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A Teacher's Right To Disconnect: How Burned Out Are You?

17th April 2023

Research reveals that 65% of the teachers responded to identified signs of burning out in their jobs. The numbers are higher for female teachers when compared to males.

Hiring and retaining phenomenal teachers have always been a key to success in education. But what happens when we fail to protect them? Ever since the onset of the pandemic, technology has driven educators toward extinction. While technology is compromising the mental health and well-being of teachers, blurring out the indistinct boundaries between home and work leads them to an unsustainable mentality.

The Intervention Of Technology

Technology intervening in teachers' life is not entirely a new problem as educators have labored under the twin pressure of increasing work demands and expanding work responsibilities for decades. Larger class sizes and more paperwork have strained the capacity of educators and have encroached on instructors' personal time that was traditionally set aside for family and friends. Long before the pandemic, stress was the list topper when it came to the reasons why teachers quit their job.

To make things worse, technology is rapidly pushing them towards a breaking point as it is compelling teachers to spend more time out of the class spending hours planning tech-enriched lessons while being engrossed in responding to nighttime text messages or emails. Researchers call this pattern 'passive connectivity' or 'techno-invasion' where people can feel that they have stayed on call for hours even if it's just responding to a text.

As teachers have very few places to turn to for respite, without new policies defending the fundamental rights of the teachers to disconnect would be impossible. And without being able to reclaim time to spend with their families and friends or relax and restore themselves, the outcomes are quite predictable. With deteriorating mental health and rising job dissatisfaction, the issues with teachers are growing and it demands immediate attention.

What Can School Leaders Do?

Since technology creates enormous efficiencies, it is here to stay and hence it should be carefully managed. Here is a cumulative list of everything administrators can do to protect their teachers.
 

• Model Better Practices

School leaders should consider developing guidelines or policies to encourage other staff members to avoid sending emails after school hours except in emergency situations. This might seem like a simple request but it can have bigger implications for teachers as they will not feel intimidated to check their emails regularly to refrain from appearing unresponsive. 
 

• Permit To Disconnect

Managers and directors should allow teachers to disconnect from work-related communications after school hours. There should be explicit guidelines or policies if necessary to ensure that no teacher is active after their normal working hours. Additionally, it should be socialized among all stakeholders and should be honored by everyone without any questions asked.
 

• Conduct Staff Survey

If you are planning to promote work-life balance for your teachers then you must conduct surveys to gauge their well-being. Curate a good list of questions to know if the job is demanding too much of your teacher's free time and if it's interfering with their family life. Answers to these queries will enable you to form better policies and practice what you preach.
 

• Allow Holistic Cleaning

Give permission to your teachers so that they can remove access to their work emails from their smartphones or devices after logging out from work. School leaders should encourage that once the school day ends teachers can close their systems and walk away from the temptations of checking their inboxes or responding to pings regularly.
 

• Transparent Obligations

Allow teachers to block their visible school time on the calendar strictly for tasks like writing emails, lesson planning, and grading papers. They should be allowed to clearly demarcate their work hours and set up "out-of-office" messages or notifications that will indicate their work hours and respect their boundaries.

Reset Your Life As A Teacher

While there are no stipulated working hours for teachers, there should be policies within the institutions to maintain the mental health and well-being of the teachers. There is no point in fussing about the lack of boundaries rather you should consider pursuing Teacher Training Course in Malaysia to learn smart planning and good use of technology to ease your pain. Since remote learning and hybrid work culture are here to stay, teachers should be allowed to plan their work schedules smartly leaving ample amount of time for their personal goals and activities.