Much has been made of two teachers who verbally abused their students in the past few days.
The general fatigue and burnout of teachers was also discussed.
Let’s be clear: there is no reason to justify verbal abuse at school. When you’re tired, when you’re at your wit’s end, you withdraw, you don’t yell at children or teenagers. And when a school is informed of such behavior by one of its employees, it should intervene immediately.
That being said, we have to talk about fatigue and exhaustion.
Overall, the teachers are not doing well. Not only are they leaving the trade in large numbers, but they are exhausted.
Our colleague Louise Leduc reported Thursday that the absenteeism rate due to illness is at a 10-year high. Disabilities of a “psychological nature” are on the rise and account for more than half (57.14%) of absences, according to data provided by the Federation of School Service Centers of Quebec.
The pandemic has worsened a situation that was already problematic.
Because the exhaustion of teachers is not new. In 2010, for example, a study by the National School of Public Administration (ENAP) revealed that 60% of them felt symptoms of burnout at least once a month. Their condition deteriorated over the following years.
Teachers are far from being the only ones who are “on the edge”.
We can almost copy and paste their situation to talk about the health sector. There too, there are countless staggering statistics on the general condition of the staff.
Before the pandemic, about half already felt overwhelmed. It’s even worse today.
The reality is that this general state of exhaustion is now seen in almost every workplace: veterinarians, business owners, farmers, customer service…everyone is at the end of their rope. And ironically, those who could come to their aid, HR managers, would be the most likely to leave their jobs due to burnout in the next 12 months according to a survey of 1,300 workers last March.1.
Another study, conducted by the Future Forum and made public last February, indicates that burnout linked to stress at work has reached a two-year high. More than a third (40%) of the 10,243 full-time office workers surveyed in six countries, including the United States, said they felt tired and burnt out, in addition to having a negative perception of their work.
Graham Lowe, professor emeritus at the University of Alberta and observer of the world of work for decades, said recently in a publication that he had never seen such a level of questioning about the meaning of work. The result is deep questioning and mass departures.
It’s as if during the pandemic the hamster’s wheel had slowed down enough for the hamster to wonder why it was turning the way it was.
Result: well-being has become the number one priority for workers, according to the publication Forbes. We give the example of Delta Airlines, which recently appointed a well-being manager within its organization to better support employees.
Several large companies have started thinking about the mental health of their staff and are considering measures (greater flexibility, better technological tools, work-life balance) to improve their level of well-being. Mental health at work was also on the agenda of the World Economic Forum in Davos last January. The message was clear: managers must make the well-being of their employees a priority.
The generation that worked hunkered down has retired. The baby boomers will join it, and will be followed closely by the workers of generation X. The new generations, Y and Z, are much more sensitive than their elders to everything that affects their personal well-being and professional. They risk transforming the world of work. For the best.