Teacher burnout: The link between Work-Life balance and Attrition
July 20th, 2023Last updated: August 1st, 2023
In this article, Owl Tutors CEO and former Science teacher, Lawrence, examines why an increasing number of teachers are leaving the profession.
Why are teachers leaving the classroom?
Teachers are leaving the classroom in record numbers and schools are finding it harder and harder to replace them. So what has gone wrong? Why are teachers leaving the classroom?
As a tuition company that only recruits qualified teachers we thought that maybe we should ask our superb tutors. We surveyed our teachers and asked them to pick the main reasons that they had left the classroom (if they were no longer there) or the most likely reasons that they would leave the classroom (if they were still there).
This is what they said:
In this survey teachers were asked to select the top three issues from the list below from primary through to tertiary reasons for wanting to leave classroom teaching. 64 responses to the survey were recorded.
| 26.04%: A lack of work/life balance |
| 15.40%: Burnout |
| 11.83%: Too much administration |
| 10.06%: Pupil bad behaviour |
| 10.06%: Poor financial compensation |
| 6.51%: Lack of support |
| 6.51%: Lack of autonomy and creative freedom |
| 5.33%: Personal reasons |
| 4.73%: Poor working conditions |
| 3.55%: Lack of career progression |
There are some clear trends here, with many respondents feeling that a lack of work-life balance meant continuing to teach was not viable for a significant number of our tutors. Related issues, such as burnout and having too many non-teaching tasks (administration) also took its toll. The largest non-workload issue was poor pupil behaviour which meant many chose to move on from the classroom.
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