Career as Teacher

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You go for half year secondment and expect to get strong performance grade for that year? What are your priorities? If you want to "max" your perf grade, you should stay in one place and optimise the visibility of your high impact work. If you want to gain outside exposure, spend one year not being so obsessed over perf grade, just focus on your learning and development.

Welcome to min-max society. Everyone feels entitled to have their cake and eat it.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

There are some considerations here though.

1. 3% is nearly 1000 teachers yearly. Using a % makes it sound damn low. For MX people, I guess there was no way to sugarcoat the numbers. It's either ~10% or about 2000+ of them.

2. GEO5 HOTs and KPs have reached a comfortable level of income and own work pace. They are unable to find another place that matches their current income anyway. Hence they wouldn't dare to leave.

3. Recruitment for fresh grads have been reduced so much that the total number of young ones isn't even significant in the first place. Hence the number of youngsters quitting will be even less significant.

That's true. One of the reasons our workload became so heavy in 2022 and even this year 2023 was because people were leaving for various reasons. While not always the case, I do see how GEO5 HOTs and KPs can be in a better position to deflect or reassign additional tasks instead of taking everything on themselves. On the contrary the GEO 3s and especially the GEO4s seemed to have a more difficult time. Cos they still 'climbing' and 'getting professionally developed' so need to do a lot of extra work. Very very draining.

Honestly in some other industries when you do more work you either get higher commission/bonus or you get pay raise? But as an educator in the civil service all you have even after working your hardest is the yearly $100+ pay increase. If you work very hard and sell your work well, your PB grade is like B+? A+ grades much fewer right. So you work your butt off and your PB is like 2-3 months pay... like quite sian. Not like it's 2-3 months of 8 or 9k pay leh. Haix....

I know some teachers who have side hustles and all. Lately i'm starting to think that passion is just not enough. With this kind of pay scheme, really need to plan for side income. For all the young ones and BTs out there... consider creating alternative sources of income! Teacher pay is ok at best. You can't retire early and you can't live very very comfortably. Unless your parents rich or your spouse got money lor then different case. So ya. tiring life with proportionately low pay. take care guys

Originally Posted by Unregistered

That's true. One of the reasons our workload became so heavy in 2022 and even this year 2023 was because people were leaving for various reasons. While not always the case, I do see how GEO5 HOTs and KPs can be in a better position to deflect or reassign additional tasks instead of taking everything on themselves. On the contrary the GEO 3s and especially the GEO4s seemed to have a more difficult time. Cos they still 'climbing' and 'getting professionally developed' so need to do a lot of extra work. Very very draining.

Honestly in some other industries when you do more work you either get higher commission/bonus or you get pay raise? But as an educator in the civil service all you have even after working your hardest is the yearly $100+ pay increase. If you work very hard and sell your work well, your PB grade is like B+? A+ grades much fewer right. So you work your butt off and your PB is like 2-3 months pay... like quite sian. Not like it's 2-3 months of 8 or 9k pay leh. Haix....

I know some teachers who have side hustles and all. Lately i'm starting to think that passion is just not enough. With this kind of pay scheme, really need to plan for side income. For all the young ones and BTs out there... consider creating alternative sources of income! Teacher pay is ok at best. You can't retire early and you can't live very very comfortably. Unless your parents rich or your spouse got money lor then different case. So ya. tiring life with proportionately low pay. take care guys

You must have some form of supplementary income or you won't be able to retire comfortably, unless you are single/DINK/otherwise have relatively few financial responsibilities across most of your adult life. Relying on teacher pay alone won't make you poor, but it won't give you a whole lot of financial security and comfort either.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You go for half year secondment and expect to get strong performance grade for that year? What are your priorities? If you want to "max" your perf grade, you should stay in one place and optimise the visibility of your high impact work. If you want to gain outside exposure, spend one year not being so obsessed over perf grade, just focus on your learning and development.

No one said anything about getting a strong performance grade.

I think secondment is more of like getting exposure outside and taking a short "break" from the usual school workload. If the external organisation assigns the average grade C, I think that is still acceptable.

Some people are simply curious about whether performance grades are still given and how they are decided upon during secondment, especially for short term ones, that's all. No need to get so impulsive about it.

Originally Posted by Unregistered

You must have some form of supplementary income or you won't be able to retire comfortably, unless you are single/DINK/otherwise have relatively few financial responsibilities across most of your adult life. Relying on teacher pay alone won't make you poor, but it won't give you a whole lot of financial security and comfort either.

Agree, assuming both husband and wife are teachers, with kids won’t have much money left at the end of every month, which is going to pose problems in their retirement life.

I am a 30M teacher in a secondary school, currently with a TC of around $100k all-in including all bonuses. Am I underpaid?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I am a 30M teacher in a secondary school, currently with a TC of around $100k all-in including all bonuses. Am I underpaid?

TC of 100k? Are you GEO5 already? Consistent 100k, or only 100k because of connect plan 1st payout?

Originally Posted by Unregistered

I am a 30M teacher in a secondary school, currently with a TC of around $100k all-in including all bonuses. Am I underpaid?

if this is true then u are a lot better and faster than most teachers liao

u scholar?

that said in private sector this is only average

Originally Posted by Unregistered

TC of 100k? Are you GEO5 already? Consistent 100k, or only 100k because of connect plan 1st payout?

Not impossible when factoring in CPF and other bonuses last year. Checked my tax filing and it’s close to 87k last year and I’m M 28 who got GEO3 last year.

When you press the apply button for OPE, does your SL get an immediate notification? Or will they only get a notification when you accept the offer after interview?