Hate my job | Imamother

amother

Orchid

Tue, Mar 23 2021, 7:43 pm

amother [ Black ] wrote:

Have you ever considered getting a job at one of the online charter schools that are so popular now in the public school realm? I work as a behavioral therapist for an online charter school and have for the last 5 years so this is not a Covid thing. I am an LCSW. While yes the paper work is the same as the public school system so that is still a massive pain and you have to learn to create an entire curriculum for online education (although you may have done that in the last year) you get to work from home and sort of set your own hours. Meaning during the chaggim I just schedule all my student calls on other days so I take off less work. There are things you have to do in person like the state testing twice a year but mostly you are home and don't have to deal with classroom management as much. Not perfect but definitely less stress then a bricks and mortar public school set up.

Please tell me more!!! I also work in a public school and I don't mind my job at all but I haaaaate going into the building to work with lunatics every day.
Whats the pay and benefits like?

amother

Ginger

Tue, Mar 23 2021, 7:45 pm

singleagain wrote:

Ginger, If you are introverted organized detail oriented and strong math skills why not move into billing or something like it sounds like accountant bookkeeper job would be perfect for you and you don't really necessarily need a lot of experience maybe a little bit with QuickBooks or whatever but a lot of it is on the job training I don't have nearly half as many of those things and that's what I do but you can even maybe just like what if you switched and did the billing for your services or you know for your industry

Apologies for the voice to text

That does sound up my alley. I remember in grade 11 in high school I took an excel computer class and really enjoyed it. But in general I basically have no computer skills so I would really be starting from scratch.

I wish I had the courage to give up my degree but its so hard after I put so much time, money and effort to obtain it. I read an interesting article once that people without degrees are more likely to switch jobs if they are unhappy, while people with degrees are more likely to stay in their field even if they are unhappy

amother

Blush

Tue, Mar 23 2021, 8:15 pm

amother [ OP ] wrote:

I hate my job working in public school with such a passion and after almost a decade of pushing through I don’t think I can do it anymore. There’s nothing else that would bring in this salary, health benefits, penchant etc. I of course don’t want to cause any financial strain to the fanily. What do I do?

PS: dh thinks I’m crazy for complaining and thinks the perks outweigh the mental stress.

How much does it pay?
Mishpacha had a feature on nurses last week. Looks like they make decent with just a bachelor's plus benefits. Also lots of options within the feild.

amother

Maroon

Tue, Mar 23 2021, 8:19 pm

amother [ Ginger ] wrote:

Omg that definitely does not describe being a speech therapist. Let me give you a small synopsis of my day:

I do approx 10-12 sessions back to back. No breaks. So I'm running around the school a whole day without a minute to eat, drink or use the bathroom. I come home hot, tired, starving and thirty.

Then I need to spend evening, and weekends, including Friday afternoons, Saturday nights and Sundays, preparing for my sessions. While the prep does get slightly easier over the years, it still takes up alot of time. I find that I really need to prepare and think about my sessions in advance or it just doesn't work. I can't do therapy on the fly.

I also a have a ton of paperwork including session notes, quarterly reports, and annual progress reports. Plus alot of stupid "clicking boxes" type of paperwork that is typical of government jobs. No matter how much I accomplish there is always more paperwork to do. I also am required to be in contact with the parents often. I have 25 students on my caseload, so that is alot of hours on the phone.

And it is NOT well paid at all!!!!! Most therapists are very disappointed when they start working. We were told we would make SO much when in reality the rates are quite low. Also we don't get paid for chagim, vacations, student absences etc. So when it comes down to it my annual salary is pathetic, especially for a masters level job

I’m thinking of speech therapists employed by the DOE not an agency.

singleagain

Tue, Mar 23 2021, 9:16 pm

amother [ Ginger ] wrote:

Voice to text again

Why not see there are a lot of free YouTube type classes online to just gain experience and computer skills and see if maybe you can volunteer to like make up an Excel sheet or whatever do some sort of computer thing Maybe if you have a little something on the side it'll give you a little lift then how it will help you get through the hard times

TranquilityAndPeace

Tue, Mar 23 2021, 9:59 pm

Just chiming in to say that this is an eye opening thread to me.

I’m a newborn photographer and love what I do.

But...

I feel burned out. Probably a cumulative effect of a long winter, covid, hardly any social life, etc...

My parents were too yeshivish to approve of me going to college back in the 90’s. So I paid my own way, taking extra classes and clepping, and got my BA in humanities at the end of my 2nd year of seminary. (Then got married and had to earn money, there was no time or money or encouragement to continue school)

But I wished that my parents would’ve encouraged me to get an advanced degree! I was good at school; I probably would’ve done well in graduate school, and enjoyed the process and education.

I had a variety of jobs/businesses over the years, because I didn’t have a real degree or specific skills. I’ve only been a photographer for less than 7 years.

BH my business is going well, but I spent the first few years reinvesting most of my earnings, dropped my social life, home making, sleeping, etc. And running a business always sounds glamorous until you realize that I work from havdalah until I light candles on Friday. Not only is there endless work, it’s so undefined — I’m the one who has to figure out and change and tweak my workflow, equipment, pricing, etc, all the time. Meaning, it’s a lot of work PLUS I have to constantly figure out what the work is, and build on it from there!

Again, I’m thankful my business is going well, yet I look at those with degrees (beyond my useless BA in Humanities) with some level of envy - oh, to be able to clock in and out of work and not have such a myriad of responsibilities and decisions weighing on me all the time!

amother

Tue, Mar 23 2021, 10:15 pm

TranquilityAndPeace wrote:

THIS is why the struggle is real for us . We know and appreciate the perks. But we work in an environment that is often toxic emotionally and psychologically. And it’s hard to explain the feeling of being an introvert pretending/acting like an extrovert. It’s beyond emotionally exhausting.

amother

Puce

Tue, Mar 23 2021, 10:17 pm

TranquilityAndPeace wrote:

I felt very similar to you, though my business is nowhere as glamorous as yours. I was so burnt out and felt very stuck. In the end I hired employees to do a lot of the work for me. Can you train someone and hire them? Obviously your take-home pay will be significantly less but your sanity is so important!

amother

Ginger

Tue, Mar 23 2021, 10:44 pm

TranquilityAndPeace wrote:

I dont think my parents were wrong for encouraging me to go to college. I do well academically and higher education was the right path for me.

The problem was that during my high school years they drilled into me that the only good professions are special ed/therapy. At 19 it didn't even dawn on me to become self aware of my skills, explore other careers, and find one that is well suited to me

Also like I explained in previous posts, even though I do "clock out," I take home tons of paperwork and prep work and am always chasing my tail to keep up with it

But just to empathize with you, your job really does sound stressful! It's interesting to hear the other side- it's common to assume that people in the "artsy" careers, like food decorating and photography, are basically having fun all day and developing their talents. But it really seems like you have to juggle alot to keep it running smoothly

amother

cornflower

Wed, Mar 24 2021, 1:06 am

I also work in public school and hate the extra take home work in addition to the micromanagement.

I especially am disgusted with the favoritism and "kissing up" one has to do in my school to get a good rating. While my day is not boring at all, and I do enjoy being with the students and nice coworkers, its physically draining, and each year, the admin demands more overtime work duties done with no additional pay.

This means I am drowning in work, feel like a slave, and I have no time to really be a mom to my kids. I work every weekend(not shabbat) and will need to do some duties over pesach chol hamoed because I go back Monday and sunday is yom tov.

Right now im trying to get my pesach cleaning done and my work duties. At this point I would not want to trade my stress for the stress of having no money to pay rent, tuition, etc.so im staying

and to the poster who said the therapist who is bored should leave etc. please know that no matter how some of us feel, we still push ourselves to put on a smile, give our all to our students we work with, and provide them with a great service every day masking what we feel.

amother

Coral

Wed, Mar 24 2021, 1:26 am

I’m an SLP in my 40s and love doing actual therapy. What I don’t love are the insane mountains of paperwork, difficult parents, toxic coworkers, flaky bosses, and having to be “on” all day. And sometimes I get bored with therapy too. Doesn’t mean I’m a bad SLP, in fact I’m a good one and am a mentor to younger SLPs and give presentations at conferences. I just want to let you newer SLPs know that districts are notoriously difficult places to work, and people who haven’t worked in public schools don’t understand that. The challenges you’re facing have a lot to do with systemic issues that need to change. Sometimes newer clinicians get down on themselves and think they’re not good therapists, when in fact they don’t have adequate support and realistic caseloads. I’m a big advocate of leaving work at work. Too many schools jobs are only manageable if you spend tons of hours outside of work, doing paperwork and session prep. I’ve learned over the years to work on my time management and organization skills, cut back on perfectionism, and leave work at work. I also stand up for myself about workload issues if my boss might listen (some bosses won’t).

amother

Cerise

Wed, Mar 24 2021, 1:32 am

amother [ Ginger ] wrote:

Right so their pay is a little better and they get benefits also

But I imagine they still have all the prep work and paperwork. Its so hard to take home so much work

I work for an agency in BK
I get 30$ per 30 min session, back to back from 9 until 3:30 with no break. it comes out to 60$ an hour. it sounds like a lot, but im taxed a ton, I do so much paperwork at home and over the weekend and speak to parents for hours. none of that is billable. I can only bill if I physically see a child. half the time parents dont have the decency to tell me the kid left for the day so im stuck waiting around.

no benefits, soon I wont qualify for medicaid anymore. oh and I have over 90k in student loans!

amother

Ginger

Wed, Mar 24 2021, 11:00 am

amother [ Coral ] wrote:

I dont understand how its possible to leave work at work. I can't write quarterly and annual progress reports during sessions! I cant speak with parents on the phone during sessions! Sometimes I am able to get in a quick session note at the end of a session, but there usually isnt time for that. I am extremely organized and I have systems for everything but there is still an endless amount of paperwork to do at home

Also, what do you mean by having a realistic caseload? I generally have 25+ students. Yes it would be way more manageable if I had half the amount of students, but then I would be making half the amount of money