Get Your Students Hired
Teresa, That sounds tough. Stress often arises when there are too many changes that happen all at once. Sounds like life will calm down all at once too as you get settled.
Dr. Melissa Read
My stressor in life are because I am new to teaching and I am also relocating for a different state and havent found a permenant place to live.
Work stress is having everything all turned in on time and then on the final day of the course for the students to graduate, all of a sudden, there is a new form that needs to be in the student file. This seems to happen every time! It would be les stressful if everyon, beginning at the top, would communicate in advance of the new policies and not wait till the last day at closing time to communicate down the line.
Worklife:
The constant changes that the program and courses go through on a regular basis. It makes it tough to get settled into a productive teaching method.
Home life:
Finances - period!
Wow! Where do I start?
Regarding school / work I would have to say one thing that stresses me out is probably the same thing that is stressing out most Americans in their positions, no matter what field they’re in. That would be continually looking for ways to do more with less. Less people that is. Career school is no exception. If I have to put things in the form of a list I may begin by breaking the list into two.
School / work:
1. Recruitment / retention for faculty and students. This is a bigger topic than can't be addressed in detail here.
2. Constantly evolving technology. In many ways I do embrace and use technology but in my field it moves so quickly.
3. Facilities / equipment / resources
4. Administration
5. Cost cutting / wage freezes / expense –insurance increases
6. Students who think they know better than I do what I should be teaching them. LOL. Sorry. I actually heard this once from someone. I couldn’t help but laugh.
Personal:
1. I have two teenage daughters. So far – so good. I still worry.
2. My work schedule is beyond crazy with a barbell schedule (mornings and evenings) that drastically limits my being able to see my family and keep up with what is going on in their lives. This has been for an extended period of time.
3. My mother lives alone now and can be pretty demanding at times.
4. Maintaining property / maintenance at home and for others.
5. Bills, expenses – many of which were unexpected and hit close together.
Combined, these have been some of my most prominent stressors.
I know it is hard to say and do, but you need to leave the outside at the door. Put it aside and deal with it when it does not affect your daily job. I know easy to say, hard to do.
Jumana, That's such a big challenge. Many instructors struggle with getting students to care. It's tough, especially when we as educators care so much.
Dr. Melissa Read
Stress for me is when I work so deligiently and the students don't care, they want to have fun and not care about studying and fail the quizzes.
Dealing with incompetence and/or over bearing administration. Some of the dilemas that arise are so miniscule but I tend to let them bother me, which seems to be what other at time want. Power hunger!
Everyone has stressors personally and professionally. Stress introduced by the university can be sourced by ever-growing managerial and administrative tasks along with interaction with students who struggle meeting class requirements. These are situations that must be dealt with in a timely and professional manner, no matter what. On a personal level, meeting family/friend expectations can also be a challenge. All one can do is the best that they can in all situations.
I run the Massage Therapy Department and I also teach two classes, so trying to be in two places at the same time is very stressful.
I also have a part-time job that takes about 20 hours a week, plus a full time job at the school.
Making to-do lists saves me!!!!
Chuck, Sounds like you have balanced a lot over the years and have managed it well. It's a good aspiration to try to not bring outside stress with you but it can be tough. It's ok to break down every now and then and just experience it in the moment. It can potentially help motivate you to make some changes that ultimately make your life better.
Dr. Melissa Read
Kathy, Sounds like you have a lot on your plate. Yes, it's really nice sometimes to just learn that there are a lot of other people out there walking in your shoes. Makes you feel a little less alone when dealing with your challenges. You can reach out to these people directly for help too to gain inspiration and ideas.
Dr. Melissa Read
In the past year the main stressors in my life, was my job title and what was expected of me by two different companies. I was getting pulled at both ends and the same time and I couldn’t make anyone including myself happy. Before that went through a divorce, have two children that are adults now. Now the new stressors come into play. Oldest son join the Marines, which is great, but hold another type of stress. I try never to bring my outside stress to work with me, it is hard to do. As said before every day brings new stressors, we just have to adapt as they come.
I am glad to see that htere are other people with the same stress cause as myself. I am a single mother of a 20yr. old son and am always having to give him directions in life and then working two jobs can be very stressful
Daniel, That sounds frustrating. It's hard to have a job where we rely on others when those people are not competent and not performing their tasks to our standards. In these situations, it's very important to communicate our needs to the people we rely on to get the job done.
Dr. Melissa Read
My need for immediacy causes me stress. I have a full-time job and three small children at home so I never feel like I'm caught up with anything (especially the laundry). I'm also not good at delegating tasks--I tend to do things myself because then it will be done the way I want. Yes, I know, can we say "control freak"? It's not usually external factors that cause me stress--students, co-workers, and the like--it's my own impossibly high standards I set for myself.
Standards-
I have to teach a class next module that I believe has some downright wrong information in the lesson plan.
Meeting retention standards and holding my students accountable for their work and attendance can sometimes be a conflict.
Personal-
Working a split shift makes it hard to spend time with my wife.
Teaching environment-
We don't have an in house IT person. The corporate IT person was here last week and managed to mess up the connection of one of our two building to the network resource drive where we hold all our power point presentations and other teaching resources.
Most of the stressors that lie in place for me involve processes. Student needs or college requirements dont tend to stress me out. I feel more stress in making sure that processes are ran the way they are intended. In addition, I feel the largest stressor for people at work is related to home stress. Meaning, home life does affect work life. If the family is going through a tough time then it makes working that much harder.
Ramon, Sounds like you have stress from a variety of sources, including both work and family. You're not alone. Many instructors must find a way to balance stress coming from all sides. Writing things down is a great way to get your tasks on paper and out of your mind.
Dr. Melissa Read