Re-Prioritize a Healthy Work-Life Balance

By the end of the last school year, I was totally burned out. My burnout emerged from failing to strike a work-life balance. Like many dedicated teachers, during the school year I often allow work to consume a significant amount of my private time. Meaning that even if I’m not working on something related to my teaching assignment, I’m thinking about work related to it. Last year was no different. What made the year particularly busy was the release of the revised Grades 1 – 8 Language curriculum. This curriculum re-defined the foundational literacy skills Ontario students need to read and write, and by direct extension mandated teachers shift the pedagogical and instructional approaches they use to teach.

I saw the release of the revised curriculum as an exciting opportunity to potentially better ensure students develop the language and literacy skills they need to be proficient readers, writers, and critical thinkers. Yet, I also heard many teachers share their apprehension related to teaching concepts, skills, and strategies using instructional approaches excluded from their pre-service and in-service teacher training courses.

As one of three centrally assigned instructional resource teachers in the literacy department tasked to support the teachers in my school board with actioning the revised curriculum, I felt the high expectations and clear demands from colleagues. During the year, I worked with classroom teachers to re-think and re-design their language programs by sharing evidence-based practices and practical resources. I also read research on evidence-based practices and coupled them with culturally relevant pedagogy to support planning and facilitating large scale professional learning sessions for classroom teachers, support staff, and administrators. Additionally, I hosted monthly literacy networks for classroom teachers and attended as many school staff meetings as possible to support colleagues so they could better support students’ language and literacy learning.  By the end of the year, the expectations and demands, coupled with the tight timelines, rapid pace, and long hours had taken their toll. By June, my work-life balance was non-existent. As a result, I sensed a diminished capacity and joy for the work that I found professionally meaningful and personally rewarding.

As the school year ended, I began thinking about strategies and practices to help me experience better work-life balance to avoid ending another school year feeling burned out. What I like other teachers may not realize is that work-life imbalance affects our ability to teach in ways that positively impact student learning. In a 2014 survey of elementary and secondary teachers on issues related to work-life balance, the Canadian Teacher’s Federation (CTF) found that 85% of teachers surveyed reported that work-life imbalance affected their ability to teach in ways they want, i.e. support student learning. Of that 85%, 35% indicated that it had a significant impact on their ability to teach. While the CTF survey was conducted 10 years ago, I believe the findings remain relevant from personal experiences and conversations with colleagues.

Further, what we also may not realize is that burnout stemming from work-life imbalance is a real hazard of the teaching profession. In the CTF’s full report titled, Work-Life Balance and the Canadian Teaching Profession, they found that burnout is prevalent issue in the Canadian teaching profession due to the demands associated with working extensively with other human beings, particularly when they are in need. The CTF cite a study by the Alberta Teachers’ Association that shares reasons that teachers experience greater burnout compared to other professions. Some of those reasons include our work is highly performative, extremely structured, and intensely demanding of our human capacities for meeting the needs of others. As a result, teaching is consistently ranked as one of the most stressful occupations.

What the report excludes and cannot remain unsaid is that despite the stress and potential for burnout due to work-life imbalance, teaching is an incredibly rewarding profession. Teachers who know how to impact student learning through positive relationships, an informed knowledge of curriculum, assessment, and pedagogy, particularly when pedagogy is rooted in anti-racism and anti-oppression, can witness students go from not knowing to knowing and dependent learner to independent learner as a direct result of their work. Last year, and over the course of my teaching career, I have been fortunate to witness student growth and development from great teachers countless times. To ensure that we as teachers can continue doing our incredible and important work, re-prioritizing a healthy work-life balance is something all educators may want to explore.

This year, I’m committing to re-prioritizing a healthy work-life balance to ensure I can continue supporting my colleagues who directly work with students. For me this means organizing my time and weekly schedule in ways that ensures I can disconnect from work. In response to concerns around burnout, particularly during the pandemic when working from home meant lines between work and home blurred, on December 2, 2021, the Ontario government added a disconnecting from work requirement to the Employment Standard Act, 2000. This requirement outlined that beginning in 2023, all employers with 25 or more employees must have written policy in place on disconnecting from work. The term disconnecting from work as defined in the Employment Standard Act means not engaging in work related communication including emails, telephone calls, video calls, sending or reviewing other messages, and to be free from work performance. These are some of the things I intend to do when I disconnect from work in addition to focusing my attention on loved ones, personal interests, and rest.