When your teaching role is causing you stress, working out whether it’s temporary or worse is key, says Tessa Dodson
It’s Sunday night, and you might find yourself staring at the ceiling while lying in bed. You feel it coming, but you try your best to shrug it off. However, the feeling is just too strong to ignore. It’s the pre-week dread again, and it’s come back to remind you that tomorrow is another day in the classroom.
The sensation may signal a rough patch or burnout. Knowing which one you’re experiencing can help you take steps toward recovery.
Every teacher hits a rough patch
Whether you’re a newly qualified teacher or a department head with years behind you, rough patches are part of the job. They’re often triggered during high-octane periods of the school year, such as:
- Mock exam marking when stacks of Year 11 papers eat into your evenings.
- Parents’ evenings and report writing right after a full day of teaching.
- Coursework deadlines that populate your calendar and may feel overwhelming.
Whatever time of year a rough patch arrives, the important thing to know is that it’s temporary. When you find yourself in one, remember that nothing is fundamentally broken.
What separates a rough patch from teacher burnout
While a rough patch usually eases after a pleasant weekend off, teacher burnout follows you back into the classroom on Monday morning. According to the World Health Organisation (WHO), burnout is an “occupational phenomenon” that develops when chronic workplace stress goes unmanaged. Its three defining features are energy depletion, mental distance from your job and a drop in professional efficacy.
Burnout signals a broader problem beyond stress. Mental Health UK differentiates the two by explaining that, during a stressful rough patch, you can still engage with the activity causing it, while burnout can leave you feeling disconnected and unable to function as usual.
Why teaching now asks more of educators than ever
Today’s teachers are not just teachers anymore. Beyond grading papers, teachers often also serve as mentors, counsellors and emotional first responders in the school environment.
About 20% of Gen Z have been to therapy, and about 60% take medication for their mental health. This picture isn’t just limited to older students. There are over 2.5 million Gen Alphas born every week and 16% of three- to five-year-olds are growing up with a mental, developmental or behavioural issue.
It isn’t only emotional support that has expanded. With the advent of generative artificial intelligence (AI), teachers now have to add a layer of vigilance and judgment calls that didn’t exist a few years ago. For instance, plagiarism used to be a teacher’s primary worry when checking a 500-word essay. Nowadays, a teacher must carefully assess their students’ papers to determine whether they are their own work, in addition to checking for plagiarism.
With 60% of teachers worried about their students’ use of AI, this extra layer of scrutiny is yet another item on a teacher’s growing list of duties. Each one is manageable alone, but together they create the kind of ongoing pressure that can lead to burnout.
When a rough patch signals something bigger
If you feel like you’re currently in a rough patch that’s bordering on burnout, then you’re not alone. In the UK, 76% of teaching staff say they are stressed and 77% say they experience symptoms of mental health issues due to work. A staggering 36% are at risk of being clinically depressed.
In another RAND Corporation survey, 22% of surveyed public K-12 teachers in the U.S. reported having difficulty coping with job-related stress. 60% are also burnt out, and 75% said that they no longer have the enthusiasm for the job that they once had.
If you suspect that you’re experiencing burnout, it’s ideal to connect with your head of department to talk about workload, your ECT mentor if you’re early in your career, your GP if it’s affecting your health or even just your colleagues to share your sentiments with.
Questions to ask yourself to tell the two apart
Here are some questions you can ask yourself to determine if you are experiencing a rough patch or teacher burnout.
If you had a quiet week with nothing due, would you feel rested by the end of it?
During a rough patch, you will typically feel rejuvenated once the pressure lifts and you get a quiet week. With burnout, you’d feel just as drained during a quiet week as you would during an intense week, because the sense of tiredness isn’t tied to how much you have to do.
Do you still care how your pupils are getting on?
With a rough patch, you genuinely care, but you’re stretched too thin to show it. With burnout, you feel indifferent, and perhaps even resentful about feeling indifferent.
Do you still believe your teaching makes a difference?
A rough patch will make you doubt one lesson or class, but a burnout will make you feel like nothing you do matters. You may even second-guess yourself while teaching.
Can you still get through your to-do list, even if it’s a slog?
You feel stressed as you go through your to-do list during a rough patch, but you ultimately get to the last paper you have to mark. With burnout, you can’t bring yourself to start or even care.
Trusting yourself to know the difference
A rough patch is often temporary, but it can be difficult to ignore once it becomes burnout. Telling the two apart lets you choose the right fix, whether that’s rest, a conversation about your workload or a bigger lifestyle change.
