WORK YOUR PROPER HOURS
Putting in unpaid overtime can cost you more than the time involved
By Patrick Nash for SecEd : 4 March 2009
This is not the first time I have typed the
opening sentence of this article. In fact, it’s the seventh. To be honest, I’m
now well past the extended deadline that my generous editor, Mr Pete Henshaw, has set me
to submit my musings for this edition.
The cause of my repeatedly aborted
efforts has not been any lack of inspiration or being short of something to say
(something that is unimaginable when the principle responsibility of your
professional life is to advocate for teacher wellbeing). The reason, I’m pretty
sure, is that the last week of my life has been entirely dominated by work.
Abnormally long hours in the office have ensured that every other time I have
got round to starting this task, it has been late on in the evening.
On each
occasion my mind, in a way that will be familiar to anyone who has ever
attempted to work in such circumstances, was distracted by the most fleeting
and inconsequential of diversions, such as the sudden and urgent necessity of
changing my desktop wallpaper. On more than one occasion, I suddenly came round
from such distant thoughts as obscure and hitherto forgotten details of a
recent trip to in Bali and such fascinating internal dialogues as debating the
last time I consumed French onion soup, to find myself - completely against my will
- pacing along the corridor or reading the nutritional information on the back
of packet of Hobnobs. It was no good. In such a condition, I simply could not
apply myself mentally to the task at hand.
This afternoon, however, I am refreshed by
a good night’s sleep and a weekend of relative serenity. As a result, I feel
like I can accomplish the task at hand. The argument – and analogy – for which
I was searching seems pleasingly within reach. Although my difficulties in
concentrating over the last week have been at times tortuous, such experiences - as well as my newly acquired sense of energy
and purpose after decent rest - have confirmed in my mind the accuracy of a
point we at Teacher Support Network have been making for some time.
Last Friday was the Trade Union Congress’
Work Your Proper Hours Day. By their calculations, the problem of unpaid
overtime is so big in the UK that the
average employee effectively earned nothing between the beginning of the year
and 27 February. It’s a startling insight: if he or she had returned back from
the New Year’s Bank Holiday on Monday and worked normal hours for the rest of
the year, only then would his or her paycheque truly reflect their working
hours in 2009.
Of course most teachers will be familiar
with the concept of working extra hours without financial reward. In almost
every school, there is an expectation that the job entails either staying on
way into the night or taking a great deal of work home – or both. Weekends too,
are rarely sacred and holidays themselves can be dominated by marking and
preparation.
In the main item of last week’s Teachers TV news,
statistics from out recent survey on teacher wellbeing told the full story. 87
per cent of respondents said they had experienced stress over the last two
years; 73 per cent of which blamed excessive workload.
As we know from the calls and emails to our
advisors, the resulting toll on the wellbeing of teachers can range from
becoming run down and unnecessarily ill to serious mental health problems. The
culture of ‘presenteeism’ – where teachers ‘solider on’ despite sometimes
debilitating emotional and physical ailments – is causing long-term damage to
thousands of teachers each year.
However, it is education which suffers too.
A culture where teachers are expected or encouraged to work hours well beyond
what is reasonable prevents those within it from teaching to the standard that
they would like. It is simply impossible to do anything consistently to the
best of your ability when you are constantly operating on partly-charged
batteries. The effect of teachers spreading themselves so thinly is quite the
opposite of those who seek to stretch such a valuable resource: a teachers’ ability
to innovate, their resilience and effectiveness can deteriorate beyond
recognition and their enthusiasm drop so low that they can give up on the
profession altogether.
At Teacher Support Network we are currently
talking with the Government on how the problems revealed in our survey can be
tackled. We hope that through this positive dialogue we can help bring about
real improvements in teacher wellbeing. In the meantime, why not take the time
to look after your own work-life balance? Our InfoCentre is packed with advice,
accessible anytime, anywhere and our coaches are ready to take your calls and
emails any time of day. In addition, why not take our online stress test, which
has been designed to help teachers find solutions emotional problems resulting
from your personal or professional lives. Protecting your work-life balance is
important: both for your own wellbeing and for your effectiveness as a teacher.