By Ken, Teacher in Warsaw
Hello everyone!
Burnout can happen to any of us. Whether we are just starting our careers or are well-seasoned veterans it is something that feels really horrible and if you haven’t experienced it, it’s definitely something you don’t want to have! Unfortunately I have experienced teaching burnout in Poland, and today I’m going to share with you how I got to that stage, what I did to rectify the situation and my overall experiences. But first of all…
What exactly is burnout, and what does it feel like?
Apart from a very popular video game involving destroying cars, burnout is when you literally cannot bring yourself to do something anymore. You wake up and you dread switching on the computer only to hear someone entering your Zoom room. Even the little ping stresses you out and you begin to really hate your existence not only as a teacher, but as a human. It’s like being really fed up at work, but a more extreme version of it.
What caused my burnout?
To fully understand my position – I am classified as a self-employed teacher, meaning that I can work for many different companies at one time and I have no direct contracts. I’m also able to plan my own schedule too, which can both be a blessing and curse simultaneously!
Simply put – I took on far too much work. Here is a rough idea of what I was doing:
Monday Wake up at 7, get the tram to the client, teach 9-5, then tram home and teach 630-8
Tuesday Teach from 8-11, gym in afternoon and any errands
Wednesday Get to the office for 8 and teach almost nonstop for 12 hours until 8pm
Thursday Wake up at 7, teach online from 8-930, travel to another client and teach from 11-330, go home and teach online from 5-8
Friday Same as Monday, but only 9-5 teaching
**On top of all of this, I also ran a WhatsApp group helping teachers move to Warsaw so my phone never stopped going off!
I had this schedule for around a year, and as you can probably imagine it was just far too much. There were some days where I felt like I couldn’t breathe and I eventually burned out. If you EVER feel burned out, don’t ignore it. It’s a clear sign you need to have a more relaxed schedule. Oh and please remember to eat and drink! I cannot emphasise this enough! A good drink to help you relax is melisa, or lemon balm.
How did I overcome my burnout?
A complete overhaul of my schedule, and cutting back on my responsibilities, that’s how!
If you’re anything like me, you enjoy helping people and at times you spread yourself out too thin. During this time, I learned to be more selfish and to look after myself first before helping other people. Self-care is SO important and if you don’t do it already I highly recommend it. Living in the city is such an amazing experience but it can easily overwhelm you to the point that sometimes you get so wrapped up in things that you forget about basic needs and time for yourself. I took a step back, and figured out a stripped-down version of my schedule. Also got to the gym more, ate healthier and started taking vitamins. It’s all helped a lot. Having time to actually sit down and enjoy a meal instead of wolfing everything down in 10 seconds is an underrated pleasure!
Nowadays I only work 4 days a week and I don’t look after the WhatsApp group. Having your phone go off all the time isn’t fun!
What else did I learn from this experience, and what can we do to avoid burnout?
The biggest thing I learned was to know my limits, and not exceed them. We are only human, not robots and cannot work 24/7 without proper rest and relaxation. Many of us don’t sleep at all much but sleep if anything is underrated. This all might seem pretty obvious, but when you have tunnel vision and all that matters is work then everything else disappears in a sea of irrelevance.
If you want to avoid burnout I suggest remembering that life isn’t all about work. As a self-employed teacher there is perhaps more incentive to work more as I am only paid for the lessons I teach. I can take as many holidays as I want, however of course if I’m not teaching then I’m not earning. And with several quiet times during the year, there is always an added pressure to save money for those times. In saying all of that, work-life balance should be the most important thing. It’s a bit of a trendy buzz phrase nowadays but it is of the utmost importance! Striking that balance is key to living a productive but fulfilling life.
Final words
Burnout is a very serious condition and hopefully you never experience it. The good news is that it can be easily avoided by focusing on our own physical and mental health and by maintaining a healthy work-life balance. Taking time to do things and making time to do things we actually enjoy and need to do are also so important and often get overlooked in the pursuit of more money. As the phrase goes, money can’t buy you happiness and neither does working 12 – 16 hour days almost every weekday.
If you’re interested in seeing what Poland has to offer you, why not reach out to us? You can find out more about our Poland program here!
