Teacher Burnout – What are the signs and how to prevent it?

Teaching can be stressful even when teachers are highly motivated by their passion for education, teaching, student development, personal development and other personal reasons. Burnout can occur when teachers are overworked and are under physical, emotional or mental stress and fatigue for prolonged periods of time. All of us feel tired or even exhausted sometimes, but burnout is more than that. It can affect your performance at work, in your personal life and your physical health.

So how do you know if you are burned out? Here are some potential signs to look out for!

You feel less energetic and willing to attend social gatherings and lunches as you feel tired or overwhelmed with work
You find it hard to plan ahead and think about or share ideas with colleagues. You will feel tired about even planning the next day’s events and lessons
You might start to lose your spark! Friends and colleagues might be noticing it in you as you begin experiencing burnout
You might be more prone to sickness as your body struggles with stress

This is the Maslach Burnout Inventory to determine where on the scale you are at:

http://www.mindgarden.com/117-maslach-burnout-inventory

These are some of the symptoms of teacher burnout. So how do you prevent burnout?

- Take some personal time to relax and recharge your batteries!

- Talk with your friends or ask for more help from others and don’t try to do everything on your own by taking on too much.

- Make sure you are sleeping enough or as much as you can squeeze in. Maybe take a nap once in a while.

- Be positive and try to remember all the reasons why you love teaching and chose the profession in the first place.

Hope you find this useful and informative. Take care!

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Permalink Reply by Leona Hinton on March 24, 2016 at 8:49am

Hi Ed, many thanks for writing such an informative post and giving advice. Investigation of common problem among teachers is a step to its sucessful solving. When I was stressed out I accidentally found the article How to Manage Work Pressure and those tips helped me to overcome permanent worry and stress. I hope I won't face this problem again but will bookmark your tips, just in case.

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Permalink Reply by Ed Vectus on March 24, 2016 at 3:50pm

Hi Leona, thank you for sharing your thoughts and resources with us! I am glad you found this useful.

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Permalink Reply by Sophia Sanchez on April 7, 2016 at 4:32am

Thank you for writing this post, Ed. Multitasking definitely burns us out. Apart from "me" time, it's also important to occasionally take "real" breaks from the virtual world. Disconnecting aids mental detox and can help in the longer run.

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Permalink Reply by Lynda Way on April 15, 2016 at 6:53am

Nice Tips Given . This will certainly helps teachers to overcome their burnout.

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Permalink Reply by Jayashree Iyer on July 27, 2016 at 3:21am

This post has really been informative. Thanks for sharing!!

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Permalink Reply by Leesa johnson on October 6, 2016 at 2:32am

Thank you for sharing this Ed Vectus - important to acknowledge. I honor you for your courage/ bravery, & for your determination to continue walking the path/way/ track & sharing your insights/lessons as you. As teachers, we need to be aware of the various factors that modify our presentations/act. If we are aware of this, we can urgently implement corrective/ penal measures/evaluates to tackle/stuff this problem. The mix updating student records, end-of-year assessments, inventory of classroom/grade level materials, awards ceremonies, & closing out after-school & extracurricular activities for the year.

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Permalink Reply by Sybil L Cartney on March 29, 2017 at 5:34am

You can't burn out if you don't set yourself on fire. I, based on the work I did on the same as a write my essay pro researcher, offer the following advice from a retired public school teacher.

1. The staff and faculty are not your "family," unless you are referring to the Mafia. If someone needs to bury you, they will. Do not take people you don't know intimately as your confidant. Info is valuable and yours will be shared faster than Google.

2. Don't think voicing vulnerability will make you look more caring. You may as well jump into a shark tank and cut yourself.

3. Never, ever, ever express frustration. See Rule #1.

4. Be happy but never too much so. Exuberance will be seen as a lack of stability.

5. Do you think your #1 job is to mold young minds and widen their intellectual scope and knowledge base? Pulleezzzz. Your #1 job is to make sure that your administrator never feels uncomfortable. You can strangle the Easter Bunny in the hallway, and if it doesn't irritate your boss, you are good. If you blink too often at a meeting while your boss is sharing the latest super initiative that will cure all that ills education, you may as well build your own cross and sharpen your own nails.

6. Your best chance of survival has nothing to do with your knowledge base, your hours of continuing education, or any other credentials. Your best tactic is to be compliant. Regardless how stupid the instructions may be, follow them.

7. Never let them see you sweat. If the school is going to hell in a handbasket, look chipper.....Like Little Red Riding Hood.

8. If something goes wrong and a parent complains, you will be at fault. In the death match arena of the malicious student, the bat-poo crazy mom, the assistant principal who had it land at his feet and you, prepare yourself for the yellow school bus because you will be thrown under it even if it is clear you were innocent. An unhappy parent won't leave administrators alone and they hate dealing with parents. The student is simply a victim of circumstance.