Burnout in Education – The Cost of Competence
Have you ever been tasked with some extra responsibility or project at work, and had a sneaking suspicion that it’s been landed on you because of your competence? Not because it falls under your remit; not because you’ve been twiddling your thumbs with nothing else to do; it could even be way above your pay grade.
This is something that seems to happen a lot in education. The brilliant teacher ends up with the trickiest classes year after year. The standout year manager gets assigned the year group with the most safeguarding needs. The TA who puts in her all gets the biggest caseload.
At first, it might read as flattery. It might even be packaged like that: “Oh you were just so good last year with taking on 9B – they made incredible progress…so this year, we wanted to give you 7C!”
But once the thought creeps in – that this might be the cost of competence – you can’t unsee it. Add to this any people-pleasing tendencies you have, or leaky boundaries, and you’ve got yourself a pretty fast-track to burnout. Because often it’s not only the burden of the extra work or responsibility – but it’s the fact you’ve been singled out: those at ‘the top’ have recognised your work. They’ve put you on a pedestal and you don’t want to let them down. That pressure – to hold yourself to an identity that somebody else created for you – is exhausting.
So what can be done?
Getting to the root of your need to protect that image of yourself over protecting your own boundaries needs to go hand-in-hand with practical tools that can be put into place straight away. You see, capacity needs to be created in order for you to have the headspace and energy to do the deeper work that will make lasting changes in the long run. It might be creating a pause when someone asks you (*tells you) to do something. So the immediate, smiley ‘Yes, sure!’ becomes, ‘Let me just check my other commitments and I’ll get back to you.’ It could be literally rehearsing a response you’ve going to give.
Once some capacity is created, the deeper work can really gain momentum. What’s underlying your need to have everyone think good of you? When did your people-pleasing begin? And what are your leaky boundaries costing you?
It’s time we were allowed to show up as incredibly capable women – without being punished for it.