From Teacher to Lorry Driver: How Stress Led Me to Switch Careers
Stuart Youens states that when he began teaching at a secondary school 20 years ago, he was passionate about his work.
However, slowly but surely, the impact of budget reductions, the decrease in classroom aides, the surge in extra support requirements, along with an uptick in bureaucratic processes began to be felt.
Two years back, he decided to step away from his former career and start working as a truck driver – and he claims that he feels much more content with his new occupation.
Data obtained by LIFEHACKScotland News indicates that the number of days teachers have taken off due to stress has significantly increased over the last six years.
Labor unions and education professionals indicate that numerous educators are departing the profession entirely due to these issues.
The Scottish government has stated that they are implementing measures to ensure school staff receive the required assistance.
Stuart Youens, aged 47, who hails from central Scotland, mentions that he previously worked at a reputable school. However, he began experiencing anxiety about heading into his workplace each day. He also stated that he felt compelled to leave before becoming cynical and disillusioned.
He mentions that teachers should be capable of managing stress within the classroom environment; however, he also points out that issues like mobile phones, disruptive behavior, and student apathy have increasingly become significant problems.
Stuart mentions that the level of stress originating from outside the classroom has surged significantly because of qualification demands and an escalating volume of documentation.
“As I see it, teaching ought to be fairly straightforward, but when you pile on more and more data collection and bureaucratic tasks, it only increases pressure,” he explains.
The excessive red tape needs to be reduced so that teachers can focus on their work. Teaching is indeed a highly rewarding profession, but we must be allowed to carry out our duties without being bogged down by such extensive bureaucratic processes.
He mentions that he enjoys his career as a lorry driver and doesn’t look back at his time as a geography teacher, despite the higher pay.
He states that it’s hard to draw comparisons between lorry driving and teaching, as these are entirely distinct occupations.
I genuinely enjoy driving because of its straightforwardness. It feels far more laid-back.
I want to make it clear that every job has its stresses, including operating a large vehicle, but the people I work with are excellent. Any issues that come up are handled by the mechanics.
I’ve regained that simplicity in teaching that I believed I should have possessed from the start.
Approximately 53,000 educators were working in Scotland during the 2023/24 academic year.
Queries regarding the frequency of teacher absences attributed to stress were dispatched to all Scottish councils by Reform Scotland, an organization that characterizes itself as a nonpartisan independent think tank, with Lord Jack McConnell, a former Labour first minister, serving as chairman.
It garnered replies to its freedom of information queries from most local authorities; however, several entities—including Glasgow—either did not reply at all or merely offered the average number of teacher days lost.
Across the 14 councils that submitted complete data for each year, the overall count of teacher absences attributed to stress increased from 30,380 days in the 2017/18 period to 41,629 days in the most recent year.
In Edinburgh, the figure has more than doubled during this time span, increasing from 3,594 to 8,879. Other regions like Angus have also seen significant rises.
Educators have informed LIFEHACK that their tasks are becoming more challenging due to worsening student behavior in classrooms, an increased number of children requiring substantial assistance, and reductions in funding for classroom aides, support personnel, and overall educational budgets.
Education experts say that having so many experienced teachers being off long-term sick or leaving the profession altogether has a hugely detrimental impact on pupils who will then get ad hoc supply teachers or have to share teachers with other classes.
Alison Payne, who leads research at Reform Scotland, mentioned they aimed to gain clearer insights into how teaching has been affected following hearsay about increasing stress among educators.
She stated: “Although the varying recording techniques employed by the distinct councils complicated efforts to obtain an overall view of Scotland, the individual local government responses were distressing.”
Mrs. Payne stated that the Scottish government ought to look into the matter more deeply.
“Although the rising number of educators severely impacted by stress is clearly concerning from an individual perspective, this increase also leads to greater disruptions in learning for students,” she noted.
The statistics do not reveal if few teachers have been absent for extended durations, which might be simpler to handle when arranging coverage, or if there’s a rise in the number of teachers taking short leaves frequently, making it harder to schedule effectively.
‘Making meaningful progress’
The previous year, the EIS union initiated research focusing on workload and stress. The findings revealed that teachers were, on average, putting in an extra 11 hours per week without pay beyond their contracted hours.
A representative from the EIS mentioned that extremely high levels of stress and stress-induced illnesses are a matter of grave concern.
The Scottish government and local councils, being the employers of teachers, have a responsibility to take action in accordance with their duty of care to alleviate the significant work overload currently faced by educators.
Councillor Joan Griffiths, who leads the Edinburgh City Council’s education, children, and families committee, expressed her sadness over the absenteeism statistics.
“The well-being of more than 3,000 teachers working for the council is extremely important to us,” she stated.
She mentioned that various forms of assistance and resources are provided to aid them, and instructors experiencing worries regarding their workloads or mental well-being are urged to discuss these issues with their direct supervisor.
Angus Council acknowledged the difficulties faced by teachers and stated they have implemented various strategies to assist employees who experience stress.
A representative from the Scottish government stated they were implementing measures to guarantee that school employees received the required assistance.
Over the past few years, we have dedicated over £2 million to particularly bolster the well-being of the educational staff.
Scotland still boasts the highest teacher salaries and the smallest student-to-teacher ratio within the UK.
We are equally committed to boosting the number of teachers in our schools. To achieve this, we are allocating £186.5 million to local authorities this year under a pact with Cosla. This funding aims to bring teacher counts back up to 2023 levels, along with maintaining current learning hours and significantly cutting down class interaction periods.
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