Teacher burnout escalates to nationwide problem
Posted Feb. 17, 2022
By Ethan Donhue
Staff Editor
After multiple difficult years within the school system, teachers are slowly beginning to experience burnout and more teachers than ever are considering leaving the profession.
Teachers, on top of working an average of eight-hour workdays, then go home and continue grading, editing, lesson planning, and prepping, and in some cases stay late for a sport or club. It’s rare for a teacher to be able to complete their work within the contractual work hours.
Psychology Today describes burnout as "a state of chronic stress that leads to physical and emotional exhaustion, cynicism, detachment, and feelings of ineffectiveness and lack of accomplishment." Behavioral researchers Christina Maslach and Michael P Leiter further explain that there are three main components that contribute to burnout: overwhelming (often emotional) exhaustion, feeling ineffective and lacking accomplishment, and feeling detached and cynical toward the job. Another study by the Journal for Social and Behavioral Sciences found that the causes for teacher burnout can be sorted into two groups: societal and environmental factors.
Societal factors include, but are not limited to, an increase in demand paired with a substantial decrease in funding and the waning public support and respect for teachers. Schools have been facing steadily increasing budget cuts so teachers are being asked to do more with less. Teachers don’t receive significant support from the student body nor their students' parents, and the lack of respect held for those within the teaching field can be demoralizing. Environmental factors include work overload, low salary, role conflict or ambiguity, and a lack of co-worker support.
Teachers have a large amount of work that’s continually increasing due to the budget cuts schools are facing. Teachers’ pay is disproportionate to these hours, and teacher salaries contentiously make the list of the lowest paying jobs that require a college degree. It’s not uncommon, especially in larger schools, for teachers to receive differing directions or a lack of direction from administrators. This can lead to teachers feeling unsure of their roles or that they should be doing something more or something different. Now, among the teacher body, there can be a lack of support. This isn’t always the case, but when it is, it can cause teachers to feel a lack of support and to be overwhelmed. This is most common in newer teachers beginning at a school where most teachers already know each other.
According to the National Education Association (NEA), some of the most obvious signs of teacher burnout are a lack of caring about student or classroom discipline, a lowering or disappearance of standards, a lack of or poorly organized lesson plans, an increasingly negative outlook on students or school, becoming bored with the job, and consistently seeming overwhelmed while at work. Burnout impacts newer teachers at a higher rate. With more experienced teachers, burnout most commonly is due to becoming bored with the profession or feeling as though there isn’t anything more they can do. After teaching the same or very similar lessons year after year it’s easy for a teacher’s passion to diminish.
There are many steps that can be taken to help reduce teacher burnout, both for the school system and teachers themselves to implement. Administrators and other teachers can ensure a celebration of teacher accomplishments, help lighten the workload for those overwhelmed, plan community activities that aren’t meetings, and work together to further the development of programs and guidelines. These actions can help teachers feel seen and less worried about reaching out for help. Teachers, for themselves, can take mental health days, leave school at school, take time for themselves, and figure out when to say no. It’s very common for teachers to agree to projects or lessons that cause them to spread themselves too thin, for teachers to say no to administration ideas would benefit them in the long run as many administrations haven’t taught students for a long period of time—if ever. Teachers commonly feel attached to their students, and the thought of just taking a day off can seem selfish: 89% of teachers who said they recommend students taking mental health days wouldn’t take one for themselves. The need to detach completely for a day is understandable, especially when teachers take their workload home with them very often. Figuring out when to leave work at work is hard in almost any field, but can be extremely helpful with emotional exhaustion.
A National Education Association poll, conducted in January 2022, showed that 90% of its members say that burnout is a serious problem; 86% have been an increase in educators leaving the profession or retiring prematurely since the start of the pandemic; and 80% have reported having to take on more work obligations due to unfilled positions. Districts are also reporting shortages of classroom teachers, cafeteria workers, bus drivers, and substitute teachers, meaning that when employed teachers are absent others have to scramble to fill those classrooms and duties.
Educators like Charity Turpeau, the 2021-22 Louisiana School District Middle School Teacher of the Year, love being in the classroom but are worried about the mounting pressures of the job and the lower pay.
"With the workload, demands from the state, pandemic restrictions, and lack of pay, I feel as if I am doing less of what I love, which is teaching," they told Good Morning America on Nov. 8, 2021. "The paycheck does not match the amount of workload we are given and the overtime we work to try and complete it all."