

Tue, Aug 29 2017, 2:01 pm

I work in financing department for none for profit organization and about 10 years ago I was asked to help in implementing new data base system which no one was able to provide for my company so we hired someone however he agreed to work on it but after his office hours so I had to work with him via phone/ computer to address all our needs for this system. It took us around 11 months to finish it. I had small kids then but I was dedicated and my husband was supportive. I worked with him from 8-10pm Mondays-Thursdays accept mikvah nights Smile

and hagim. After successfully finishing our project I was promoted to Supervisory position and admin for this system. I must say I learned a lot about coding and computers.

amother

Blue

Tue, Aug 29 2017, 2:13 pm

I also taught and hated the marking/preparation at home. It made my meager salary unjustifiable. I started an office job and loved the freedom I had at night.

I always assumed all teachers spent time marking outside of school. My high school math teacher brought our math tests to weddings and marked them during dancing.

amother

Coffee

Tue, Aug 29 2017, 2:16 pm

I work in an office, and what I have to say is that every job has its good and bad. Even though I generally dont have to take work home after 5 oclock, generally, office jobs are 12 month a year jobs. And no chanukah and midwinter vacation, and no pesach vacation... and no snow days(generally) no erev and isru chags... So if your like teaching and just dont like taking wok home,,, look at it as a tradeoff... u spend 2 weeks a summer preparing and marking...but at least u have summer break. And your not busy looking what to do with your kids on isru chag..midwinter and chanuka vacation... or between school and camp.

One thing I learnt, wokring is not easy... every career choice has pros and cons.

amother

Rose

Tue, Aug 29 2017, 2:17 pm

Shoshana37 wrote:

and hagim. After successfully finishing our project I was promoted to Supervisory position and admin for this system. I must say I learned a lot about coding and computers.

May I pm you? I'm considering a career in non-profit. (Sorry OP for being off topic).

amother

Teal

Tue, Aug 29 2017, 2:20 pm

tweety1 wrote:

My sil teaches high school and is the type that the school will do anything to keep. She doesn't do any marking whatsoever. They have somebody in the office that does it for her

Unless the exams are multiple choice, how does she know where the students need help, or how to help them, if she doesn't see their work product?

Additionally, is the person in the office who marks the exams qualified in the subject, so that s/he can make a legitimate evaluation of the work product? (I marked exams in college, and was required to have an in-depth knowledge of what I was grading.)

In any case, professionals are generally not paid by the hour, and often need to take work home. Non-professional workers are generally paid by the hour, and don't take work home. The main exception I can think of is probably nurses.

amother

Babypink

Tue, Aug 29 2017, 3:00 pm

Op, I'm feeling exactly like you. My school expects me to grade a lot and I must spend time inputting the data so that I'm constantly looking to see what the kids need help with. Most years I'm put in different grades so I'm making new plans or I'm readjusting the lesson plans to for my students needs.

I'm overwhelmed with doing all this "hw" that I'm do as a teacher. I worked more hours than in the summer bc I worked every motzei shabbos Sunday and every evening. It is very hard for me to manage my children's needs in the evening and all the grading and planning I need for teaching the next day.

It is very hard for me too. I really want to find another job but I don't know what I would do. I know that working in an office 9 to 5 can be boring (I did it before I had my degree) but when a parent has little kids, it is hard to manage "hw" from teaching and little kids needs. I know there are pros and cons of everything but having work hw with little kids is very difficult for me.

Right now, I'm going to continue working as a teacher as I need the money. I actually am feeling very overwhelmed like you explained (and it seems all my relatives who are teachers don't seem overwhelmed and maybe their principals are not as demanding), but I'm still grateful I have a job to pay my bills. I actually would want to find a city job with benefits like working for the court system or mta or..mbut I'm not sure what I can do or how to go about getting that type of job.

To the poster who said her sil doesn't have to grade....well, the reality is that some people in jobs get better and special treatment, well, good for her but its not the norm for principals to give a teacher a secretary to grade or plan... for the rest of us teachers who are overwhelmed by the work hw, it is hard.

amother

cornflower

Tue, Aug 29 2017, 3:02 pm

I am a speech therapist and work fee-for-service through an agency in a school. I am not paid for any documentation. I am only paid strictly for therapy. This means that all of my paper work, and there is an absolute ton of it, is done off the clock on my own time. It is absolutely draining and exhausting and I am burnt out. I have been looking to leave the field for years already and I don't think I can take much more of this. It is impacting my personal life as well as my professional duties.

amother

Amber

Tue, Aug 29 2017, 5:15 pm

amother wrote:

Your point is well-taken, and I alluded to it in my OP. There are definitely pros and cons. That's why I was curious to hear other people's thoughts.

Just FTR, my kids' school schedule differs from mine, so I often do need coverage for them on their vacation days, though of course less than I would in another job. And I do spend a big chunk of my summer doing preparation for the next year.

Thanks for sharing your perspective.

amother

Cobalt

Tue, Aug 29 2017, 8:30 pm

I teach high school math in a public school. I work from 8-3:30 on Monday and Tuesday and 8-2:20 Wed-Fri. It's an intense schedule. Because I'm a pretty new teacher, I still have a ton of prep. It could be that a few years down the line, if I've been teaching the same thing, I won't have to do so much prep. But for now, it does bother me. The thing is, in public school I get better pay and benefits, so it's worthwhile.

Depending on what you teach, (as I think another poster mentioned,) is it possible for you to give more multiple choice or matching on your tests so it doesn't take so long to mark? Also, can you find a high school student to grade for you on the cheap?

Also, don't collect so much homework (if that's something you do). I had a teacher who used to assign essays, and then collect from about 10 students at random. She would also make a couple of students read their essays out loud. That way, everyone had to write the essay, but she didn't have so much grading to do.

There's only so much work you can do at home. It's hard.