We work hard too!
I’m a teacher … that’s what I trained for all those years ago.
(Now I’m a 40 year old tired Principal!)
I drifted into teaching.
I could easily have become an accountant, engineer …. whatever.
Career guidance was in short supply non-existent when I was doing my Leaving Cert.
The short day and the long holidays swayed it for me.
Boy …. that was a misguided view to take!
(This posting is in response to TC’s posting …. no offence to TC ….. we all see our own corners as being undervalued and underpaid …. I’m just talking about my corner.)
I spent the first 5 years of my teaching career as a lowly pleb going from job to job …. the eighties was a bad time for jobs in teaching.
I worked in a variety of schools until I became Principal of my current school at the age of 29.
I’m now 40 and burned out from the ‘productivity’ we’ve had to produce to earn our wage increases.
Paperwork and teaching don’t mix …. to do it effectively we have to bring it home so a three o’clock finish doesn’t happen.
I work most night until 11 p.m doing some form of school work or other.
Last night I didn’t get home from school until 8 p.m. …. I was cutting grass and mixing three wheelbarrows of concrete to close off an area where unwelcome visitors were coming into the school ground.
I was so tired I couldn’t set my mind to doing anymore paperwork.
Tomorrow I plan to stay after school to do some more of the same.
Each pay increase I’ve got has extracted more and more from me …. Cowen is taking a tough stance and our pay looks as if it won’t increase just to stay in line with inflation … yet the Department of Education and Science continues to issue circular after circular detailing more and more responsibilities for us both as teachers and principals.
My desire for the simpler life stems from the fact that my job never ceases …. I take my work seriously … and to do that I have no choice but to do another day’s work for my school after 3 o’clock.
I was a vice-principal before I became a principal … I had no ultimate responsibilty, few duties and I had little to do after school finished.
I became principal …. it meant an increase of £7 a week to me. My first BOM meeting cost me that in petrol. I actually lost money becoming a principal. I also lost my personal time.
I was an avid reader … not anymore … I read for work ….. I have given up a lot of my past times for school.
Cowen is due a €38k pay increase ….. why can’t I expect my union to gripe and groan for me?
Just because I’m a so called ‘government employee’ doesn’t mean I can’t expect a decent wage for all I do.
I work hard …. I want to be paid for it.
As a group we have given a lot in terms of productivity and are far more efficient than a lot of the fat cats in the higher echelons of our beloved HSE …. rationalise all departments fairly …. pay us fairly …. and all will go well for the country.
If Cowen talks the talks and walks differently when it comes to the National Pay Talks he’ll only be asking for trouble.
Provocation will only bring a negative reaction.
I am on the whole … proud to be Irish …. if the greater good was being efficiently promoted I would go that extra mile to do my bit.
I just cannot abide double standards.
I won’t concede my pay to a government increasing theirs.
I will not be lectured to about ‘going green’ by a government that drives around in fuel guzzling Mercedes Benz’s.
I’m tired of rolling over like a good little puppy.
Keep your bloody pay rise …. I’m all out of productivity!
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Completely fair point of view Paddy, and I hasten to say that I would do the same thing in your shoes. I have a sister in law who teaches and a friend who is the principle of the scholl my daughter attends. To be honest I think education is one of the areas the government is busy making a complete arse of, mostly through pushing the burdens out onto the front line with little or no logistical support.
Like yourself I also intensly dislike double standards though, and I consider the statement of “Why aren’t we getting the kind of increases the private (tech) sector are getting” back in the late 90’s followed by a statement that they are not going to tollerate the downside that the tech sector was subject to as a prime example of a double standard. Please be aware that I am not trying to get your back up or slag off your profession in any way.
Hi Paddy. I have a post in waiting about teaching actually, might be a good time to trawl it out. I trained as a High School teacher but was too young to appreciate the jibes of kids 4 years my junior. I was only 22! There are wonderful teachers out there who put in their all, particularly in the primary sector and the pay is so bad that we can no longer attract men into the system. They are paid better elsewhere. Education and Health are areas where the public service in both countries needs to address fair pay. Having said that, the government here has been trying to introduce a teaching wage scale based on productivity and it’s not being embraced by teachers? Why? I get a pay rise for proving I have made a contribution to the business above that of others. I have KPI’s to meet and if I don’t meet them I don’t get more money. The merit system rewards me for that. I know, and I hasten to say, high school teachers who have fewer than 5 face to face teaching hours a day, get all their prep and marking done at school and are out the gate at 3:30 but they are paid the same as those who put in the effort and hours that you do . . hardly seems fair. (oops, my socialist halo is slipping). The bottom line is teachers and nurses are drowning in policy and paperwork and being paid shit. Plus, they are being expected to do much more than teach. They take up family, social, human rights and disceipline issues and in your case, maintain the grounds to boot. Sadly, the bottom line is many good teachers will leave and join the private sector.
TC ~ I know you weren’t getting at me.
I’m just getting at me …. venting here … all professions/jobs have good and bad workers/good and bad conditions ….. I would consider myself a fairly good worker and I try to be conscientious in all I do. I feel that I’m being ‘rode’ in my job …. by the powers that be especially in the last 5 to 10 years.
We went from 0 to 60 without any seat belts on.
I’m tired of paper, paper, paper ….. and comments from government …. ‘restraint’ …. when they are milking the system.
Baino ~ good teachers are leaving ….. a little appreciation is all that would have been needed to keep them. Education is the bed rock of all societies … yet the people who impart such knowledge are treated like second class citizens and are called gripers/begrudgers if we look for a pay rise.