Teacher Stress - how bad is it?

A recent post about stress and the teaching profession in the Linked-In Group Teacher's Lounge has, to date, had over 60 responses. All responses have commented that the job is so stressful that it is making people ill and causing teachers to leave in droves. Teachers feel they are undervalued by pupils, parents, their managers and the state; they feel they are overworked and under-paid; they feel they spend too many hours working; they feel demotivated; they feel they don't get enough down-time during the day; they feel they have too much paperwork; they feel they are governed too tightly and inspected too frequently; they feel that only they can understand what they are going through; they feel unique.

There is one word which links all these complaints - the word 'feel'. Their emotional response is one of negativity and negative thinking leads to stress hormone release. Stress hormones are protective hormones which make us want to run away, stand and fight or freeze like a rabbit in a car's headlights - in teacher's case it is making them want to resign, crawl away and hide. The very word 'teacher' is creating negative associations in the brain which instantly releases stress hormones, making them feel anxious. Stress is something which can be controlled because it is down to the way we think.

Teachers are not unique in the world of stressful jobs! It's not true that every pupil, parent, manager and member of the Government disrespects teachers; other professions work just as hard as teachers - and don't get the holidays, pay and other perks which teachers get (carers, the self-employed trying to get a new business off the ground and sales people with challenging targets and salaries paid as a percentage of sales spring to mind); other jobs have lots of paperwork (the police, for example); other professions are governed and inspected frequently (the pharmaceutical industry). However, what is true in the world of teachers is that they are unique in two ways. The profession tends to attract individuals who have been in no other environment than schools or colleges - they have little experience of anything other than a learning environment, whether being taught as a pupil or student and then teaching others - and the way the profession is organised is that there is little team-work as teachers work as individuals in the classroom unlike, say, a football team or a factory-worker. On top of this, teachers tend not to be reflective; their insight is into their pupils, not themselves and can therefore find it difficult to internalise changes which will help them rather than their pupils.

But there is hope! I am currently working with teachers to help them understand stress and how subtle changes to thinking can help them control it. We are developing team-working through mutual understanding of self and others in a supportive environment. We are improving diets and motivation to exercise - finding ways of incorporating these into the school day. And we are learning ways to create new neural pathways in the brain so stressful situations can be handled appropriately such as mindfulness and NLP. Teachers and lecturers benefit through the calmer atmosphere created in their minds which has a knock-on effect with the children. Some teachers have taught the children some of these methods, which can help with unruliness and their own stress at, for example, exam time.

If you would like to know more, please do not hesitate to contact me. Enquiries@releaseyourbusiness.com    +44 7585 802035