How to avoid burnout while running a busy tutoring company

Burnout is the physical, emotional, and mental fatigue caused by prolonged stress in the workplace. In simpler terms, burnout means that one feels exhausted, incapable, irritable, and even anxious about meeting up with their job demands. Because burnout is not medically diagnosable, it is often not easily detected and can go unchecked for long periods.

In 1974, psychologist Herbert Freudenberger discovered that work-related stress over the long haul could lead to a state of exhaustion, anxiety, and reduced productivity. It was this condition that he referred to as burnout. He also realized that certain occupations of altruistic nature which required significant moral and social commitment were at higher risk of experiencing burnout.

Burnout among teachers 

The teaching profession is especially challenging. Unique situations come up daily in classroom management. Teachers often have to meet with curricula, create and follow lesson plans, supervise tasks, projects, and assignments, address social misbehavior, adapt teaching plans to different learners, and so on. All of these are followed up by a moral responsibility to do beyond just their job but ensure that every learner is up to speed.

Over time, the weight of these demands, if poorly managed, can accumulate and result in severe stress and burnout in teachers.

Burnout rate for teachers 

A recent poll has shown that educators experience the highest burnout rate among other industries. A whopping 52% of teachers have reported burnout. These findings go to show the chronic stress teachers go through. About half a million teachers quit or switch their professions every year.

In a June 2022 Teacher Burnout Assessment Survey, about 65% of teachers showed signs of burnout, while 85% reported unsustainable working conditions such as insufficient sleep rate and improper work-life balance. Over 75% of participants were experiencing one or more health issues such as head and stomach aches, dizziness, heart palpitations, et,c all of which are symptoms of work-related stress.

Why do teachers burnout?

The physical, emotional, and moral requirements of education-related jobs coupled with systemic and administrative issues may increase the rate of teacher stress and burnout. Some causes of teacher burnout are examined below: 

1. Heavy Workload: The pressure to meet up with the given curricula may be overbearing, especially for a teacher handling slow-paced learners. Week after week, new topics and tasks leave little or no time for recreation. This increases burnout and work engagement among teachers.

2. High Expectation of Teacher Outcomes: Parents or school authorities often set unrealistic expectations of learning outcomes which the teachers might find difficult to actualize. Often, these outcomes are based on standardized testing, which is not always an accurate way to track learning progress.

3. Classroom Management Issues: The teacher has a moral and social responsibility to correct ills in the classroom, settle disputes and foster good behavior. Consistently handling conflict among difficult children and parents can accelerate the burnout rate for teachers.

4. Underpayment: Incentives drive motivation, and burnout for teachers is more likely to occur when they are consistently underpaid, undervalued, or underappreciated. Teaching has had minimal wage growth compared to other professions requiring similar qualifications.

5. Unfavorable Administrative Policies: The school management might increase job stress on teachers through shifting expectations, lack of teacher autonomy, close monitoring and criticism, inadequate funding, and so forth.

Signs of burnout in teachers

Stress affects people differently; hence burnout is incapable of precise psychological diagnosis. However, the presence of one or more of these symptoms could be an indicator of teacher stress and burnout:

1. Physical and mental exhaustion is characterized by tiredness to think, speak, write or do any work-related activity. Burnt-out teachers may experience forgetfulness and difficulty in concentration.

2. Weight issues and sleep problems such as insomnia, obesity, and anorexia.

3. Lack of motivation. Usually, this happens when underlying feelings of ineffectiveness or underappreciation cause burnout. Teachers begin to feel detached from the job. This usually has adverse effects on relationships with colleagues and students.

4. Overwhelming anxiety and dread for the job. Teachers become cynical and may express negative sentiments toward the job.

5. Emotional exhaustion is characterized by snaps, fits of temper, outbursts, and irritability.

How to avoid teacher burnout

The burnout rate for teachers is at an all-time high because the pressure to deliver on the job often drives them into the steeplechase of workaholism and perfectionism.

Below are some ways to avoid teachers burnout:

• Be in tune with yourself. It might be a good idea to take a scheduled break once in a while, make journal entries, and connect with your thoughts. Personal care helps you to better center your perspective.

• Recognize and focus on your strengths: Teaching is an active job, and there is never one way to do it. Feel free to explore new, exciting ways to impart knowledge.

• Do something daily for fun with the students. Impromptu quizzes, random experiments, jokes, and anything beyond the common help spice up the teaching experience.

• Sleep, eat, and exercise.

• Declutter your workspace. Studies have shown that a congested workspace can induce or increase stress levels. Reorganizing, decorating, and beautifying your space can help maintain your enthusiasm.

• Leave schoolwork at school. Make time for other activities that refresh your body and mind. Utilize every opportunity to connect with family, friends, and other interests. A proper work-life balance makes teacher burnout less likely.

• Delegate tasks and supervise them instead of trying to meet work demands independently.

• Renegotiate working conditions with the school administration. Discuss your stress points, such as long hours, heavy workload, meager pay, insufficient funding, etc.

• Random acts of kindness such as complimenting a child, helping another teacher, or checking up on a parent can foster warm feelings toward the job.

• Scheduling. Planning can help you reorganize your workspace and be better prepared to handle "emergencies."

The Workee software allows teachers to have a personal website to plan and schedule better. Scratch the rigors, time, and cost of building a website for the free, quick, and easy solution that Workee provides.

Workee is designed to reduce teacher stress and burnout. It contains a step-by-step guide to creating a functional website in 5 minutes. On this website, teachers can upload necessary work information, build a portfolio, keep an inventory of teaching resources and student data, and increase overall credibility.

Beyond website building, Workee contains other helpful tools to alleviate burnout from teachers. These include:

• Booking and Scheduling: Workee's calendar lets teachers schedule meetings directly with students. The scheduling tool comes with regular reminders that keep you aware of such appointments as they draw near.

• Video calls and messaging: Workee allows teachers to conduct online training through its video call and instant messaging features.

• Integrations: Workee collaborates with other software to keep all your work and conferencing tools in a single workspace. 

• Payments and invoicing: Workee's automated invoicing feature enables teachers to set up session price rates, send out invoices, and receive payments in one place without any market fees or commission rates.

What's more? Workee provides all of these benefits for free. Check out the Workee Starter plan.

Conclusion 

Teachers confront significant challenges regularly. Teacher burnout occurs more frequently than we realize. Workee's solutions are a huge step in redefining the teaching experience.