How Burnt Do You Like Your Toast?

I’m sitting in a Board meeting. It’s probably mid 2017 sometime. A report from the NZEI (the New Zealand Primary Teachers Union) has just come out and it’s painting a pretty bleak picture about stress levels in New Zealand Schools. In particular, things look remarkably dim for our nation’s Principals. The report suggests that our Principals are in an incredibly unhealthy state of affairs.

The report talks about the pressures of the job; the vulnerability of the position; the loneliness that Principal’s find themselves in; the emotional “bullocking” (my term, not the reports!) that Principals experience daily.

I’m presenting the report to my Board. The Board is made up of the elected representatives from the families at my school. They’re all good people. There’s no denying that. And they all want what’s best for their children who all attend the school.

Members on my Board nod and make “concerned” like comments. They can see a direct link between the well being of their teachers and their principal and the outcomes that they want to foster for their kids.

There are a couple of Board members who are silent though. And after a while, one decides to say something. He is also the Presiding Member of the Board, and so whatever he has to say always comes with a bit of clout.

I’m curious as to what he wants to say. Sadly I’m not particularly surprised to hear what he says.

He tells us all that the results in this report are EXACTLY what he would expect a Principal, as CEO of a business, would be experiencing and feeling. He says he would be very surprised if this wasn’t the case.

He is a CEO himself and he talks from his own learned experience. However in one foul swoop he’s managed to legitimise everything in the report that teachers and principals should in reality expect and warm to these very findings. 

He tells us that this sort of stuff goes with the territory. 

I remember this conversation like it was yesterday. At the time I was gobsmacked. Sadly I had nothing to counter it with. I just wasn’t quick enough on my feet.

I let my Board Presiding Member get away with his statement, and as a result, I watched the conversation quickly move from the well being of the staff of the school to the bulging photocopier budget.

We didn’t talk about well being again for at least another year at our Board meeting. We talked about the photocopier budget a lot though.

In the vacuum the message was bold – leading schools is tough, get over it and get on with it.

I’ve never been a fan of this message.

A couple of months ago a new survey was released in Australia about the well-being state of Principal’s, throughout the land.

The report can be read here.

The title of the report is “I have been ground down’: about 50% of Australian principals and other school leaders are thinking of quitting”, and quite frankly, says it all.

It seems that what is happening in New Zealand is also eerily similar to what is happening in Australia.

Reading the report it seems like this has been happening for a long time. No surprises there.

As a profession we talk a good game; we talk as though we’re passionate about our health. Yet the evidence shows that we’re still doing three things that is getting in the way of making any real difference:

1. We’re not advocating for the health of our profession loudly enough
2. We let ourselves be bulldozed into any shiny (or not so shiny) new idea that comes along
3. We actually think that being professional equates to having to put up with crap

Most of our well being is in our hands. Yet we let others turn up the heat dial on the side of our “toasters”, leaving us with, unsurprisingly, a pretty awful burnt taste in the mouth.

It’s time to take control of your own heat dial.

Steve