A spotlight on... Teacher burnout

Before discussing teacher burnout in detail, let’s first explore burnout itself. Burnout doesn’t just happen - there are five stages, each gradually worsening and building up to habitual burnout.

Stages one to three are where prevention measures can still make an impact, but what’s even more effective is to be in a position where teachers can proactively recognise and reduce stress levels. Better still, to take time to enhance their mental resilience, giving teachers the tools they need to manage stress better.

Teacher Burnout… A Growing Problem

Teacher wellbeing is at a five-year low. 78% of those working in the education sector report being stressed, and 39% experience mental health issues during the academic year (Schools Week).

What’s causing this increase in stress and teacher burnout?

Talkspace provides a list of reasons teacher burnout is on the rise, including:

• Poor funding
• Lack of autonomy
• Difficult parents
• Behaviour in the classroom
• Feeling underappreciated 
• The standardisation of processes and examinations.

This list isn’t exhaustive, and each situation is different. Some teachers are employed by their local authority, others by trusts, and then there are private institutions. The funding situation will be different for all. With State schools, the funds available and the environment or culture within the school will differ vastly depending on location.

The Role of the Employer

Regardless of who the employer is, steps can be taken, either at the decision-making and funding level or, more locally, by the head teacher.

The first step is education, ensuring that teachers and other school employees know the signs of burnout. Our ‘Employers Guide to Recognising and Resolving Employee Burnout’ comes with a self-assessment checklist and another to use during one-to-one meetings.

Recognising the signs of teacher burnout is essential, enabling those impacted and those around them to raise the alarm.

Next, educate teachers on how to handle stress in the workplace.

Before exploring how to handle stress in the workplace, it’s important to highlight that employers have a legal responsibility to reduce excess stress as much as possible. For more information on employer responsibilities, read our blog, An Employer's Guide to Mental Health at Work.

Some industries are more stressful than others, but accepting excess stress as the norm has dangerous consequences, as Dr Keith Grimes explains in his guest blog, Reaching and Recovering from Burnout: Breaking the Stigma.

I often say to my patients that recovering from stress and burnout takes almost as long as it took to get there.

Taking personable responsibility…

Employers and leaders are required to minimise excess stress and alleviate teacher burnout, but personal responsibility is vital in reducing the risk.

Two of our Mental Health First Aiders (MHFAs), Debbie Evans and Bhupinder Dhillon, created a Mental Health Toolkit in a podcast designed to help people understand and prioritise their wellbeing and mental health.

Listen to the podcast here.

Bhupinder and Debbie emphasise the importance of understanding our own capacity for handling stress because it’s different for everyone. They explain that we need to learn to recognise what triggers stress and equally make time to take steps to reduce it through exercise, meditation, and sleep - whatever fills our cups and helps us build resilience to stress!.

Discover more in our blog, Employee Mental Health... Tips for finding #MomentsForMovement.

The Importance of Effective EAP

Put the proper measures in place.

During our podcast, Breaking Down the Barriers to Affordable Mental Health Support, our industry experts discuss an example of working with an Academy Trust. They found that multiple teachers reported being burnt out approximately nine weeks after returning from the summer holidays.

Burnout has physical, mental, and emotional symptoms, and the recovery time can be lengthy, financially impacting the academy due to high absenteeism rates and replacement teachers. 

The timing was consistent year after year and linked to returning to school, working at full speed, and experiencing high stress after such a long period off work over the summer holidays. Working with their Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) provider, they took a proactive approach, running workshops throughout the summer holidays to reduce teacher burnout by equipping them with the tools they needed to enhance their mental wellbeing.

Proactively reducing teacher burnout = better mental wellbeing + fewer absences for the academy. 

When employers and care providers work together, they stand a real chance of combatting teacher burnout.

The example shared during the podcast is a reminder that an Employee Assistance Programme (EAP) is more than a counselling service when teacher burnout peaks or mental wellbeing declines. It’s a mental wellbeing-boosting tool that teachers, employees, managers and leaders can call upon to prevent issues from arising.

What else can you expect from EAP with Pluxee UK?

• Face-to-face, phone, or email-based counselling with BACP-accredited counsellors, 24/7, 365 days a year.
• A mental wellbeing App.
• Crisis support.
• Dedicated menopause support service.
• Manager portal with additional resources.

We recognise that funding is an issue, but for every £1 spent on supporting mental wellbeing and reducing teacher burnout, you can expect a £5 return. 

Boosting Appreciation

Feeling underappreciated is also listed as a cause of teacher burnout. It’s not a surprise since it’s a topic we’ve covered in our blog, Reducing Stress by Increasing Recognition.

During the blog, we explore the role of recognition in boosting engagement and reducing stress. Never underestimate the power of a thank you or how cost-effective rewards can lighten the mental load and even stretch salaries.

When funds are tight and every penny counts, streamline benefits and rewards strategies to reduce admin and enhance efficiencies. 

Embed our Virtual Pluxee Card into your school or academy as an employee benefit and a reward. We partner with over 80 retailers, offering up to 15% cashback, so when you upload a cash reward, and your teachers or employees add their own funds, the money stretches even further.

Supporting the mental and financial wellbeing of your people… it’s the Pluxee Effect.  

Arrange a call today, and together, we can reduce the risk of teacher burnout.