View Content #25119

By Linda Forrest, CASLS Research Director

As Christopher Daradics discussed in last week’s Topic of the Week article, our work as teachers “can be exhausting and leave us feeling spent and depleted.” Academic research has confirmed this impression through studies conducted worldwide (e.g., Borg & Riding, 1991; Loonstra, Brouwers, & Tomic, 2009; Rudow, 1999). These show that teaching is one of, if not the most stressful white-collar profession, impacted by high work demand and multiple negative stressors.

How does stress impact teachers? Studies focusing on labor and employment issues have demonstrated that as employees exert effort to meet the demands of their jobs, the work load has a negative effect on their physiological systems. These effects can be relieved by a work break, but if employees do not receive sufficient recovery time, the negative effects of the work load increase throughout the workday. If the day is especially intense without any chance of respite, employees may have trouble unwinding in the evening and so return to work in the morning without full recovery. If this situation continues over time, employees may reach a state of burnout, leading to various negative outcomes and perhaps leaving the profession entirely. Unsurprisingly, there is a high rate of turnover in the teaching profession.

What can be done to mitigate teacher stress? One proactive strategy is to use micro-breaks. Micro-breaks are short informal periods of non-work activities conducted during the work day. Such breaks help workers momentarily recover from work demands, particularly in the afternoon. These short respites will help them return to pre-stress functioning. Kim, Park, and Niu (2017) have shown that relaxation activities, such as a short nap, strolling around the work space, stretching, listening to music, and daydreaming, as well as social activities, such as short interactions with coworkers about non-work-related topics or phone or social network connections with friends and family are especially effective. On the other hand, break activities that involve fairly high levels of mental attention, such as reading, working crosswords, or surfing the Internet, actually lead to higher levels of stress. These kinds of activities seem to use the same personal resources that employees need to do their work and so to not allow for recovery.

How can a busy teacher possibly find five or ten minutes for themselves? Experienced teachers Lindsay Marean and Stephanie Knight offer these suggestions:

• Protect free time slots (lunch breaks, prep periods) from the temptation to turn them into more student time.
• Take breaks with students, e.g., start class with some deep breathing, yoga, listening to a favorite song, or listening to a 5-minute relaxation tape together. These activities should be something that students also welcome and that doesn't require a lot of teacher effort to implement.
• Take advantage of team teaching, interns, student teachers, and student leaders. Invest in helpers early on, so that later you can reap the benefits of being able to check out for a few minutes for a brisk walk down the hall and back, etc.  (We’ll have more on this topic later in the month.)
• Have a plan for your precious free time (e.g., to walk around the building, listen to a favorite song, eat lunch with a colleague), so that you truly relax during that period instead of getting caught up in the millions of tiny, distracting tasks that will always be there.
• Plan meetings with stakeholders at the end of your planning period instead of the beginning so that they don't run over.
• Plan a dance party, karaoke fest, or other celebratory time once a week right after school gets out.

Next week, Stephanie Knight will discuss how to set boundaries while being excellent.

References

Kim, S., Park, Y., & Niu, Q. (2017). Micro-break activities at work to recover from daily work demands. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38, 28–44.

Borg, M. G. and Riding, R. J. (1991). Occupational stress and satisfaction in teaching. British Educational Research Journal, 17, 263-281. http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/0141192910170306

Loonstra, B., Brouwers, A., & Tomic, W. (2009). Feelings of existential fulfillment and burnout among secondary school teachers. Teaching and Teacher Education, 25(5), 752-757. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2009.01.002

Rudow, B. (1999). Stress and burnout in the teaching profession: European studies, issues, and research perspectives. In R. Vandenberghe & A. M. Huberman (Eds.), Understanding and Preventing Teacher Burnout: A Sourcebook of International Research and Practice (pp. 38-58). New York, NY, US: Cambridge University Press. http://dx.doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511527784.004