Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay
Your coworkers are integral to your work experience because you see them 1/3 of the day. However, my experience as a teacher at my former and current schools hasn't always been easy.
There are some people you like working with and others you don't. The teaching profession is no different. But here is where teaching sets itself apart from other jobs. I worked in the private sector for five years before I became a teacher.
Every job I had in the private sector had work schedules much harder than a teacher's. I remember working a year before I earned two weeks of vacation time. Also, I worked on almost every state and federal holiday except the major holidays such as Christmas and New Year's.
As teachers, if you calculate all the student, state, and federal holidays, we are off about 2.5 months out of the year. That is what drew me to the teaching profession. I liked all the holidays and vacations.
The other difference is that as a worker in the private sector, I had to work closely with my coworkers almost daily. That doesn't happen as a teacher because I teach four or more periods per day, and the only time I see my fellow teachers is during faculty and staff meetings.
I don't have to work with them daily, which works fine with me. I remember working at a company and hated working with a coworker, but I had to see the person every day. That doesn't happen as a teacher.
I rarely see my teacher colleagues at work, and that is the best part of teaching. I'm in my 25th year of teaching and wouldn't want it any other way. Then, I started making money at home and realized I liked making money without seeing anyone.
Freelance writing is a perfect fit.
I never liked working in the private sector or at schools, but it helped pay the bills and set me on solid financial footing. Now that I'm making money as a writer, there is no question that I'd like to make money sitting at my office at home more than my job.
You don't have to like where you work, but it helps.
Being a teacher minimized my work time with other coworkers. I didn't last in the private sector, but I found a career that allowed me to work without interacting with coworkers daily.
Writing for money and online tutoring is the perfect fit because I don't have to interact with many people to make money. Everything is coming together at the right time. I'm close to early retirement as a teacher, and I plan to write and work my side hustles at my home office every day.
Someone mentioned that I worked in the wrong career. My decision to work as a teacher isn't the most popular or glamorous because that is not what people like to hear. The best way I can describe my career as a teacher is that my job was a means to an end.
Being a teacher set my foot on financial stability. I wouldn't have had that if I continued working in the private sector.