A woman who packed in teaching and took up a job at Costco says she's much happier now.
Maggie Perkins made the choice to switch career paths after having been a high school teacher for eight years.
Taking to TikTok, Perkins shared with her 86.5k followers the reasons for the job change.
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Detailing her journey, she explained: "I used to be a teacher and now I work at Costco.
"This is my first-ever year not having a winter break and how do I feel?
"I feel great."
She continued: "As a teacher, it was like I was just surviving every moment.
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"By the time I got to Christmas break, I was so exhausted that I was literally sick."
Ending the near minute-long clip, Perkins concluded: "I can't believe that I ever felt so limited that I ever thought that I couldn't do something else.
"I am better now than I have been in my liveable memory."
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Speaking to Fox, she said: "There's a term called job creep, which is when additional duties are slowly assigned to you, and then those duties are never relieved from you.
"Over time, it causes you to be burned out from the first reason you became a teacher, which is loving the students, loving teaching.
"They remind you [to] remember your passion, but my passion couldn't pay my bills and couldn't help me sleep at night while I was always waiting for the other shoe to drop."
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And explaining why she loves her job at Costco, she said: "We grew up going to Costco so I've always known that Costco employees are treated well and have a high quality of life.
"When there was a new Costo built in my town I immediately applied and there was more than 3,000 applications for less than 300 jobs."
Many have sympathised with Maggie over on TikTok.
One fellow teacher admitted similar disappointment with the education system, writing: "I’m a high school math teacher and I compare teaching like being in an abusive marriage you’re scared to leave."
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A second user said: "The week before Christmas is usually insane at Costco! So this says a LOT about how teaching compares."
"It's the mental load and responsibilities," another said about teaching, "you don't have that with retail, you show up and do your job, then have nothing to think about after."
A final user added: "I wish teaching would be more appealing. It’s such an important job, but teachers are not paid enough or taken care of."
Rhiannon Ingle