4 ms·

What’s an example of a non-stressful programmer role? Asking for a friend.

pfranz 7y ago
The tricky part about teaching is that it's unbounded. I've never taught, but I remember transitioning from school to a job and it was a huge thing for me that I could keep work at work and I could start focusing on things outside without distraction. For friends that teach there's a lot of work that's expected that's not scheduled work hours (grading, lesson planning, etc). Dealing with parents is one of the largest stressors and that's almost exclusively outside of classroom time.
- bayesian_horse 7y ago
  Depending on the particular school system, teachers can often shut out or minimize out-of-class work, but it takes a tougher attitude than many teachers have. Also, many teachers don't think "no parent engagement" is more desirable than high parent engagement. Differences in the parents ability to engage the school (available time, money, language skills etc) contributes to social and ethnic disadvantages in many nations' school systems.
  - pfranz 7y ago
    I was mostly pointing to the out-of-class work as something people who work other jobs wouldn't expect. I don't think there's a scenario where it doesn't exist and I'm a bit surprised I don't see better guidelines from either school districts or teacher's unions. It's something teacher's need to figure out for themselves. Trying to minimize that time was obvious to me as a student when I had poor teachers. Planning periods and planning days are nowhere near adequate to cover their responsibilities. > Also, many teachers don't think "no parent engagement" is more desirable than high parent engagement. I've never heard a teacher argue for no engagement. My point was that parent engagement is inevitable and always outside of scheduled class time. It's also one of the top complaints (along with administration and mandatory testing), so it's doubly unfortunate its unbounded.
    - bayesian_horse 7y ago
      My teachers would have shut down any parent without an extremely urgent issue trying to contact them after hours. And I highly doubt that they got above a 40 hour work week including their lesson preparation. But I guess expectations and regulations vary and it takes a personal strength that shouldn't be required of teachers. It's doubly sad that school systems are increasingly relying on teachers giving in and carrying more than their contractual burden.
bayesian_horse 7y ago
Depends on your employer as always. But with a modicum of respect for work-hours and office climate, most programming jobs should be less stressful than teaching high school. I'm not totally familiar with US coding/teaching jobs, and it also depends on how you deal with "stress" and the managing styles etc. But teachers are on the front lines dealing with teenagers who are (at times) unruly, mean, sometimes outright violent, and parents will blame you for all those problems. Maybe 99% of your students are nice or well behaving, but it doesn't take a lot. I've heard quite a few stories of classes driving teachers mad. A lot of fresh teachers even drop out...

The tricky part about teaching is that it's unbounded. I've never taught, but I remember transitioning from school to a job and it was a huge thing for me that I could keep work at work and I could start focusing on things outside without distraction. For friends that teach there's a lot of work that's expected that's not scheduled work hours (grading, lesson planning, etc). Dealing with parents is one of the largest stressors and that's almost exclusively outside of classroom time.

bayesian_horse 7y ago
Depending on the particular school system, teachers can often shut out or minimize out-of-class work, but it takes a tougher attitude than many teachers have. Also, many teachers don't think "no parent engagement" is more desirable than high parent engagement. Differences in the parents ability to engage the school (available time, money, language skills etc) contributes to social and ethnic disadvantages in many nations' school systems.
- pfranz 7y ago
  I was mostly pointing to the out-of-class work as something people who work other jobs wouldn't expect. I don't think there's a scenario where it doesn't exist and I'm a bit surprised I don't see better guidelines from either school districts or teacher's unions. It's something teacher's need to figure out for themselves. Trying to minimize that time was obvious to me as a student when I had poor teachers. Planning periods and planning days are nowhere near adequate to cover their responsibilities. > Also, many teachers don't think "no parent engagement" is more desirable than high parent engagement. I've never heard a teacher argue for no engagement. My point was that parent engagement is inevitable and always outside of scheduled class time. It's also one of the top complaints (along with administration and mandatory testing), so it's doubly unfortunate its unbounded.
  - bayesian_horse 7y ago
    My teachers would have shut down any parent without an extremely urgent issue trying to contact them after hours. And I highly doubt that they got above a 40 hour work week including their lesson preparation. But I guess expectations and regulations vary and it takes a personal strength that shouldn't be required of teachers. It's doubly sad that school systems are increasingly relying on teachers giving in and carrying more than their contractual burden.

bayesian_horse 7y ago

Depends on your employer as always. But with a modicum of respect for work-hours and office climate, most programming jobs should be less stressful than teaching high school. I'm not totally familiar with US coding/teaching jobs, and it also depends on how you deal with "stress" and the managing styles etc. But teachers are on the front lines dealing with teenagers who are (at times) unruly, mean, sometimes outright violent, and parents will blame you for all those problems. Maybe 99% of your students are nice or well behaving, but it doesn't take a lot. I've heard quite a few stories of classes driving teachers mad. A lot of fresh teachers even drop out...