Around half of all Australian teachers will leave their jobs before their fifth year of full-time work. People leave their jobs all the time, but what's particularly interesting about the case of teaching is that many of them will have done extra years of studying just to get the qualifications to do it.
So why do so many leave the profession?
For many teachers, working with children and teaching the next generation is incredibly rewarding and they're drawn to the profession knowing that they could make a huge and important difference in many young people's lives.
In reality, teaching can be stressful. For decades, complaints of low pay and poor working conditions were the main reasons that teachers were leaving.
These reasons certainly still plague the profession, but now the focus has shifted towards mental health, wellbeing, and self-esteem.
The emotional cost of the job is too high for teachers. Increasing expectations without an increase in support has left many teachers looking for other jobs.
How to Take Care of Your Physical and Mental Wellbeing as a Teacher
Self-care for teachers has never been more important.
Teachers are in a nurturing role and the very best put the needs of their students above everything else. However, they can't do this while completely ignoring their well-being.
This can lead to burnout and if a teacher doesn't take care of themselves, they can't take of their students.
To take care of yourself, here's some useful advice.
1. Monitor your well-being by giving every day a score
A common and useful practice to be aware of your well-being is to take a score out of ten each day. The very best days get nines and tens, typical days get between four and six, and bad days less than that.
This is useful because it'll allow you to relativise each day. Not only will it help you appreciate that some days aren't as bad as they seem (is today really as bad as that other day I gave two out of ten?), but it'll also allow you to spot a downward trend before it gets too bad.
2. Surround yourself with people who'll support you
A support network is essential for maintaining your well-being. It can help to have people to share your problems with and the adage "a problem shared is a problem halved" rings true here.
There may be more experienced staff members or teachers who can offer support and mentorship. After all, some of them may have experienced all this before and have advice on how to best deal with it.
There may also be options for professional counselling available. If you have the opportunity for free counselling, it's highly recommended that you do it.
If you're struggling with your work as a teacher, don't forget that there's counselling and professional help available.
3. Take Time for Yourself
Remember to schedule time for yourself. As a teacher, it's essential to carve out moments for self-care amidst your busy timetable. Simple activities such as enjoying a leisurely walk, indulging in a soothing massage, or engaging in mindfulness practices before bed can greatly enhance your mental well-being. Prioritise these moments to refresh and maintain your overall health.
4. Focus on Maintaining a Work-Life Balance
Teaching is part of your life but it's not all of it. Remember that outside of teaching, you also have a life. Like every other professional, you need to strike up a good balance between the time you're working and the time you aren't.
Make a concerted effort to switch off your "school brain" when you've finished for the day. Outside of teaching, it shouldn't play on your mind, especially during moments when you can't do anything about it.
5. Take Holidays and Breaks
For most teachers, holidays and breaks can't come soon enough. While teachers certainly get more time off than other professions, they don't enjoy as much flexibility as other careers in government roles when it comes to choosing when they get their time off.
While other professionals may have an option of taking time off if they're feeling stressed or need a break, teachers often have to wait until the school holidays.
However, there are options for teachers to take time off, especially if it's for their well-being so if you need time off, it might be worth asking for it.
6. Leave the Teaching Profession
This is essentially the nuclear option for teachers, but it's still an option. In an ideal world, teachers would want to stay in the profession, but if the cost is your mental well-being, then it isn't worth it.
If you choose to leave the teaching profession, you'll need to think about what to do afterwards. There are lots of excellent skills teachers will have developed that will also help them in other roles.
It doesn't matter whether you teach young children, teenagers, or adults, since teachers usually have expertise in a given subject plus all their teaching and interpersonal skills. They could put all of these to good use in many other roles.
Remember that if you leave teaching or move into another line of work, you can still return to teaching if you have the right qualifications.
What Other Jobs Are There After Teaching?
If you've exhausted your options and decided that the best thing for your mental health and well-being is to do something else, then you have plenty of options.
Don't think that you're "just a teacher" and can't do anything else. As we mentioned before, you'll have a lot of useful skills for many other roles and you can always return to teaching later if you change your mind. You can always retrain for a new role, too.
Corporate Training and Development
Teachers already have so many of the desired interpersonal skills for the world of business: Public speaking, communication, organisation, leadership, etc.
They're particularly well-suited to the business world because they understand different learning styles and personal development.
Learning doesn't stop once you finish school and many businesses regularly train and retrain their employees to ensure they're on top of their game.
There are plenty of roles outside of teaching, but in a corporate setting, they could:
- mentoring or coaching individuals
- implementing corporate strategies
- running courses and workshops
- working on team relationships and communication
Work out your strengths and look for roles where you can effectively use your skills.
Workforce and Personnel Management (human resources)
Teacher training, especially for those working in schools, involves a lot of the same skills that would be incredibly useful in a role in HR.
You'd like to think that adults are more mature than a classroom of children, but you might be surprised at how much classroom management skills can be used to keep people happy within a company.
In HR, roles include recruiting, training, paying, and promoting employees within a company. HR staff are also responsible for staff members' growth and development within their respective roles.
So how can you shift into a role in HR?
Firstly, update your resume or CV. You'll want to highlight the appropriate skills you gained from teaching that apply to working in HR.
Next, you might want to look into courses for HR. Short courses are available but you could always complete a Master of Human Resource Management university course or similar.
There are also Technical and Further Education (TAFE) courses in similar fields:
- Double Diploma: This course allows you to specialise in HR in addition to one other field, including areas like business administration or leadership and management.
- Diploma: You will focus on performance management systems, industrial relations, positive employee relations and so on.
- Certificate IV: Generally shorter courses with more practical skills, including customer service standards, payroll and employment management.
The various roles will depend on your experience and what you'd like to do. For example, a double diploma would be better for management-level roles while the Cert IV works for assistant-level jobs.
Administrative Roles
Admin roles require excellent organisational skills, which most teachers will have in abundance. These jobs are so much more than data, filing, and spreadsheets.
You could do these roles within a school setting and assist teachers if you'd like to stay working at the same place. This lateral shift could be good for teachers who need time away from the classroom but otherwise enjoy their working environment and colleagues.
For any kind of retraining or career change, you can look to private tutors to help you with new skills. Like teachers, they'll have expertise in a particular subject or skill set so you can look for almost anything you can think of.
You could do yoga and meditation to take care of your mental well-being or study with a career coach to make a shift to another job.
On the Superprof website, there are tutors all over Australia and around the world. Just search for what you want to learn and start comparing tutors today.
With most tutors offering the first session for free, you can always try a few out before choosing the one that's right for you.
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i thought that teaching is my only career in lifetime but unfortunately i found out there are related job apart from teaching. This motivate me to continue looking for job apart from teaching.
Unfortunately??
Hi Kellie,
I really enjoyed your article and found it very informative. I was wondering if you could give me some more guidance regarding editing/proofreading. You mention that there are “plenty of jobs for ex-teachers” in this field. Is there an obvious starting point I should consider?
Kind regards
C.B.
I am thinking of what I could do in the future . I am an experienced English teacher and Drama teacher and want to work in different environment?
This is very interesting. I came across this at a point in my life am thinking about using my wide experiences gathered in the education field. How wide can I cast my net in becoming a consultant in training and development as a South African? Your response and support will be greatly appreciated.
I left teaching after almost 30 years and went into Tour Guiding which was in many ways like teaching but much more enjoyable and less stressful. Unfortunately, Covid19 happened and I lost my business. Went back into teaching for a year and was very unhappy. I am 64 now, and atm, enjoying being unemployed but wondering what I could do, this is how I found your site. Thanks for the ideas!
Hi
I wonder if you could provide info on how you got your Tour Guide business up and running? I am also a teacher, ready to leave the profession, however, I also have quals in the Tourism industry. I would appreciate it if you could contact me – nobull13@yahoo.com and share some of your insight. Thanks in advance!
Don’t think any of this would help me. I am 58 years of age and have been teaching for only 20 years. I am burnt out and want to get away from students. My options are very limited because of age discrimination in the work force – don’t tell me it does not exist!
Thanks for the interesting article. Does anyone know any recruitment agencies that specialise in teachers career transitioning out in Melbourne?
Very useful and thought provoking.