Do teachers make the best bosses?
The UK’s teachers are happier with their jobs than any other UK industry sector, and place their bosses in the top three nationally, according to a survey from employment expert Kelly Services, which invited employees from all walks of life to rate their bosses.
The Kelly Services Global Workforce Index, a poll of 70,000 respondents worldwide, and 6,000 in the UK, discovered that 63% of UK teachers were happy or very happy. 24% didn’t express a strong opinion, and only 13% felt at all unhappy about their job – putting them ahead of workers in business services, local or central government, engineering, financial services, IT, manufacturing, retail, science, travel and leisure, transport, and utilities. Only bosses in business services and government were scored more highly than education, edging ahead by just 0.2 and 0.1 of a point respectively. Bosses in teaching scored 6.8 out of a possible 10.
“It’s a gold star for teachers,” says Steve Girdler, Director of Sales and Marketing for Kelly Services. “The essence of a good boss is leadership, a skill which every teacher develops and has to exercise each hour of the working day. If you habitually influence, control, inspire and impart information to a classroom of 30 students, each with their own needs, some of them challenging, you have certainly acquired all the necessary skills to provide good communication, guidance and motivation to dedicated colleagues.”
Employers were rated on four attributes – communication, leadership, team spirit and delegation skills, all strong areas for teaching staff.
The findings also revealed that apart from the 55+ age group, which showed a slight preference for a male boss, people in general do not mind whether the boss is male or female, 78% saying that it made no difference. “Education is one sector in which both women and men have excelled over many decades,” adds Girdler. “Equality is more the norm in this area than most. The rest of industry could learn a valuable lesson here.”
Teachers were a healthy 9% ahead of the national average of those who were happy with their careers - across all industry sectors only 54% of us said we were happy or very happy – implying a pass mark for bosses, but not a distinction.
Overall, despite top marks from education, the UK came a disappointing joint 23rd with Thailand in terms of workers’ satisfaction, out of 28 countries surveyed. The best bosses were to be found in Mexico, USA and Canada, and the worst in Sweden, Italy and Turkey. Oddly, despite their bosses, Swedish workers were in the top three for happiness at work – but then Sweden does have one of the best systems for funding lifelong education, training and career development.
- Ends -