Every little helps . . . from teacher to Tesco

AMY EADE left her job as a teacher for a role at Tesco and found that her worklife balance improved no end. Here she explains her surprise at the difference it made to her well-being.

When I was at school, the poor supermarket shelf-stacker was always used as an example for why we needed to work hard.

Ironic then that after 16 years working in education, six of which were managing and teaching a unit for Years 10 and 11, I should find myself doing that very job. And enjoying it.

Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely loved teaching at the start. My school was for boys with Social, Emotional and Mental Health conditions. I taught students with conditions covering everything from childhood trauma to autism. There was never a dull day. When I started teaching in 2013 the small classes and wider curriculum were a joy. Like the analogy of the boiling frog, I didn’t realise until almost too late how hot the water was getting. Lesson planning slowly took over weekends as we were required to make plans ever more detailed. In my last year, every week, without exaggeration, I would print out at least three A3 pages of planning for my class of just six students - using Century Gothic font size nine as stipulated.

Yet despite very detailed lessons and objectives, specific differentiation matched to goals and short-term targets, the plans were next to useless. Invariably I would change every lesson when presented with the challenges and unpredictability of the students.

We had long weekly meetings after school where we would go over improving and recording improvements. This meant whatever we were doing before was wrong and needed to be updated.

As my days grew longer to fit in the paperwork associated with our new initiatives, my interest in healthy eating and exercise went out the window.

I noticed my eyes were drier and I had developed bad posture from being hunched over the computer. As the workload become unsustainable, people started leaving. Or not leaving but signing themselves off with stress, replaced by short term cover.

The final straw was being sent an email in error from my line manager suggesting my job could be offered to another staff member who was on the point of resigning. Nice.

I handed in my notice in the summer term, had a relaxed summer and interviewed for a supermarket Christmas temp job in October.

It was a life-changing moment.

It is exactly that: a job. It doesn’t define me and consume every part of life. In a supermarket, you have a job (sometimes several), someone tells you how to do it and they let you get on with it.

As a result, I’m fitter and more relaxed.

Obviously, the big benefit with teaching is 13-weeks’ holiday, followed by the pension. Otherwise, the state sector has few genuine perks.

Amy Eade

Whilst my friends in private schools got a free lunch, I’d be lucky to even get a lunch break. Possibly I might be able to misappropriate the photocopier for personal use if I was quick.

My supermarket, on the other hand, has lots of small wins. I’ve got a free car park permit for the town centre car park. Being able to nip into town and park whenever I want is an absolute privilege.

There’s obviously a discount, which is useful if not massive, and there’s also the Colleague Shop which gets daily reduced items for free.

We get statutory breaks. They were a revelation. I chose when to take it, be it for the loo or a cup of coffee (an impossibility in teaching). There’s free tea/coffee and soft drinks, plus a variety of things for staff to eat in the staffroom.

Lastly, there’s leave which is easily booked whenever you want it including a bonus ‘personal day’. As I’m not working all the time, I don’t even feel I need it.

Another noticeable difference is diversity. Schools promote it whilst being pretty bad at it themselves. By contrast my supermarket is exceptionally good.

There are neuro-divergent staff, staff with physical disabilities, wheelchair-users, staff straight out of school and high achievers back from Uni.

Unlike school, where there is often a cliquey hierarchy, you learn not to underestimate anyone in the store. Everyone from management to HR work on the shop floor.

One of my most telling moments was when my worlds collided and an ex-student came in.

He started his own business as a tree surgeon, has a dog and a Land Rover. We had a quick chat and he was surprised when I said I’d left teaching. “You should have listened to me,” he said. “I always said school was rubbish.”

Indeed, it seems we are both happier outside the school gates.

About Amy

Amy Eade went into teaching after her son was born in 2004 for a better work-life balance. She found that teaching was undergoing great changes, the percentage of the workforce aged over 50 drops every year and is currently just 17%. She left teaching in 2022 and now works as a children’s Wellbeing Practitioner but has kept the supermarket job “as it’s just so handy”.