Teacher burnout isn’t just about the workload
It’s taken me a while to realise it, but the main causes of burnout in teaching go far deeper than the workload
I left teaching 6 years ago, and even now when someone asks me about it, I automatically spit out something about the workload. “I couldn’t hack it,” I’ll say.
But it’s taken me all this time, and working with women who are sitting where I was when I decided to give it up, to realise that the reasons I was running on empty were so much more complex than the hours I was working.
Don’t get me wrong. Working 70-hour weeks was no fun. It took over my evenings and weekends, and every waking moment I felt this huge pull that I ‘should’ or ‘could’ be doing something to make the next day, the next week, the next term easier.
But what I know now is that there was so much more to address. If I’d gone into a 9-5 office job, I’d still be hitting the same wall of exhaustion at 7pm every night. It’s the reason why moving into pastoral didn’t really solve anything for me.
And it’s the reason I don’t just talk about coping with workload with the women I support in my coaching room. Here’s what I should have been addressing 6 years ago:
The identity loss
I became the job. I martyred myself to it and was proud of that fact. It was what I talked about. What energised me when I saw friends. But there’s only so far that will carry you before you start to grieve the person you were…or, even worse, you grieve for the fact you don’t even know who you are anymore. Strip the job away, and you have nothing to offer.
The constant stimulation
Your nervous system stays wired. You respond to a thousand questions, subtle (and not so subtle) changes in behaviour, everyone else’s needs. All the while supressing your own needs – even the most basic. It’s why you cry when you realise you’ve no bread left at home; or fly into a rage when the dishwasher just won’t stack properly.
The changing goalposts
Even with the hours, the workload, you can kind of cope when you know what you’re doing. You know the behaviour policy well and you apply it. The exact requirements of the exam board. The best way to make this particular text accessible. Then you go back in September and – SURPRISE! – it’s all changed. Cue massive knock in confidence and the mental gymnastics to work out when you’re going to relearn all of this. Maybe I’m not such a great teacher after all, you wonder.
You see, all of this is about YOU – not the job. We can talk about boundaries, time-management and self-care (which of course, we do!) BUT we have to get to the stuff that’s going to give you deep and lasting change – whether you stay or not. That is: who are you, without the job? How do you get your nervous system out of years in fight or flight? And how do we rebuild the confidence and self-trust you need to be resilient towards the inevitable changes that you’re faced with?
THIS is where we start. So if you’re a teacher who finds herself skating on the edge of burnout, book a virtual coffee with me to find out how I can support you.