“I think that in the beginning of my career I was working a ton and working on planning on the weekends, and it felt like a ton. I didn't feel ever like I didn't have a life, but I did feel like I was working a ton. I was married when I started teaching, and my husband is a lawyer and he was working a ton. So I think that it was just sort of what we were doing at that time in our lives—we were just working and we would do other things when we had time. But it didn't feel out of the ordinary to be working a ton, I think. And then, after I had my daughter, I would just stop working. I would want to pick her up from daycare at a certain time, so I had to leave at a certain time, so I would do my work after school and then I would just leave, and whatever was done was done, and whatever was not done I would do the next time I could. I think that sometimes led to not quite as high-quality teaching and it was just a sacrifice I had to make. And I think going along with that was that this happened at a time when I had the skills to be able to wing it a little bit more and have that be successful.”
Managing Stressors to Avoid Burnout: Work-Life Balance & Health
STRESSOR: WORK-LIFE BALANCE
STRESSOR: BEING HEALTHY
“I certainly struggle to find time to fit everything in—exercising, sleeping enough. There's only so many hours in a day. I don't know. I'm not sure that it would be much better in another job, to be honest.”
“I think also just having done the job for a number of years, I don't really dwell as much on some of the things that will get in your head, like a lesson that didn't go well or a kid that's having a lot of trouble. I think the only thing that really gets me is if I get a parent email at, like, 9 PM—that I've accidentally read right before bed, then might be thinking about and regretting reading it. But I think that—yeah, I'm just not sure that the the grass is necessarily greener on the other side at a different place.”
“I think there's more of a personal aspect to teaching than than in some other jobs and more of a societal weight on the profession that can be stressful sometimes. I think I've had trouble with those, but it's not been enough trouble to leave.”