My stressors are primarily related to my career and they stem from the expectations of my employer. I have grading time frames I must meet and I have additional work responsibilities not related to my teaching. Frequently, there is not time for management to adequately plan and we are faced with situations where we receive inaccurate information and where we must improvise. Dealing with this, in addition to my regular work responsibilities, can be frustrating but thus far I have been successful by adopting a positive attitude and trying to make lemonade when I get lemons.
A major stress in my life right now is the lack work/life balance. I feel lately my scale has tipped towards my career. Between my commute and responsibilities at work, I find myself not being able to having the ability to spend quality time with my 5 month year old son and my husband.
Stressors:
Organizational factors
Commute
Students needs
I teach part time for 2 online schools, teach for an on ground school and am building my own law practice. I am single and own a home. My stressors are that I have so many people to make happy every day. I am an organized person who is happier having a lot on my plate, but at times I realize that I take so much on that I don't take time for myself.
My stress comes from having multiple "jobs" and from the fact that I am a Type A personality and a perfectionist.
One of the major stressors is trying to complete my dissertation while working full-time and teaching as well. I moved three years in order to be closer to my full-time position. This reduced my commute and in turn became a great asset for me. I started working out a year ago and have found that to be very helpful in the management of stress as well.
Most of my stress is self imposed because I am a procrastinator. I get stressed when have not made appointments for my kids, when the bills go unpaid and when my grading is not completed. Sometimes it can be because of the stress that I am not focused on what I have to do, and then it is a self perpetuating cycle.
At this point, I have very little stress, because I have no contract for this term, and I have quit school,which was a major stressor.
It sounds like you are in a stressful situation Christina. But just getting your major stressors all on paper is a good first step to reducing and coping with them.
Reducing your commute was really a smart strategy Felicia. If you feel fairly comfortable that you will stay with an employer for a few years, it can really be the way to go.
Organizational needs are often the priority Reginald. But it never hurts to let your administration know what would work best for you. You never know, they may be able to accommodate if they only know your preferences.
It sounds like you have eliminated most of your stressors Andrea.
I would have to say that my stressors fall into all of these categories and then some. Often I feel that there is just not enough time in the day to do everything I need to and still have some downtime for myself. I would say this falls into the logistical factors.
Student needs are sometimes a source of stress especially when I feel that the questions results from the student not putting in the effort to review the materials that already address the questions.
College requirements are another source of stress due to tight deadlines and increasing standards. Added to all of this I have additional stressors from another job and my personal life including being the head of household and dealing with bills and other decisions.
There are several stress factors that I have identified.
As a professional with a full time job and being an adjunct (part time) instructor, I find the major stress factor is time.
My full-time job is demanding and the tasks and activities that I perform in a discipline time enriched environment.
At times, my instructor position requires me to attend faculty meetings or complete tasks outside the time I set aside for teaching. This produces a conflict and stress on how to manage the additional activites from the teaching job.
There are many other stressful situations I find myself in. They include time with the family, especially since I have little ones, having time to myself, jugling household responsibilities, and adequately handling emergencies both in may professional and personal life.
My Stress List
I feel stressed when:
- my dogs insist on being let outside every 10 minutes.
- when I forget something in the other facility at work and I have to keep going back and forth.
- when my husband is late and I can't plan a dinner.
- when students wait until the absolute last minute to turn things in and I have a ton of grading at the end of the session.
- when students think that all I do all day is teach them, that I don't have a life outside class.
- when I can't find clean clothes because we still haven't gotten the washer and dryer out of storage and all the laundry is piling up.
- when people pass me on the right during the commute home.
- when I can't change any of the tasks in my classroom.
I have quite a few stressors in my life, and it is truly a balancing act to keep all the aspects in my life up in the air. I do feel sometimes I have too much going on. I need to schedule some down time for myself. I've not done that lately, and I did get really sick and can't quite seem to shake it. I have started eating better and exercising (my new facility at work also requires me to walk around more, which is good), and I'm starting to feel better just by making those changes, but I still need some down time. I keep telling myself "Just make it to the weekend, then you can rest," but then I'm just as busy on the weekend and I don't rest.
I have learned to love it. If you talk yourself into it, the stress becomes something you crave. After owning my own business for twenty years and being responsible for my family in the icy cold waters of self employment; I have become to love the circus my life has become. Sometimes the more I do, the better I get. the only thing you need to watch is balance; if you do not make time for yourself, you are cooked. And with making time for you, once you realize that you can't save a drowning person if you are wearing concrete boots; it becomes easier to look at the bigger picture and stay healthy so you can stay in the game.
I work as a Compliance Officer in International Trade. My work stresses me out because I am constantly battling decision making by upper management that compromise my ethical beliefs because they are either unethical or illegal in nature.
You have a special gift to put that wall between your duty and your inner compass as you need to do. In my case, the one thing that keeps all of us focued on the task at hand is the results of our labor; in our case is it is seeing the student graduating and making a living in the area they love (the same area shared by my staff), professional photography. Being a career that is passion driven makes it somewhat easy, but the marketplace is cruel and if you are not good at what you do... you will starve. But to enlighten someone that has entrusted their hard-earned money and their family's future in your hands and those of your team is humbling at best. The payoff comes when you see a student or hear from a facebook page about a success; it is very special and shared by you and your entire team. This important roll makes the strees melt away; not all of it, but most of it.
Good luck.
I am in the same boat; at 52 I am realizing that you can't save someone who is drowning if you are wearing concrete galoshes. So, to benifit those around me that need me every day, I am slowly making the time and adjustments; my problems did not happen overnight and subsequently, the fix will not happen overnight either.
Really enjoyed your metaphor Paul!
College requirements is a source of stress for many instructors. At my ground campus, I am required to post attendance on a daily basis, and realizing that I have forgotten to do so on occasion is a stressor. Timelines for posting grades is also a stressor.
Student needs is also a source of stress at times. Sometimes we come across a slower student who needs a lot of help to make it through a course, and this can be a stressful situation at times as well.
Connecting acadameia with practice; Student needs; student expectations.
Stress at the workplace comes from tedious tasks, doing things for the sake of doing them, without any other objective. It goes to time management as those tasks take away time and energy from those tasks that matter.
