Teaching Profession and Stress

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Studies into the extent of work-related stress in Britain have consistently found that teachers are amongst the most stressed workers in Britain.

• 2000: The HSE research found teaching to be the most stressful profession in the UK, with 41.5% of teachers reporting themselves as ‘highly stressed’.

• 2002: The National Association of Secondary School Principles showed that annual turnover of professions other than other than teaching average 11% while annual turnover for the teaching professions was 15.7% (Figure 2 and Figure 3).

• 2003: The Schools Advisory Service, the largest independent provider of teacher absence insurance in the UK, showed that one in three teachers took sick leave in the previous year as a result of work-related stress.

• 2005: The Journal of Managerial Psychology ranked teaching as the second most stressful job out of 26 occupations analysed, with only ambulance drivers exceeding the stress levels found in the teaching profession.

• 2009: The Office for National Statistics, reported an 80 per cent increase in the number of teachers committing suicide between 2008 (35 teachers) and 2009 (63 teachers). These figures demonstrated that instances of suicide for teachers were 30-40 per cent higher than the national average for all occupations. Although it may not always be possible to demonstrate a direct causal link between the stresses of teaching and such tragedies, evidence suggests that stressors such as Ofsted inspections have been connected to teacher suicides in recent years.

• 2009: The Teachers TV surveyed 1000 teachers and found that more than half had considered leaving the profession because of stress. Meanwhile, a survey of teachers conducted by the NUT and others in 2010 found that 81.2 per cent experienced stress, anxiety or depression at work.

• 2012: The Guardian found that the number of teachers taking sick leave as a result of stress had increased by 10% over the past four years, with 15 local authorities seeing a 50% rise in stress-related absences, according to statistics released under the Freedom of Information Act. The FOI request found that 40 out of the 60 authorities who responded saw an increase in the number of teachers taking sick leave arising from stress between the academic years 2008-9 and 2011-12. The sharpest rises were in Tower Hamlets in London (up from 16 to 102 incidents), Oldham (up from 41 to 113) and Walsall (27 to 74).

• 2013: The Teachers’ Assurance revealed that stress levels within the profession were affecting the ability of teachers to successfully perform their roles. The organisation found that 76 per cent of teachers believed their stress levels were having repercussions on their health, while 56 per cent said they would definitely be better at their job if they were less stressed. 51 per cent admitted to ‘severe’ levels of work-related stress, whilst 64 per cent of respondents indicated that the threat of Performance Related Pay had increased their stress levels. Furthermore, the survey found that classroom teachers were more likely to feel the repercussions of stress than those in middle or senior management roles.