Can We Talk about Burnout?

Posted byJulie RustPosted inUncategorized
Remember this gem from Jessica Parker-Farris? Still applicable.

When the 24-25 cohort proposed we do “can we talk about burnout?” I almost guffawed.  Of COURSE we can talk about that.  That’s basically all we’ve talked about ever since I had the idea of mashing up faculty reps from all divisions to work together for a year of faculty growth implementation with TEAM.  Again and again, no matter where we begin, the conversation ends here: there is never enough time.  There is never enough energy.  We are tired.  We are on a roller coaster of sometimes good days, sometimes bad days.  We all feel that this is very particular to our roles as a PK teacher, as a division head, as an English teacher of high school students, as a middle school counselor, but I’ve been around in education long enough (aka my entire life)  to be able to say with confidence: whether you are a tenured professor teaching grad students or a first year teacher designing an experiment for two year olds, you perceive your days as overloaded.  You never get to all the things.  Perhaps this is a truth of being human, but I’ve never been human outside the field of education so I can’t speak to those realities. I do think it is a truth of the public nature of our jobs.  Humans are draining, ya’ll.  Often delightful, but draining.

So I decided it might be worthwhile to take a bit of a journey back through time to track the many stories we have told as a community around this theme through blogs and podcasts since I started at St. Andrew’s.  I counted a total of 33 blogs and six podcasts that pretty centrally examine themes revolving around burnout: exhaustion, feeling overwhelmed, experiencing anxiety, too much to do, too little time.  We may never quite crack the code or find the proverbial silver bullet to fix burnout, but one thing is for certain: this is a timeless theme that HITS.  As much as our various powers and creative reimaginings allow, we need to improve systems where we can to make this professional life more sustainable, livable, balanced, and doable.   But even when we can’t change the system because the very nature of working with so many humans  is draining, this I believe:  bringing our lived realities to light, writing about them, and telling our truths, can often be just what the doctor ordered.

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