Getting stressed in 2025? Take action now to prepare

Five years ago, I started a research project emotional laborcompassion fatigue and burnout in Alberta education workers.

The results from the oldest study suggested a wide range of emotional and mental distress among teachers, educational assistants, school leaders and support staff.

This suffering has been documented globally and across Canadasuggesting that the educator’s mental and emotional well-being continues to decline and interventions are needed.

How educators manage burnout

Recently, my research team analyzed specific interventions that the 4,000 survey respondents used to manage their symptoms of compassion fatigue and burnout. Education worker respondents were recruited online through the Alberta Teachers’ Association and through internal newsletters and social media. Responses were collected in three periods (2020, 2021 and 2023). We defined intervention as a practice or strategy used to address suffering or distress.

Overwhelmingly, our respondents indicated that they used self-directed or individual interventions to cope with difficulties at work, such as going to the gym, walking alone, talking to friends and spouses, or doing hobbies .

While individual interventions are part of coping with distress, one person cannot take care of the effects of a toxic workplace or organizational culture.

Heart Care Planning Promotional Video for Educators: How Do I Get Well?

“Canaries” at work

In their recent book, The Burnout Challenge: Managing People’s Relationships with Workplacesworkplace burnout experts and psychology professors emeritus Christina Maslach and Michael P. Leiter used canary in the coal mine metaphor to illustrate this point.

Similar to how miners used canaries to indicate the presence of toxic gas in the mine, high number of absences of adults from the workplace suggests a toxic environment. But here’s the catch: you can save the canary by bringing it to fresh air, but if you put it back in the toxic mine, it will get sick again.

So while individual interventions can help temporarily relieve workplace stress, the workplace itself needs to address the underlying issues.

Organizational supports

In our survey, we asked participants to share the strategies they use to support well-being in the workplace. Over 40% of respondents added “improving working and classroom conditions” when asked if they wanted to tell the researchers about their experiences with compassion fatigue, emotional labor, or burnout.

In addition to prioritizing appropriate resources for schools, there are clear opportunities for education systems to integrate organizational and school-based interventions for employees, such as providing professional development opportunities or micro-programs that target and alleviate workplace stressors.

Such organizational resources were the least mentioned forms of support currently used by survey participants, but improving school culture and system could have the greatest impact on attracting and retaining employees.

Get out!

An opportunity for building well-being emerged as a new trend in our latest data analysis. Across the three data collection points, several respondents wrote “getting outside” as an “other” form of intervention they used to feel better.

This perspective led me, along with collaborators Nadeen Halls, a consulting teacher, and Patrick Hanlon, of the Academic Support Offices of the Werklund School of Education, to develop a pilot “Walk and Learn” professional learning workshop for burned-out educators. I mixed two interventions, environmental and organizations to create a walk for local teachers so they can learn about compassion fatigue and burnout while taking a walk on trails outside of Calgary in Treaty Territory 7still at home to Métis regions 5 and 6.

As part of the walk, I carefully selected seating areas along the route for a reflective diary on workplace wellbeing. This combined experience of physical activity and quiet reflection seems to have a positive effect on the participants. In our post-walk feedback, 100% of participants expressed their appreciation for this type of professional learning. On our most recent walk in October, we had two returnees – high praise from teachers who don’t like to take the same session twice!

Partnership with the local teachers association

The design of the rides was critical. We are flexible about the route we choose, making changes to suit the abilities of all our walkers. We have arranged the walks through a local chapter of the Alberta Teachers’ Association and also some school staff teams so that the walks are scheduled during the regular school day rather than in the evenings or on weekends. I have also secured some funds to purchase items such as bleacher style gloves, toques, tissues and cushions to ensure the general comfort of the rides.

After listening and reflecting on compassion fatigue and burnout, participants walked around and discussed the impact of these psychological hazards with their peers and colleagues. They shared their strategies to support their own well-being and that of their students.

Perhaps most importantly, participants noted that the walks helped them realize they were not alone in their suffering. These conversations between walks created social supporta starting point for improving workplace culture.

The popularity of the walks determined us design a learning podcast series so others can enjoy the benefits of movement and learning. The HEARTcare Podcast and Learning Series aims to both teach about important workplace wellness concepts while getting listeners to be physically active and mentally engaged.

HEARTcare Episode 1: What is compassion and compassion fatigue?

Unprompted feedback from podcast listeners has been positive. Our next step is to investigate the utility of podcasts as a professional learning tool and stress relief strategy.

Taking a walk or listening to a podcast is not the magic wand or cure-all that will save education. But the evidence suggests that increasing the number of daily steps has positive benefits for mental healthand connecting with other people through activity can improve physical well-being.

So don’t be afraid to stress out this year – and be sure to bring a friend or colleague. They might be the only steps you need to take to feel better.