3 Steps to Prevent Teacher Burnout.

The job of being a teacher is more than just a job that you do. Being a teacher is about enabling a young person to boldly walk into their future; to facilitate learning, to witness a student experience what they can do. It is about inspiring, creating, exploring, learning and discovering. It is a pretty cool job. One of the best sounds is the ‘ah-ha’ moment, when an excited student declares ‘I get it!’  It is as though in that moment, a door which had been locked to their understanding has suddenly flung open.

Some think that teachers only work when the students are present.  It was not uncommon for my work day to be 10 hours long, to then come home, care for my family and do more work after dinner. Much of my weekend was devoted to marking and lesson preparation. Yet, I will state that being a teacher is one of the best jobs in the world.

KNOW WHAT CAUSES THE STRESS

There are many variables that can contribute to the stress of teaching.  What follows is a list of some of these and are presented in no particular order, and are also listed on the Teacher Burnout Stress Inventory

• The job that is never done – If achievement/accomplishment are valued by you, then stress can result from being in a job that is never completed.
• Fear of Criticism – The teacher is answerable to many, including students, other teachers, leadership and parents. That’s a lot of people with different agendas watching what you are doing.
• Contract positions – Many teachers are employed on contracts and are required to re-apply and prove themselves for their position every year.
• Perfectionism – It is a job that can never be done perfectly, with errors often being public. Perfectionism is a hard task master and cares little for your emotional well-being (Brown, 2008).
• Divided attention – It is quite common for several things to be going on at once, with many students wanting your attention at the same time, and several tasks requiring your attention.
• Being a Highly Sensitive Person – This person is particularly sensitive to their emotions and the emotions of others. They may be regarded as overly emotional, or even neurotic, and can be subject to vicarious trauma as they take on the concerns and worries of others’. See the work of Elain Aron (1996, 2010).
• Being an Introvert – Time spent in the constant company of students and colleagues is draining. The introverted teacher may find it a challenge to then come home and launch into home activities without first taking a bit of time for themselves. There is much more on this topic in the book ‘Quiet’, by Susan Cain (2013).
• Lacking Boundaries – Staying too late in the day and not guarding your time off work can enslave you to a job that will always demand more.
• The Students – The tension between the rewarding job and the demanding job may be dependent on the collection of students. It can be difficult to help students to develop in their learning, if the bulk of your attention is on classroom management. Unfortunately, some student’s prime objective is to get away with as much as they possibly can.
• Parents – Some parents are particularly protective or concerned about school events and incidents and do not demonstrate trust. Some will make accusations and some will want that quick unexpected meeting as the children are lining up in the morning.
• Administration – There is so much paper work.
• Physically demanding – It is a job that requires constant presence and endless energy supplies.
• The Need to Maintain Professionalism and Composure – There can be constant pressure and expectation, to maintain professionalism and personal/emotional composure, despite the highly inter-personal and emotional nature of the job.

How many items on the list did you connect with?
Being able to identify and name what is causing the stress will help.
Feeling stress in teaching is not about a deficit on your behalf, but you may need some boundaries.

WHAT IS BURNOUT?

More than just a bad day:  Burnout is a descent into a distorted reality where each day holds little that is positive. There can be the awful absence of emotion (nothing), to feeling overwhelmed and anxious over the smallest of demands, with your ability to cope being profoundly reduced. One of the markers of Burnout is a feeling of being demanded upon; the smallest request is heard and felt as a demand, advertising is a demand, someone asking how you are may become a demand. Another trait of Burnout is the victim’s desires to cease to exist and they may wish that they were dead.

Burnout is not the result of you doing too much, but of too much happening to you, (though doing too much can leave you at risk). The one who suffers Burnout can be described as a ‘victim’.  The experience of being continuously knocked over in the surf is used to describe the encroaching state of Burnout; an event happens and you are not able to recover before another event happens, and then another. With each event your ability to cope is exponentially reduced with your sense of reality becoming more and more distorted (Sandford, 2010).  Others may see it in you, before you are aware of it yourself.

Can Burnout happen in a school?  Definitely.  The long and relentless demand of deep energies can burrow into reserves, and can place anybody at risk, with certain personality types being more so.

3 STEPS TO PREVENT BURNOUT

1. BOUNDARIES

Know what you can do. Know what you can’t. Know your personal limit. Don’t let others push you beyond yourself. Make decisions as to what is OK, and what is not OK (Brown 2015). ‘If you don’t know your own boundaries, you can’t expect other people to know them,’ (Joseph, 2016. pg 178)

• Set a home time.  Have a cut-off time at the end of the day and guard your weekends. Of course, there are times of the year (assessments/reporting) when boundaries become non-existent. However, for the most part, protect yourself and your relationships with your family and friends by having solid boundaries.
• Be present at home. Let your time at home, be YOUR time at home. Some may set themselves a certain night when they do school work, or set certain nights when they do not; whichever way works for you. Have boundaries. You are the only person who can put these into place, and it is up to you to keep them.
• Priorities.  With the suggestion of spending less time doing the job, some may wonder when will the job get done. This is when you have to work out what definitely has to get done now, and what can be done at a different time or in a less time-consuming manner. What tasks can be handed over to students?  What tasks can be done while the students are attended to a self-directed task? Are you making the most of your time releases? Can you utilise any volunteer helpers? Can you have a day or two of self-directed worksheets?

2. SELF-CARE.

If you find yourself in a constant state of tiredness, becoming easily emotional, exhibiting physiological signs of stress, then step back. If you are having an inkling that maybe you should take a couple of days off, then take them, before you ca no longer hold it together.

• Self-Care is not synonymous with selfish.  Given that teaching tends to attract people who desire to serve others, there may be some who find it difficult to do things for their own wellbeing.  You might need to learn how to do this and what it actually means.
• The Circle Activity.  A simple activity – draw a circle.  On the outside of the circle, list everything in your life that drains or taxes you.  On the inside, list what is in your life, or what you do that restores you. You may have the same things listed in both places. How many things are inside the circle compared to what is outside. Is there a balance? Does one area have more than the other? Is there enough going on inside of the circle that demonstrate your efforts to self-care?

3. COMMUNITY

The job of teaching can be profoundly isolating.  For most of your working hours, you are the only adult in the room and you have much responsibility.  I encourage you to be part of a community that is beyond your school.  For some, it may be a church community, for others it may be a socially based community, a sporting group, theatre, music – something outside of your school life.  However, if this community is a source of stress for you, then it is not the right community for the purpose of restoration.

 BURNOUT RECOVERY

When I experienced Burnout, I set out to educate myself on what it was that had robbed me of my sense of me, and had left me feeling broken and unable to function properly. I learnt that I had used up, a partially renewable resource from within myself. I read that the best way to recover from Burnout was to change your current situation.

It took time. Some days I lived moment by moment.  I found professional help. When asked to list my priorities, I was not on the list.  I did the circle activity, and the middle of the circle was outweighed by the outside; and I had thought I had been self-caring – I had to learn. Life endured on.

Since then, I have made time for myself to have solitude and restoration. I did eventually change my working situation and I could feel more of myself returning.  It took about 4 years. I feel forever changed. My priorities have changed. I have taken responsibility for my own wellbeing. I self-care. I eat well. I try to sleep well. I exercise. I create. I am connected to a network of friends. I have changed what is important to me. I have learnt to value myself more than the job that I do.

You can recover from Burnout and are the wiser for it. I agree that changing your current situation is highly beneficial, as it was the situation that enabled the Burnout to occur. When your wellbeing is coming at the cost of the situation, then you must change the situation.

Teaching is a rewarding profession and can be done with balance and enjoyment, though please value yourself more than the job that you do.

Explore what is causing you stress with this downloadable Teacher Burnout Stress Inventory

See also:  http://www.equipcc.com.au/workshops/

References.

Arron, E. N., (1996), The highly sensitive person, Harmony Books, New York.

Aron, E. N., (2010), Psychotherapy and the highly sensitive person, Routledge, New York.

Brown, B., (2008), I thought it was just me (but it isn’t), Penguin Random House LLC, New York.

Brown, B., (2015), Rising Strong, Vermillion, London.

Cain, S., (2013), Quiet, Penguin Books, London.

Sandford, R.L., (2010), Renewal for the wounded warrior, Chosen Books, Grand Rapids.

About Gwen

Gwen is a school teacher, counsellor, author and presenter.  Gwen’s counselling practice caters particularly for children, adolescents, teachers and parents, as well as generalised counselling. She works with individuals in relation to mental health and wellbeing. Gwen is the author of Bully Resilience: Changing the Game. See www.equipcc.com.au for more information.