This paper explores the perceptions of three rural secondary school teachers in the Riverina area of New South Wales, Australia. In-depth interviews were conducted with three secondary teachers: three male teachers aged 25, 32, and 60. The original objective of the grounded theory study was to examine the teachers' perceptions about the state's 1999-2000 labor dispute with teachers and how the dispute impacted teachers' personal and professional lives, particularly professional satisfaction and teachers' perceived status within the community. However, the actual interviews revealed that the labor dispute served to highlight teachers' primary concerns with the intensification and complexity of their profession. Themes and concepts that emerged from the interviews included the influence of economic rationality on education policy, as highlighted during the labor dispute; the role and relevance of unionism in the profession; the importance of intrinsic rewards in teacher retention; the impact of extrinsic factors (such as negative community perceptions of the profession) on professional and personal satisfaction; the perceived status of the profession from inside and outside the profession; and the role of the media in promoting positive and negative portrayals of the profession. (Contains 46 references.) (Author/SV)