Korean Job Discussion Forums

[Murph]

So this month I've accepted an extra teaching position at my school. This new position consists of working every Saturday. So now I'm working six days a week. I've crunched the numbers, and I'm working on average 45 -47 hours a week, with 36 of those hours being actual teaching. Before I continue I would like to point out that my language school is rather strict compared to other schools (at least from what I've heard). There are no games at my school, nor are we allowed to sit down while we are teaching. What this means is that those 36 hours of teaching are all spent standing, writing, explaining, it's full on work essentially. I'm not comlaining about my schools system, I enjoy working at my school. I'm just trying to give you, the reader some perspective on my situation.

Here's where I am going with all of this. Since I've taken on the extra work load I've been exhausted. I'm always tired, my mood has suffered, the quality of my work has gone down etc. The other day I was thinking back to when I was a student, and realized that while I was on my vacations I used to work 60 to 70 hours a week doing hard labor. I'll spare you the details but I've done just about any job that could be placed in the 3D catagory. So I'm wondering what gives? I'm only 25 years old now, so I can't blame it on age. Why am I so tired after working a 45 hour week (36 hours teaching), when I used to work so hard all week long, night and day, and not seem affected at all? Does teaching really require a lot more energy that I've previously noticed, or has working a cushy 30 hour week for the last two years made me soft?

[Crowzone]

If you take a teaching job seriously (as you seem to believe you do) then it can be extremely exhausting. So called "Hard Labor" doesn't usually require a lot of mental stress and though it may be physically exhausting, a day off really revitalizes you. A job like teaching, when you are serious and put effort into it can mentally wear on you -- which causes similar burn out physically but seems to take more time to recover from.

I have also done hard physical work, at times in excess of 60 hours a week for weeks on end and I find that I am just as tired working at my teaching job that requires maybe half of the working hours.

[sock]

For me, teaching is more mentally/emotionally draining than it is physically exhausting. It's a different kind of tiredness and I think it does take awhile to get used to the difference.

That being said, my personal opinion is also that you're working too many hours and you need to be careful or you'll burn yourself out. Everybody has to set their own priorities on happiness and having a decent life outside of work.

[mnhnhyouh]

The academics kept telling us that that teaching was "emotional labor", and during my first practical in a school I discovered they are right.

Now, a couple of years on, I still believe this is so. However, like all work I have done, fitness increases over time. I now find I have more energy left at the end of the week than I had when I started.

Does this mean I am now more emotionally fit?

h

[kat2]

Also, just living in a foreign culture brings a little bit of stress everyday. You may not even notice it, but its there. So, working a lot at a strict (i.e. stressful) hogwan and living in a stressful place make it more difficult.
I would try to make sure you have a couple night a week where you are just doing nothing Whether thats watching movies at home, chilling in the sauna for hours, whatever. Try to take a couple of "me" nights a week. It will really make a difference in your energy level and mentality. Now, you just learned in 2 minutes what it took me a year and a half to learn from a shrink! You can thank me later.

[jdog2050]