You spend most of your life in school, and if you’re not physically there, the chances are you are working at home or thinking about work. 

The fact is that other teachers get that like no non-teacher friend could, however hard they try.

Having work friends (or “frolleagues,” as I have recently discovered that the cool kids are calling them) is essential to maintaining your sanity and enhancing your job satisfaction. 

Quick read: Wellbeing: Four ways to reconnect with fellow teachers

Quick listen: Could Bananarama be the answer to social mobility?

Want to know more? How classroom yoga can improve staff and student wellbeing

But what should we be watching out for?

Having teachers as friends: the pros and cons

The Moaning Myrtle effect

Letting off a bit of steam sometimes is important, but there’s a distinction between an occasional grumbler and a full-on Moaning Myrtle. You know the sort, who last said something positive when Baker Days were still a thing.

It’s surprising the damage that one super-negative person can do to staff morale - it can be worse for your emotional wellbeing than sitting in the U-bend, thinking about death. 

The echo chamber

I was genuinely surprised by the outcome of the recent general election. Perhaps I am naive, or perhaps it’s because I almost exclusively interact with like-minded people, in real life and on social media. 

I am not suggesting that teachers operate with a hive mind, but, broadly speaking, they are generally on the same page when it comes to a lot of things.

It can, therefore, come as a bit of a shock when people outside of the edu-bubble do not think the same way.

To be a well-rounded person, it is important to broaden your horizons, and part of that involves interacting with people from different walks of life, with varying viewpoints. 

Folie à plusieurs

In English this translates as “madness of many”, which, quite frankly, sounds less impressive and possibly verging on the politically incorrect. 

Yet there is some truth in it. Teachers exist in a different world to “regular” people. A world where a tucked in chair is revered and an orderly queue at the bar is quietly admired. 

It is easy to forget that we’re basically strange in the eyes of others, particularly when we are outside of our natural habitat and in the big wide world. I remember a supermarket cashier looking bewildered when my teacher-friend and I kept referring to each other as “Miss Corby” and “Miss Hay” as we packed our bags. 

If lay people accidentally stray into a teacher-dominant group, they are confused by all the talk of “deep dives”, “learning walks” and “book scrutiny”. 

Also, if teachers are in a local pub or café, they have to start speaking in code, as walls have ears.

It can be difficult for a non-teacher to follow the conversation when it’s all: “Well, T in 10RFT is likely to be PEx-ed after he assaulted Mrs M with the candlestick in the billiard room...” You know the sort of thing.

It therefore becomes a Catch-22 situation, where teachers may struggle to make friends outside of the education community, as regular people do not know what they’re on about half the time. But that might not necessarily be all bad.

Gemma Corby is a freelance writer and former special educational needs and disability coordinator