A stressful job

[MONKEY31]

Hello I am new to all of this so please bare with me!
I have had type 1 diabetes since I was little, forgot i had diabetes at university but since then i have tried to be a good at controlling my sugars, have a few occasional problems but nothing huge. I work as a primary school teacher which i find incredibly stressful, have been working as a teacher for ten years however the job keeps getting harder and harder. Recently had an inspection which sent my bloodsugars crazy, and i'm not sure its best for me and my diabetes to stay in a job that doesn't give me time to have a life or to look after my life. Especially as i want children in the near future. Spoke to my employer about my struggles and she said the job will get harder and there will be more stress to handle but that's the job you have chosen. Which got me thinking should i change jobs? I have only ever known teaching and have no idea what else i would do and so i find myself here, is there such a thing as a diabetic friendly job? I need a job that i don't bring home with me, a job that means i don't give up every spare minute of my time. Have no idea where to start looking. Any ideas i realise this is a huge ask! Sorry

 

[Northerner]

Hi Monkey, welcome to the forum 🙂 Sorry to hear about the problems you are having. Do you LOVE teaching? If not, what would you really like to be doing? What would you find rewarding, that you really wanted to get up for every morning? Stress is certainly not good for your levels, or your health overall if it is something of a constant in your life. What insulin regime are you on?

Some people find a book called What Colour Is Your Parachute? useful for reassessing what they want from a career, what they may be best suited for and what may match their skills.

If your levels are poor a lot of the time then this will also affect your mood. Your head wasn't very helpful in telling you things were going to get worse - why should they? Is the school a good one, with a good atmosphere and relationships between staff and pupils?

I've worked in some pretty stressful jobs, but discovered that, for me, it wasn't worth making my life miserable so I changed course and now do something I love - still stressful at times, but very rewarding!

 

[MONKEY31]

Thank you! Im on novorapid and lantus, love the teaching and children bit but all the other parts of the job are rubbish i find im working all the time! The school used to be really good, but there were some big staffing changes and now the school has just failed ofsted so she is right in a way things are much more stressful and i have been expected to take on more responsibility as an experienced teacher. I am going to give that book a read as i just feel a bit lost. Also think a change of career would be good as my partner and i want children.

Hi Monkey, welcome to the forum 🙂 Sorry to hear about the problems you are having. Do you LOVE teaching? If not, what would you really like to be doing? What would you find rewarding, that you really wanted to get up for every morning? Stress is certainly not good for your levels, or your health overall if it is something of a constant in your life. What insulin regime are you on?

Some people find a book called What Colour Is Your Parachute? useful for reassessing what they want from a career, what they may be best suited for and what may match their skills.

If your levels are poor a lot of the time then this will also affect your mood. Your head wasn't very helpful in telling you things were going to get worse - why should they? Is the school a good one, with a good atmosphere and relationships between staff and pupils?

I've worked in some pretty stressful jobs, but discovered that, for me, it wasn't worth making my life miserable so I changed course and now do something I love - still stressful at times, but very rewarding!

 

[Katieb]

Hi Monkey. What about working as a TA or HLTA. Not badly paid these days though the pension isn't as good. You can have the benefits of doing all a teacher does (covering PPA etc) without the major stresses of planning, marking etc. Many schools employ qualified teachers to do these jobs. Just a thought. Katie

 

[MONKEY31]

Thank you for the ideas, i have thought about this also about working part-time but i think i need a clean break from teaching plus the pay would be a huge struggle.