Teacher burnout demands systemic solutions, not "self-care." Learn what leaders can do to actively reduce frustration and provide real, sustaining support for all staff.
Part I. Systems and Structures That Combat Low Teacher Motivation and Satisfaction
Chapter 2. The Gift of Time
IntroductionTeacher burnout … have you heard about it? Who are we kidding? If you're breathing and an educator, you've no doubt heard the term countless times. Nevertheless, even though you know the term, do you know what it really means and its true impact? According to Maslach and Leiter (2016), burnout is the emotional response to workplace stress over time. Its impact before the COVID-19 pandemic was startling:
Teacher burnout is not a new phenomenon by any stretch of the imagination. It is an idea that has been researched since the 1960s and continues to plague the educational profession. What is it about teacher burnout that continues to dominate the narrative in education? Research shows that emotional labor and emotional exhaustion have a significant impact on teacher burnout. In addition, Yao and colleagues (2015) examined the antecedent that most influences emotional labor and determined it to be school climate. The authors broke school climate into collaboration, student relations, decision making, school resources, and instructional innovation. Understanding that school climate plays such an important role in the burnout of teachers, this book focuses heavily on ways you can support your staff to reduce the impact of burnout. An abundance of research conducted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic focused on emotional labor and exhaustion (e.g., Bodenheimer, 2018; Keller et al., 2014; Richardson et al., 2008; Yao et al., 2015; Yin, 2011). Most of these researchers studied how surface acting and deep acting affect teachers' emotional labor. According to Yao and colleagues (2015), surface acting is when someone uses "fake emotions" in interactions to display the emotions that are expected in the situation. An example of this would be when a teacher meets with a disgruntled parent and the teacher pretends to be happy to meet with the parent or happy to work with their child. Deep acting, by contrast, is when someone genuinely tries to feel the emotions appropriate for a situation—such as empathy for a struggling student—that they might actually feel triggered by. In addition to emotional labor and exhaustion, Garcia and Weiss (2019) report stark differences in staff beliefs between high- and low-poverty schools. The most significant differences were found in the level of safety, parental support, and administrator support and encouragement. Teachers who work in high-poverty schools report more student misbehavior, verbal threats, and physical attacks by students. Compare this with educators in low-poverty schools who report much higher support from parents. Garcia and Weiss broke down the data to describe why teachers were feeling the effects of burnout and considering leaving the profession into four main categories:
Since the pandemic began, the effects of burnout have been even more significant. The additional responsibilities teachers assume have intensified, creating increased stress and job dissatisfaction. In addition, staff shortages increase teachers' workloads and require them to do more with less, leaving them to feel overworked, under-resourced, and unappreciated. Although many schools and districts have made an effort to encourage self-care in the workplace, teachers are tired of hearing how changing their mindset will mitigate their compassion fatigue. If schools are going to combat high rates of teacher attrition in these challenging times, leaders must take a systemic approach and focus their time, efforts, and resources on the things they can control. To make meaningful and sustainable change that will retain teachers and alleviate the compounded effects of teacher burnout, leaders must reduce the challenges teachers face by actively taking things off their collective plate. Even though a heartbreaking 15 percent of teachers were leaving the profession every year prior to the pandemic, that statistic more than doubled by 2022 when one in three teachers reported that they were considering leaving the profession (Rankin, 2022), and that was a conservative finding! The National Education Association reported that more than half of their teachers planned to quit or retire early because of burnout (Sparks, 2022). To say that the impact of burnout is a critical issue is an understatement; it's a crisis. With this in mind, there is one essential question administrators should be asking every teacher: What can we take off your plate?
Until now, most books on this topic have provided strategies for ways teachers can combat the burnout themselves. Although providing self-care strategies will provide teachers with resources to better balance their emotional well-being, if we truly want to combat teacher burnout, then we must evaluate the current systems and structures in our schools and take steps to reduce teachers' frustration and sense of feeling overwhelmed. Instead of asking teachers to fix their own burnout, leaders must create and cultivate an environment that attracts and retains teachers for the long haul. Integral to that is a focus on what we can control. "When people come to work with a higher sense of purpose, they find it easier to weather hard times or even find opportunity in those hard times" (Sinek, 2009, p. 101). It is necessary to triage the most pressing factors, but to truly combat teacher burnout, school leaders must develop systems and structures that not only provide short-term relief but also develop a culture of long-term sustainability. When everything seems to be burning down around us, we know it's hard to think about doing anything except extinguishing the emergency fires. However, we can't wait for things to "get better" before starting work on long-term sustainability. If we want teachers to take better care of their students, then we must take better care of our teachers. In this book, you will find strategies and resources for both short-term triage and long-term sustainability. If we are going to win the war against teacher burnout, then we need a combination of both. This book is therefore divided into three sections that are intentionally designed to reduce burnout and tackle the reasons teachers are leaving the profession in record numbers. Part I includes three major components that affect teacher motivation and satisfaction: alignment of purpose woven throughout meaningful systems, the gift of time by intentional collaboration, and effective communication. Part II focuses on supporting the whole teacher by removing barriers to teaching, increasing physical safety, decreasing stress, and increasing overall support. The chapters in this section include behavior support inside the classroom, coaching and feedback, and promoting a work-life balance. Part III addresses ways to triage burnout and stop the bleeding now, so feel free to skip to this section for more immediate action solutions. We acknowledge that these chapters do not provide a long-term fix, but they can help provide some immediate relief by tapping into appreciation, fun, and sustainability—and by combating teacher shortages. Most teachers entered the profession to make a difference and have a positive impact on the future of the students they serve each day. Therefore, they deserve to wake up, go to work, and not have their passion slowly (or quickly) extinguished by the factors that lead to burnout. As leaders, we are in a unique position to create environments that inspire others to take part in—and remain in—a system that changes lives every single day. Jill Handley, EdD, is the assistant superintendent of multilingual learners for one of the largest urban districts in the United States. Previously, Jill was the proud principal of an elementary school for 16 years. Lara Donnelly, EdD, had the opportunity to work and collaborate with Jill for 13 of those years as the professional school counselor. Together, we achieved numerous recognitions for our school, including National School of Character, National Distinguished ESEA school, and the first Family Friendly school in the state of Kentucky. Despite all the recognition, we are most proud of the culture and climate we built to ensure the success of both students and staff. That culture and climate led to a very high teacher satisfaction and retention rate, and there were several years where we maintained 100 percent teacher retention. Most of the teachers who did choose to leave either retired or moved schools within the district (often to be closer to their home and family). Due to the success of the overall culture and climate, we have presented and shared this work at multiple national conferences. We know that some of you are likely thinking, "That all sounds great, but what are the demographics of your school?" This is a valid question. Our school has just shy of 600 students, of which about 85 percent qualify for free or reduced-price lunch and 44 percent are multilingual learners receiving English language development (ELD) services, and there are more than 30 languages represented. After years of watching educators walk through our building and hearing them comment on our culture and how good our building "feels"—and asking us both how we created that feeling and how we retain the teachers we have—we finally decided it was time to share the research-based, tried-and-true strategies that work if you are consistent in your implementation. Our goal is not simply to share theory with you; we also want to share a systems and structures approach that helps streamline everything you do as an administrator and leader. This book is for every school leader who has felt exhausted from spinning their wheels and constantly putting out fires. It is for school leaders who regularly feel like they are taking five steps backward for every two steps forward. It is for leaders who, regardless of their experience, struggle to find a work-life balance and often feel like they give more to their school family than they do to the one at home. This book is also for the leaders who have lost the passion for what they do—and are experiencing their own burnout. Finally, in this post-pandemic world, this book is for all of us: the school leaders who are barely keeping their heads above water and looking for a life vest to save their teachers, their school, and themselves. Printed by for personal use only |
Teacher burnout … have you heard about it? Who are we kidding? If you're breathing and an educator, you've no doubt heard the term countless times. Nevertheless, even though you know the term, do you know what it really means and its true impact? According to Maslach and Leiter (2016), burnout is the emotional response to workplace stress over time. Its impact before the COVID-19 pandemic was startling:
Approximately 15 percent of teachers in the United States resign every year (Rankin, 2016).
The number of teachers who resign in the first five years is about 41 percent (Rankin, 2016).
About 66 percent of highly ranked teachers in the United States leave for another profession (Rankin, 2016).
Approximately $7 billion is spent in the United States every year due to the impact of teacher turnover (Luhombo et al., 2023).
Teacher burnout is not a new phenomenon by any stretch of the imagination. It is an idea that has been researched since the 1960s and continues to plague the educational profession. What is it about teacher burnout that continues to dominate the narrative in education?
Research shows that emotional labor and emotional exhaustion have a significant impact on teacher burnout. In addition, Yao and colleagues (2015) examined the antecedent that most influences emotional labor and determined it to be school climate. The authors broke school climate into collaboration, student relations, decision making, school resources, and instructional innovation. Understanding that school climate plays such an important role in the burnout of teachers, this book focuses heavily on ways you can support your staff to reduce the impact of burnout.
An abundance of research conducted prior to the COVID-19 pandemic focused on emotional labor and exhaustion (e.g., Bodenheimer, 2018; Keller et al., 2014; Richardson et al., 2008; Yao et al., 2015; Yin, 2011). Most of these researchers studied how surface acting and deep acting affect teachers' emotional labor. According to Yao and colleagues (2015), surface acting is when someone uses "fake emotions" in interactions to display the emotions that are expected in the situation. An example of this would be when a teacher meets with a disgruntled parent and the teacher pretends to be happy to meet with the parent or happy to work with their child. Deep acting, by contrast, is when someone genuinely tries to feel the emotions appropriate for a situation—such as empathy for a struggling student—that they might actually feel triggered by.
In addition to emotional labor and exhaustion, Garcia and Weiss (2019) report stark differences in staff beliefs between high- and low-poverty schools. The most significant differences were found in the level of safety, parental support, and administrator support and encouragement. Teachers who work in high-poverty schools report more student misbehavior, verbal threats, and physical attacks by students. Compare this with educators in low-poverty schools who report much higher support from parents. Garcia and Weiss broke down the data to describe why teachers were feeling the effects of burnout and considering leaving the profession into four main categories:
Barriers to teaching
Stress and physical safety
Lack of administrative support
Low satisfaction, motivation, and expectations
Since the pandemic began, the effects of burnout have been even more significant. The additional responsibilities teachers assume have intensified, creating increased stress and job dissatisfaction. In addition, staff shortages increase teachers' workloads and require them to do more with less, leaving them to feel overworked, under-resourced, and unappreciated. Although many schools and districts have made an effort to encourage self-care in the workplace, teachers are tired of hearing how changing their mindset will mitigate their compassion fatigue. If schools are going to combat high rates of teacher attrition in these challenging times, leaders must take a systemic approach and focus their time, efforts, and resources on the things they can control. To make meaningful and sustainable change that will retain teachers and alleviate the compounded effects of teacher burnout, leaders must reduce the challenges teachers face by actively taking things off their collective plate.
Even though a heartbreaking 15 percent of teachers were leaving the profession every year prior to the pandemic, that statistic more than doubled by 2022 when one in three teachers reported that they were considering leaving the profession (Rankin, 2022), and that was a conservative finding! The National Education Association reported that more than half of their teachers planned to quit or retire early because of burnout (Sparks, 2022). To say that the impact of burnout is a critical issue is an understatement; it's a crisis.
With this in mind, there is one essential question administrators should be asking every teacher: What can we take off your plate?
They should be asking educators, "What is the most time-consuming part of your job? What tasks aren't as important? What are the systems we can put in place so you can do the work that you think matters most?"
—Tim Walker
Until now, most books on this topic have provided strategies for ways teachers can combat the burnout themselves. Although providing self-care strategies will provide teachers with resources to better balance their emotional well-being, if we truly want to combat teacher burnout, then we must evaluate the current systems and structures in our schools and take steps to reduce teachers' frustration and sense of feeling overwhelmed. Instead of asking teachers to fix their own burnout, leaders must create and cultivate an environment that attracts and retains teachers for the long haul. Integral to that is a focus on what we can control. "When people come to work with a higher sense of purpose, they find it easier to weather hard times or even find opportunity in those hard times" (Sinek, 2009, p. 101).
It is necessary to triage the most pressing factors, but to truly combat teacher burnout, school leaders must develop systems and structures that not only provide short-term relief but also develop a culture of long-term sustainability. When everything seems to be burning down around us, we know it's hard to think about doing anything except extinguishing the emergency fires. However, we can't wait for things to "get better" before starting work on long-term sustainability. If we want teachers to take better care of their students, then we must take better care of our teachers.
In this book, you will find strategies and resources for both short-term triage and long-term sustainability. If we are going to win the war against teacher burnout, then we need a combination of both. This book is therefore divided into three sections that are intentionally designed to reduce burnout and tackle the reasons teachers are leaving the profession in record numbers.
Part I includes three major components that affect teacher motivation and satisfaction: alignment of purpose woven throughout meaningful systems, the gift of time by intentional collaboration, and effective communication. Part II focuses on supporting the whole teacher by removing barriers to teaching, increasing physical safety, decreasing stress, and increasing overall support. The chapters in this section include behavior support inside the classroom, coaching and feedback, and promoting a work-life balance. Part III addresses ways to triage burnout and stop the bleeding now, so feel free to skip to this section for more immediate action solutions. We acknowledge that these chapters do not provide a long-term fix, but they can help provide some immediate relief by tapping into appreciation, fun, and sustainability—and by combating teacher shortages.
Most teachers entered the profession to make a difference and have a positive impact on the future of the students they serve each day. Therefore, they deserve to wake up, go to work, and not have their passion slowly (or quickly) extinguished by the factors that lead to burnout. As leaders, we are in a unique position to create environments that inspire others to take part in—and remain in—a system that changes lives every single day.
Jill Handley, EdD, is the assistant superintendent of multilingual learners for one of the largest urban districts in the United States. Previously, Jill was the proud principal of an elementary school for 16 years. Lara Donnelly, EdD, had the opportunity to work and collaborate with Jill for 13 of those years as the professional school counselor. Together, we achieved numerous recognitions for our school, including National School of Character, National Distinguished ESEA school, and the first Family Friendly school in the state of Kentucky.
Despite all the recognition, we are most proud of the culture and climate we built to ensure the success of both students and staff. That culture and climate led to a very high teacher satisfaction and retention rate, and there were several years where we maintained 100 percent teacher retention. Most of the teachers who did choose to leave either retired or moved schools within the district (often to be closer to their home and family). Due to the success of the overall culture and climate, we have presented and shared this work at multiple national conferences.
We know that some of you are likely thinking, "That all sounds great, but what are the demographics of your school?" This is a valid question. Our school has just shy of 600 students, of which about 85 percent qualify for free or reduced-price lunch and 44 percent are multilingual learners receiving English language development (ELD) services, and there are more than 30 languages represented.
After years of watching educators walk through our building and hearing them comment on our culture and how good our building "feels"—and asking us both how we created that feeling and how we retain the teachers we have—we finally decided it was time to share the research-based, tried-and-true strategies that work if you are consistent in your implementation. Our goal is not simply to share theory with you; we also want to share a systems and structures approach that helps streamline everything you do as an administrator and leader.
This book is for every school leader who has felt exhausted from spinning their wheels and constantly putting out fires. It is for school leaders who regularly feel like they are taking five steps backward for every two steps forward. It is for leaders who, regardless of their experience, struggle to find a work-life balance and often feel like they give more to their school family than they do to the one at home. This book is also for the leaders who have lost the passion for what they do—and are experiencing their own burnout. Finally, in this post-pandemic world, this book is for all of us: the school leaders who are barely keeping their heads above water and looking for a life vest to save their teachers, their school, and themselves.
