I have a lot of respect for teachers. They are the ones teaching and baby sitting our children. They outta have 1 of the highest paid jobs in our country. Instead, they are way under paid and put up with too much crap.

Talking about realtors, i have about 5 friends that are realtors. Those friends are about the laziest bastages i know lol. They been worthless their whole life come to think of it.

I'd add that it's also likely how well you handled your inheritance.

Not necessarily. I’ve got several farmers that just manage well that aren’t from lineage farms.

I’m not a teacher. My job requires me to work with some of the sorriest lowlifes that society has to offer. When I chose my profession I knew how long I would have to go to school, what the job would entail, the types of individuals that I would have to deal with, the hours away from my family that I would sacrifice, etc. I’m not pissing and moaning.
If a teacher isn’t happy with their job they need to either suck it up and carry on with a smile and a good attitude OR move on to a new profession. It’s a CHOICE.

To be clear, here are the things my wife has complained about in her 28 years of teaching.
1). bad administrators
2). lazy fellow teachers when they are mandated to "team teach" together.
3). the inclusion of special needs students in a regular class as mandated by a stupid law. Special needs means special needs. It is hard to teach a class of 7 year olds when one of them regularly poops in their pants and then pulls it out to show everybody. Yes, this happened one year on a regular basis.
4). parents that don't look at their child's progress report or homework file and then complain because their child did not get a grade that would have made them happy.
5). parents that just show up with cupcakes and such on their child's birthday without notifying her in advance. This was a big problem one year as a number of mothers tried to out do each other's "surprise party".
6).Not enough time for lunch for her or the kids
7). No prep period even though it is mandated by law, thus the reason she stays until 5:30 so she can get the paperwork done and hopefully not have to bring it home with her, although she has had to many nights.

What she had never complained about is:
1). Pay....she knew the deal and took it
2). The students.....She loves everyone of them and tries her best to teach them. She truly treats them like she expected our children to be treated when they were in 2nd grade.....Even the Special needs students, she loves them all.

My wife would probably just say #1 and #2. Pay is an issue, but in higher ed it is more about unequal pay across departments or when someone is hired. (salary compression). I could see how pay between similar districts could be an issue of complaining in k-12.

I agree with the comments around women just complain more than men. However, I do think there are some legitimate frustrations that eventually wear on teachers over time. My wife is a teacher, and at the old job she left, the administration was just extremely poor to say the least. Garbage administrators seem to be a pattern in the industry. Another thing is that we pay a significant amount out of our own pocket for her classroom supplies, projects, etc. That becomes demoralizing after a while. Dealing with increasingly poor parents takes the wind out of her sails real quick.

All that being said, my dad taught chemistry and physics for over 40 years and I never heard him complain for one minute. I’m sure he hated parts of it past a certain point, but he had a family to support and he was good at what he did.

I think you just have to be wired/called to teach. If not, it’s better for everyone if you just get out.

My wife has her Master's and 28 years so she is topped out for this district. Sure, she would like more, but no one she teaches with has a higher salary so she doesn't complain about that.

Same things my wife deals with and these are legit issues. People who don't want to accept that society is going in the crapper need to spend a day at the local elementary school and hear some of the stories associated with each child. The percentage of special needs kids is on the rise at an alarming rate. And it's real A butt whipping won't cure it, and it really doesn't matter if it would because they cannot discipline kids that way any more. Lot's and lot's of kids are in drug environments and unfortunately too many administrators never had a real job with consequesnces and refuse to address the issues.

Think about how this would make you feel. At many institutions they have not kept up with pay increases for decades. However, monies are limited for this purpose. Some have chose to put those funds toward new hires so they can attract more talent. The issue is that someone hired in the last year then may make more than another that does 1/3 more work (responsibilities add up over time) and has maybe 7-10 years of service.

Pitfall of salary compression is that is really hurts moral. New employees make more than experienced ones.

Before I retired, my last raise cost me over $100 a month.
True story, I got a raise that increased my tax burden and actually netted less income than before.
Now there's some added incentive to retire.

Yep, knowing where the tax brackets are is important

There is an old axiom that is true in the education world. Bad teachers don't get fired, they get promoted to administration. Not always the case, but very often true. Thus the #1 complaint among teachers seems to be poor administrators.

And Phil I apologize on the realtor stuff.. Amybpdy who can maintain self employment and heathcare in our new normal seriously has my respect. Good luck hunting..

That is a completely untrue statement. First tenure never kept anyone from being fired. All it does is give you a right to a due process hearing before being fired. That is important when you have vindictive administrative staff. Second, tenure laws have been changed in the last 10 years so that they really offer very little protection. I personally know of 1/2 dozen teachers that have worked with my wife over the years that were fired despite their tenure. One this year.

Tenure means very little anymore. When it comes to any kind of employment under the state its better to be vested, so that you at least get retirement. You get vested after 10 years of work. Like doekiller said...tenure does not secure somebody from being fired, it just gives them more due process should something come up. If a state employee like a teacher or aldot grass mower or state trooper is vested but not tenured they also have due process but under a different set of rules. It takes about 5-6 years to get tenure, it takes 10 to get vested.

every time I got a raise, we got a raise in BCBS dues that completely offset any raise.

That is exactly true. COLA (Cost of living raise) is typically figured with health insurance raise. 1-2% COLA increase...1-2% Health Insurance increase.

Boy this is true. In my career the only time I got a raise that I saw in my wallet was when i got a promotion.

If most people had to put up with today's kids I bet some wouldn't last a week!