Teacher Burnout: Symptoms, Causes, & Prevention

What Is Teacher Burnout?

Teacher burnout is a state of chronic exhaustion that occurs after prolonged periods of stress, largely due to the demanding nature of the education field. Teachers provide their students with daily support and guidance, often to the detriment of their mental health and self-care.

Additionally, systematic expectations regarding standardized testing, heavy workloads, and poor school funding can exacerbate symptoms of burnout. Ultimately, this fatigue follows educators home and is the main contributor cited for leaving the teaching profession.

How Common Is Teacher Burnout?

Some research suggests that 20-30% of teachers have moderately high to high levels of burnout.¹ Many report that providing daily support and guidance to students, helping them navigate frustration with schoolwork, and creating a safe space for them can be emotionally draining, ultimately laying the groundwork for burnout.

Teacher Burnout Symptoms

Teacher burnout can manifest in various ways, but many educators experience increased irritability, poor concentration, and anxiety. They may struggle with brain fog, contributing to decreased effectiveness at planning or executing lessons. Some may also appear sarcastic or cynical when communicating with parents or students. While symptoms vary, simple fixes cannot remedy the mental and physical exhaustion associated with burnout.

Symptoms of teacher burnout can include:

• Physical and mental exhaustion
• Sleep issues
• Intense worries related to work or students
• Inability to turn “off” after work
• Chronic fatigue
• Repeated periods of forgetfulness
• Waking up on work days with a feeling of dread
• Trouble concentrating
• Increased or decreased appetite or weight
• Feelings of ineffectiveness
• Anxiety
• Existential dread or anxiety
• Irritability and emotional lability

Signs of Teacher Burnout

Symptoms are crucial for recognizing and addressing burnout, but many teachers tend to internalize negative feelings. Because of this, others may not notice the struggles beneath the surface. However, educators may exhibit subtle signs indicating burnout, such as increased cynicism toward their work or social avoidance. They may appear more withdrawn than typical or show little interest in their students.

Below are common signs of teacher burnout:

• Self-doubt: Being confident and self-assured in your work takes emotional energy. Teachers struggling with burnout may struggle to see the worth of their efforts or doubt their ability to support their students.
• Cynicism: A pessimistic or cynical outlook toward work may indicate a decline in the mental, physical, and emotional energy needed to provide support and education.
• Lack of motivation or passion: Apathy and a poor connection to work can contribute to a lack of motivation. Some teachers stuck in burnout may also lose their love for education.
• Social withdrawal: Reduced emotional bandwidth from burnout can lead teachers to withdraw from other faculty, staff, and students.
• Increased emotional dysregulation: Occasionally struggling to remain calm with moody, disruptive, or unruly children is normal. However, showing frequent or intense irritability, sadness, or anger could indicate emotional exhaustion and decreased empathy accompanying burnout.

What Causes Teacher Burnout?

Teacher stress and burnout can develop for many reasons, such as overwhelming workloads and minimal breaks to attend to personal needs. Educators also frequently feel unsupported by administrators, colleagues, and even family members who may criticize or devalue their work. These factors can cause undue stress for overworked teachers, thus leading to burnout.

Potential causes of teacher burnout include:

• Poor school funding: Insufficient funding can make accessing resources needed to balance or lighten workloads difficult. Teachers may use their own money to help them perform their jobs, often leading to financial stress.
• Dealing with difficult parents: Teachers often interact with difficult and emotional parents, which can drain their emotional energy, patience, and empathy.
• Handling students with behavioral issues: Being responsible for students with behavioral challenges can induce emotional exhaustion.
• Heavy workloads: Heavy and unrealistic workloads can precede burnout. Teachers may feel their needs are secondary to their duties, leaving little time to rest.
• Feeling underappreciated or undervalued: Lack of recognition at work can leave teachers feeling like their work doesn’t matter.
• Shifting expectations and schedules: Constantly changing expectations and schedules at work prevents the nervous system from finding safety in a situation and routine. A lack of predictability can make the body feel unsafe and unstable, often setting the stage for teacher burnout.
• High emotional demands: Children learn to regulate their emotions, develop autonomy, and explore their strengths at school. Helping students navigate these big changes requires substantial emotional energy. Teachers may struggle to rebalance these levels, ultimately leading to burnout.
• Lack of autonomy: Feeling little autonomy at work can be frustrating. Teachers may feel like their contributions do not matter to the overall system.

Effects of Teacher Burnout on Students

Burnout impacts both teachers and their students because of the intrinsic relational nature of teaching. Educators experiencing burnout may struggle to teach effectively, manage their classrooms, and handle difficult situations. Eventually, their students suffer due to a lack of support, engagement, and structure.

Potential effects of unaddressed teacher burnout include:

• Frequent absences or skipping classes: Students may skip classes or school altogether if the classroom feels stressful or emotionally unsafe.
• Lack of classroom management: Teachers with diminished emotional bandwidth have less energy to manage their classrooms. This chaos lowers the chances of effective learning and student support.
• Decreased learning: Burnt-out teachers may struggle to check in with students and ensure they have resources to learn material. Sometimes, burnout can lead teachers to leave their position partway through the school year, which can cause further disruption.
• Increased stress levels: Research has shown burnout has a contagious transference effect on students, with students having higher cortisol levels when taught by teachers struggling with symptoms.²
• Decreased emotional regulation: Children can regulate their emotions better when adults co-regulate with them and model appropriate behavior. Teachers stuck in burnout may exhibit unhealthy emotional reactions toward students, thus impacting their students’ ability to develop positive coping strategies.

How to Prevent Teacher Burnout

Preventing teacher burnout means acknowledging your experience and learning how to cope when overwhelmed. Educators can use many stress management techniques and practices to help increase mental energy as they combat exhaustion. Additionally, teacher advocacy can foster empowerment and help create systemic change in their schools or districts.

Here are 9 ways to prevent teacher burnout:

1. Make Mindfulness a Daily Practice

Mindfulness encourages people to engage in regular mental “check-ins.” These practices can help reduce symptoms of various mental health conditions, including teacher burnout.³ Teachers learn to acknowledge inner experiences before they become overwhelming.

For example, considering their own needs is difficult when overscheduled, overstretched, and overenrolled. However, taking a quick “mental inventory” is a step in the right direction to ensure teachers continue feeling balanced and self-supported.

2. Practice Regular Exercise or Physical Activity

Creating a physical outlet for stress is imperative to alleviate teacher burnout. Exercise removes stress from the body, whether a brisk walk at lunchtime or a weight-lifting session after work. Teachers can even incorporate movement into their routines with students, allowing for desk breaks, stretching, or yoga.

3. Create a Community

Socializing with others allows you to explore your individuality or commiserate with others who “get it.” Having both “in group” (other teachers) and “out of group” outlets (people outside your profession) can help you cultivate support networks and an identity separate from your job.

4. Beware of Contagious Negativity

Be careful of burnout contagion when building your community.⁴ Because humans are social beings, we are especially susceptible to positive or negative emotions. Find uplifting colleagues, and add them to your circle to help prevent emotional burnout. Conversely, beware of those who regularly bring down faculty morale by focusing on what is wrong rather than what works.

5. Set Firm Internal & External Boundaries

Set reasonable deadlines for yourself. Adhering to a plan is good, but avoiding becoming so strict you feel imprisoned. With parents and colleagues, set boundaries for when and how they can contact you. Consider creating and sharing a formal document at the start of the school year to outline appropriate methods of communication, involvement, and discussion topics.

6. Rest & Relaxation

Teacher burnout can easily creep into home life because responsibilities do not end at school. Educators still grade papers, formulate assignments, or collaborate with parents after hours. Thus, creating a clear separation between work and home is essential.

Consider consolidating “homework” into one space within the house or during a set block of time. You may feel pressure to stay productive, but rest is crucial for overall well-being, especially when preventing burnout.

7. Adopt a Growth Mindset

Seeing each day as an opportunity to start over can help teachers prevent burnout. Adopting a growth mindset is an act of self-compassion that allows them to give themselves the same grace and compassion they offer students.⁵ This emotional self-care should become part of a daily routine.

8. Take Regular Mental Health Days

Planning and following through with regular mental health days can ease some pressures of teaching. Some may find taking breaks difficult, but teachers can use these days to attend to their health, take themselves on a date, or engage in enjoyable activities. Remember, asking for mental health days to catch up on work rather than self-care will only compound the risk of burnout.

9. Identify the Early Warning Signs of Teacher Burnout

You can catch and prevent teacher burnout before symptoms worsen when you understand the warning signs. Pay attention to when you feel tired in the mornings, excited when school is canceled, or irritated about little things. These experiences indicate the need to step back, re-evaluate your schedule, and work toward reducing stress.

How to Manage Teacher Burnout

You can take steps to avoid worsening work burnout symptoms if you currently feel overwhelmed and exhausted. While everyone experiences burnout differently, practicing self-compassion and patience is crucial. Allow your emotions to pass while removing any shame you associate with them. Teacher burnout can feel overwhelming, but support is available as you cope and learn to manage.

Be Kind to Yourself

Self-kindness goes a long way when experiencing teacher burnout. You may feel ashamed of your symptoms, especially if you previously showed high job performance levels. Understanding that burnout is a real experience will help you foster compassion for yourself.

Tell Your Supervisor

Consider notifying your supervisor when dealing with teacher burnout. They may have suggestions or a plan for managing your symptoms on an occupational level. Sometimes, they can help you reduce or prioritize expected tasks at work. Additionally, having their support can validate your experience and lower any shame you may feel about burnout.

Evaluate Your Options for Lessening Your Workload

During teacher burnout, lessening your workload is essential. Start by prioritizing, cutting unnecessary, or delegating tasks. You can also ask your colleagues or supervisors for their tips and tricks when managing the various aspects of teaching. Either way, focus on making your life as an educator easier so you can be more present, balanced, and healthy in other areas.

Therapy for Teacher Burnout

A mental health professional can help you address burnout symptoms, low mood, or persistent anxiety. You know yourself better than anyone–asking yourself if you might need therapy likely means you could benefit from support!

Consider seeing a therapist specializing in anxiety, mindfulness-based self-compassion, or body-based approaches to healing burnout (e.g., sensorimotor, polyvagal theory). Additionally, approaches like acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) can be beneficial when working through issues related to teacher burnout.

For help finding the right therapist who meets your needs, ask your primary care doctor or loved one for a referral or consult an online therapist directory to sort by specialty and insurance coverage.