The greatest source of my stress comes from inexact expectations or inexact explaination of criterion to be observed. I have a great problem with people not wanting to answer questions, answering questions with a question, or telling me to do what I see fit with expectations of what that may be.
I really do appreciate co-workers who are prepared and able to explain themselves.
Some major stressors in my life are connected to my pets. I have a dog with a chronic disease. It has helped relieve stress to bring her to work with me.
Stresses in my career are deffinatly not feeling confident as an instructor. I know it comes with time so I am trying to hang in there but being able to do vs being able to teach are two different ball games.
Often times, instructors experience role or task ambiguity and this can be stressful. Gaining clarity on co-worker expectations is key in minimizing stress. Just taking 15 minutes to get on the same page can be a great investment.
My biggest stressor in both career and personal life seems to be time management, or my perceived lack of time. I currently don't feel I have enough time in my day to adequately perform my job duties, but I'm actively working towards changing that.
Changing curriculum and textbooks can be stressful for me as well as havig to redesign a class from scratch. As a culinary school instructor its difficult to get the things that I want sometimes because of cost control issues. Instructors seem to be at odds with the administration and purchasing department when it comes to providing enough product to work with. Our parent corporation has very specific goals for food cost control and this limits the amount of product we have to teach with. Keeping tabs on the product and making sure students don't take more than their share is a frustrating part of the job because in many cases we are only talking about fractions of an ounce and classes can be 25-30 students or more. Recently we have gone to 40 person class sizes. The kitchens are designed for 18-22 students. Managing that many students in an undersized room will be dangerous and stressful.
Wow Ben, It sounds like you deal with many sources of stress. Worrying about school property loss as well as the dangers of an overcrowded classroom sounds tough. In these situations, its important to focus on the things we can control and let go of the things we can't. I know first hand how hard that can be.
Mane causes of strss are:
1. Outside conflict caused by family and friends.
(I shut out while at school)
2. College countiuously changing course content.
(once I get on tract with a course they change it)
3. some time class size is a stree factor.
All three of these stressors are common for college instructors Anthony. You are not alone in dealing things like this.
As with many Americans, finances is always a stressor. Managing money, trying to save, not being allowed to work 40 hours at my current job.. And on top of everything, my husband may be ill. As soon as we hear from the Doctors and the numerous medical tests, we may have some serious decisions to make. Let's talk about stress! However, one step at a time.
Wow, it sounds like you are in a very stressful situation Jacqueline. Yes, sometimes it's good to just take things one day at a time. Makes big stressors a little easier to deal with overall.
Stressors are caused; by my job, everchanging schedule, inability to work around long scheduled plans, lack of modifying of out of date lesson plans. Caused by life trying to deal with a spouse who has been out of work for an extended period of time, and has now gone back to school and is stressing out herself. Dealing with the rest of life and trying to maintain a level and clear head. At some point you have to take the list of must dos and tear it in half, you have to budget some of your time for lifes little pleasures and not allow the @#$%^s to win. I do find that riding my motorcycle allows(forces) me to root out the dusty corners and sort through the debris and prioritize again.
Motorcycle riding is really a great way to get away from it all and forget about stress. Nice suggestions James.
It is the simple things that we take for granted that cause stress. Not being able to find a parking place. Not having access to a clean restroom. Not having access to a decent meal.
This is true Paul. Often times, when the little things accumulate, it can end up feeling very stressful. Doing what you can do to make those things better - like bringing a decent meal from home - can help a little.
the major source of stress in my life comes from a contiuous increase in work load and a continuous change in what management wants. My organization keeps adding new tasks to our workload and it seems to me that whoever is making those decisions is not calculating the time added to the work day. It can be very stressful to add more tasks to the daily workload.
In addition, curriculum keeps changing, book selections keep changing, and course objectives keep changing. As a teacher I am getting better because I have to keep rewriting syllabus, homework, and lectures. So on the one hand I appreciate the changes because I am more skilled because of it. On the other hand, its been a year and a half since I have felt I have a solid grasp on my classes.
That sounds very stressful Charles. One potential way to deal with continuous change is to speak to your administration about the impact of adding new tasks to your workload. Sometimes administrations simply don't think out these things. Communication can be a good first step.
My best example of how standards can be stressfull. Most recently my school decided to implement a new curriculum with materials that were developed by one individual. Unfortunately these materials were wholly insuficient to teach the classes properly. This meant being asked to re-develope the current materials and new ones to teach the classes in very short time.
Organizational factors:
-amount of paperwork that needs to be completed
-classroom space and arrangement
-access to resources like projectors, printers, copiers etc
-communication problems
-changing schedule every 3 months
-few opportunities where instructor input is part of decision making
Students:
-need extra help with assignments or further explanations
-absenteeism
-lack of effort
Personal:
-helping raise 2 1/2 year old niece
-expenses
-family conflicts
It is ironic that you mentioned the restrooms. While on a recent road trip (Pennsylvania to Kansas and back) my friend/colleague and I both noticed that many of the state operated rest areas had cleaner, more sanitary restrooms than we have in our school.
Balancing a full time job and teaching one long day and repeating every 10 weeks can be stressful. I have found it is more stressful depending on the students in the class. Having classes that are not outgoing and involved in the class discussion make it more stressfull.
