burnout

Training Day

Posted on 04-09-202504-09-2025by admin

Welcome back to the shit show.

First day back. Apparently, “we’re not where we need to be”… Fuck this! First training session. This industry is fucked! Within half an hour, the room is dead behind the eyes. Teachers go from looking ten years younger to one of the Olivia Atwood £100k+ atrocities: dead under stretched skin. Teachers are disengaged, already checking the clock. Instead of being inspired, we’re dry fucked with data, graphs, acronyms, and the same tedious obsession with results. Training isn’t training anymore; it’s a performance review in disguise, a guilt trip dressed up as “professional development.” It’s the opposite of motivating. But worst of all, the system pretends this is “support.” wtf?

Artificial Intellignece Behaviour Curiculum Engagement Motivation Technology Toxicity

The Collapse of the Classroom Part 2

Posted on 18-06-202509-06-2025by admin

The Dopamine Dilemma

This is the second post in my series on the collapse of classroom culture. In Part 1, The Erosion of Classroom Civility, I looked at the entitlement, apathy, and aggression now normalised in schools. Here, I want to dig deeper into one of the most toxic forces behind it all: the dopamine economy. Students are chasing short-term highs, scrolling themselves into oblivion, and treating education like background noise. We’re not just competing with social media; we’re losing to it.

Curiculum Expectations Leadership Policies Well-Being Workload

Change Fatigue

Posted on 27-05-202521-05-2025by admin

Curriculum churn, course swaps, and top-down bullshit are driving talent out the door.

Change is supposed to be progress. But in schools, it’s a never-ending shitshow. A procession of poorly thought-out policies, new faces, new acronyms, and constant disruption. The ground never settles. Teachers are left picking up the pieces while trying to meet targets, keep kids learning, and cling to what’s left of their sanity: “no, no…. I’m fine…I SAID I’M FINE!!!”. The damage isn’t theoretical—it’s fucking everywhere. Burnout, confusion, high turnover, and a profession running on fumes.

Artificial Intellignece Behaviour Communication Engagement Motivation

Let People fucking Shine

Posted on 16-04-202513-05-2025by admin

Why the AI Doll trend bothers some people, the backlash against the trend, and what it reveals about insecure masculinity, performative creativity, and how our education system is still raising people to mock joy rather than understand it.

Like many, I have been interested in the recent trend where individuals use AI to generate stylised images of themselves inside action figure/toy-style packaging. These visuals often include accessories like a coffee cup, a book, or a pet—personal items symbolising aspects of identity or daily life. It’s playful, self-reflective, and widely accessible.

And of course, some people crawl out of the woodwork to shit on it. The backlash—particularly from “creative professionals” on LinkedIn—has been swift, smug, fucking tedious—the only irony being how unironically predictable it all is. The trend has been labelled unoriginal, cringe, shallow. One comment even said that choosing a cat and a coffee as your accessories reflects a “vacant life.” That kind of cold, arrogant dis doesn’t say anything profound about culture. However, it does say a hell of a lot about the person saying it.

Expectations Leadership Time Management Toxicity Well-Being Workload

The Culture is Breaking Teachers

Posted on 17-02-202513-05-2025by admin

I have explored this topic before, but every year I am reminded of the mess, and every year it makes me question whether I or indeed anyone else should consider this a viable career. The mental health strain is undeniable.

Education should be about young people. Yet, in many schools, the toxic culture takes root—one where certain members of leadership dedicate every waking moment to the institution, and they expect everyone else to do the same, as Aldous Huxley said: ‘Community, Identity, Stability’. These individuals often don’t have the same responsibilities as classroom teachers, but their overcommitment becomes the standard. If you’re not staying late, taking on extra duties, or responding to emails at all hours, you’re not “dedicated enough.” The result? Guilt. Exhaustion. Burnout. This is not commitment—it’s coercion.

Expectations Toxicity Well-Being

Escaping summer

Posted on 19-08-202413-05-2025by admin

Summer—a time most teachers eagerly await: the mental break, , sleeping past 6.30am, the sunshine, beach trips, and endless social activities. But for me, summer is a fucking prison sentence. While others bask in the costa del fuck you, I’m trapped in a cycle of depression and anxiety. The longer days, the pressure to entertain my kids, and the financial burden of holiday expectations all weigh heavily on my mind. Instead of enjoying a break, I’m overwhelmed, unmotivated, and consumed by a feeling of being stuck, unable to escape the monotony, and not worthy of the good things and people in my life-I’m a fucking let down. The expectation that summer should be a time of joy only amplifies my malaise, leaving me feeling even more isolated and lost and damaging family connections amplified by the fact that my wife and kids, and seemingly everyone else in the world, lives for the summer!