I have little or no stress on my job, I love what I do, I am confident and good at it.
What does stress me out is my schedule, I have no control over that.
I am sometimes on 12-18 week evening/night shift which does not allow me to spend any quality time with my family except for the weekends.
I have spoken to my supervisor about it to try and work out a solution and he has been a little accomodating.
My family is important to me and I try to spend as much time as i can with them over the weekends to make up for the lost time during the week.
That's tough Kelly. It's hard when you feel like you're working alone but you are supposed to be counting on a larger team.
Life:
*buying my first home
*family issues
*current events/economy
Career:
*unrealistic requirements at a part-time job
*increasing responsibilities at my full-time job
*crazy deadlines on a project
what is the cause of some of my stress is more of making sure my class is in proper order. I spend alot of time fixing my class and when I don't recieve any help from other instructors I fell all the wait on my shoulders
I would say major stressors in my career involve grading deadlines. I have to manage my time very carefully to make sure that I don't miss any of these important deadlines because this can have an adverse affect on courses I am offerred.
That's a tough one John. When theft occurs in a college setting, sometimes equipment just cannot be replaced.
That has been done repeatedly, unfortunately to little avail. we have had some thefts by students that has soured the administrations desire to provide new gear. While understandable< it hurts all students, not just the thieves.
Exactly, the trouble is, our semester last 3 weeks!
Although some of my stress is personnal, the majority is from logistical factors. We moved the school about 300 miles this summer. The new building was not ready when we moved in, some personnel elected not to move and the new location has more buerocratic reuirements presenting roadblocks to accomplishing the mission. Technology, building issues, personnel issues and new requirements all are on the list. Insead of a week to install the Video Teleconference equiment it has been 4 months with no completeion in sight. By setting short term goals, some progress can be measured. However, the stress of the movee doesn't seem to lesson.
Thanks for sharing David. These are some great points. Many instructors struggle with gaining the kind of consistency they like. Every semester, the routine changes drastically - from work times to the content we teach.
Great question John. The first step is to educate your administration. Lack of understanding is often produced when administrators don't have all the facts. So in a polite and easy way, communicate the importance of classroom tools and how these tools help drive toward administrative goals (e.g. student retention).
I find a great deal of the stress at work is caused by a lack of understanding by administration of the importance of spending money on new classroom tools periodically. What can be done to help cope with this stress as it won't be addressed by administration?
Most of the work induced stress I suffer from relates to me being a routine based person, and with changing work schedules, teaching different classes, and working with different second instructors, I never have the consistency I like.
Also, other instructors not teaching the curriculum or allowing students to break school rules with no recourse is very stressful. I am not going to lower my expectations or standards for my students, just because other instructors are too lazy, incompetant or plain stupid, but I (and others like me) have to put up with students saying "Mr so and so let me do that" or "I have never heard that in school before" when you know that they have been on campus over a year!
Work
Teaching multiple classes, means many students, each with their own needs.
Teaching in conjunction with other professional responsibilities.
Personal desire to do quality work!
Personal
High Expectations of self, meeting goals set, sometimes many at once, all which require time and energy.
Not enough time planned for rest, relaxation, or just doing nothing!
It's true that we can control a certain amount of our stress David. When we prioritize the wrong things, or put our faith in the wrong people, we can bring stress on unnecessarily to your point. That being said, sometimes stress really does come from places that are out of our control.
I think some of the major stressors in my life are juggling two jobs, and two children and a husband. You try to make time for all of them and give 100-percent. Lighting the candle at both ends of the stick can burn you out.
I don't know that I have any stress. Stress is a direct result of priorities and who you put your faith in.
One major area for me for stressors would be finding time to do everything that you want to do in a day for grading and timely feedback, whether it is grading assignments or responses to questions. My stressors are based on student needs; however, I have set times during the day and evening as to what I will do at that time so that I am not stressed about completing each of these items all at once. Last, the important thing for me to remember would be to leave a little wiggle room for the unexpected.
Jennifer
Stress really can make you sick Joseph. It's important to take care of yourself in stressful times, especially during the holidays.
You bring up a challenge that many instructors face Joseph. By working to solve a problem in one area of our lives, we can create new problems in other areas. As instructors, we try to find balance, but we are never perfect.
