Best Practice

School staff burn-out: How to prevent it taking hold

Staff wellbeing Mental health Workload
The threat of burn-out is real and present for teachers. Steve Waters considers the signs and the workplace factors that drive burn-out. He also offers 10 ways schools can protect staff and 7 things teachers themselves can do
Burnt-out? A third of teachers in England are considering quitting mainly because they are worried they are burning out or because they are experiencing its symptoms - Adobe Stock

The first mention of “burn-out” was in the 1970s when psychologist Herbert Freudenberger borrowed the term from drug users to describe the emotional, physical and psychological exhaustion experienced by workers in the helping professions, including teachers (Freudenberger, 1974).

His work highlighted the impact of chronic stress, disillusionment and energy depletion among those who had strong values but faced difficult working conditions.

In addition to emotional exhaustion, Freudenberger identified detachment from work and a reduced sense of personal accomplishment as core burn-out components.

Freudenberger's exploration of burn-out was expanded by social psychologist Christina Maslach, whose Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI) in the 1980s provided a tool to measure workplace burn-out (see Maslach & Jackson, 1981).

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