Here's my hit on the schedule they require of you. . I think a lot of non-profits, medical facilities (hospital for nurses, for example), and the helping professions exploit their workers in a lot of ways. Like you say, you love helping the kids. That's what many of such helping organizations count on -- that the employees find that their work in the field is so vital that they'll put up with this exploitation. I do realize that it's not just the helping profession employers that demand 12 hour days. Public school teachers are exploited terribly! I know -- I was one, till I could not stand it anymore. I have a friend who's a computer tech and works for one of the largest computer companies in the country. He is required to work 12 hour days, too. It's a very bad, mental and physical health compromising, thing to demand. Work didn't use to be like this....in the 1950s and 60s I worked, once for an oil company, and once for a bank. We had on the job training (we were paid the usual hourly or salary rate during that time). We didn't have have to go to community college to get the background. We learned what to do on the job. College often does not really give the people what they need to work in a field anyway. Graduates go to work and find they don't know what to do. This applies not only to teachers, but to attorneys, counselors, and probably others. I happen to be well acquainted with people in the fields I mention. Another case in point -- my brother was a technician for a branch of the Federal government. The graduate biologists there used to ask him how to do their jobs -- hey, those people had Master's Degrees! My brother was a good learner, and good at teaching himself. He only had had 2 years of college. He's very independent, creative, and hugely intelligent. He hated school. He resented it that these big shots with big salaries relied on him to do their own jobs. (He eventually quit his job there, and came back as a consultant for the same department with a much higher rate of pay.) In my case in offices at the oil company and the bank, we knew what the job duties were, and did them. Then we went home at the end of an 8 hour day. We were occasionally asked IF we wanted to work over time that day. When I was asked that question I always said No, and nothing bad ever happened to me. The boss never guilt tripped me, or pouted, etc. We had the proper amount of duties to fit into 8 hours did not have to work too fast to get the job done. Earlier in the 20th century, and in the industrial revolution in the 19th century, before unions won the 8 hour day, lunch hour, breaks, and allowed workers to go to the restroom when needed, the working conditions were brutal -- worse than today. But that does not make the retrograde requirements of nowadays right. I have worked 2-1/2 jobs for a company. I quit -- or, should I say, they ran me off when I refused to do a job that was absolutely impossible. That was to answer he phone, help customers at the counter, and do computer work, all at the same time. I was forbidden to tell phone callers that I was helping someone, and call them back! Maybe they ran me off because he customers always asked for me (even when I'd been on the job for only 2 weeks). I was kind and respectful to t hem. I knew how to handle irate very angry customers, and calm them down, and explain their options. The other workers, and the boss, were rude and hateful to the customers. The nature of that job was special circumstances, which is why the organization did not fail and close down.