How to Burn Out Your Staff in One Grading Period

(A satirical guide for administrators who definitely don’t want to do this.)

Let’s imagine you have a bold new initiative this year. Not improving morale. Not increasing teacher retention. Your mission is far more ambitious.

You want a building full of talented educators to arrive at fall break wondering whether they accidentally chose the wrong profession.

Burnout doesn’t require a major crisis. It grows through ordinary moments that happen over and over again. A passing comment. A missed opportunity. A meeting that leaves people feeling smaller than when they walked in.

Most educators don’t lose their passion overnight. They slowly stop believing their passion matters.

As counselors, we often meet teachers after they’ve reached that point. By then, they’re usually carrying more than exhaustion. Many have begun questioning their effectiveness, their value, or whether anyone notices what they’re giving each day. The encouraging part is that the same daily interactions that contribute to burnout can also create a workplace where people thrive.

Let’s start with the version that doesn’t.

Keep the Spotlight on Mistakes

Nothing drains enthusiasm quite like making sure errors receive immediate attention while exceptional work quietly blends into the background.

A bulletin board misses one update, and everyone notices.

Meanwhile, someone spends an extra hour helping a struggling student reconnect with learning. That effort simply becomes part of the expectation.

From an organizational psychology perspective, people naturally pay attention to whatever leaders consistently reinforce. If conversations revolve around what isn’t working, staff eventually conclude that excellence is simply the minimum requirement.

Recognition isn’t about handing out praise for the sake of positivity. It gives people information about what matters. A specific observation carries far more weight than a generic compliment because it tells someone exactly how they contributed to the culture of the school.

Expect Every Teacher to Thrive the Same Way

Schools are full of remarkably different people.

One teacher builds energy by collaborating with everyone in the hallway. Another protects fifteen quiet minutes during lunch because that’s what allows them to stay emotionally available for students all afternoon.

Neither approach is wrong.

Strengths-based leadership recognizes that people contribute differently. One educator creates innovative lessons. Another notices students who are beginning to withdraw. Someone else brings calm to situations that might otherwise escalate.

The goal isn’t to make everyone operate the same way. Healthy organizations create room for different strengths to support a shared mission.

Assume Burnout Is a Personal Problem

When multiple teachers express similar concerns, the easiest explanation is often, “People just need better boundaries.”

Sometimes that’s true.

Sometimes the environment deserves closer examination.

Organizational psychology asks leaders to become curious about systems instead of immediately focusing on individuals. If several people experience the same obstacle, there may be something in the workflow, communication, or expectations that deserves attention.

That shift in perspective changes the conversation from “What’s wrong with these teachers?” to “What is this environment asking people to carry?”

Those questions lead to very different solutions.

Save Encouragement for Evaluation Season

Few things create uncertainty faster than silence.

Teachers spend months wondering whether they’re meeting expectations, only to receive a long evaluation after habits have already formed.

Most people don’t need constant reassurance. They do benefit from regular feedback that is timely, honest, and specific.

A quick conversation after observing a lesson often accomplishes more than several pages written months later. Those small moments communicate that leadership is paying attention, not simply keeping records.

Mistake Compliance for Commitment

A faculty can follow every procedure and still feel disconnected from the work.

Compliance keeps an organization functioning.

Connection gives people a reason to invest themselves beyond the minimum.

The strongest schools aren’t built because everyone follows directions perfectly. They develop because people believe their work has meaning and because the relationships surrounding that work make difficult days worth returning for.

Policies create consistency.

Relationships create commitment.

Forget That Leadership Is Emotionally Contagious

Every administrator influences the emotional climate of the building whether they intend to or not.

People notice hurried conversations. They notice patience. They notice when someone appears genuinely interested in hearing an answer rather than simply asking a question.

Human nervous systems constantly gather information about safety through relationships. Staff members are doing this with leaders every single day.

A calm presence doesn’t eliminate stress, but it often changes how people experience difficult moments together.

Wait Until Someone Is Running on Empty

Support often arrives after the warning signs have been visible for weeks.

The teacher who suddenly becomes quiet.

The one who stops volunteering ideas.

The person whose sense of humor quietly disappears.

Burnout rarely arrives without leaving clues first.

Relational leadership invites administrators to notice those shifts early enough to ask a simple question.

“How are you really doing?”

Sometimes that conversation changes very little.

Sometimes it changes everything.

A Different Way to Lead

One of the central ideas in organizational psychology is that workplaces function through relationships rather than policies alone. Procedures certainly matter, but people experience organizations through everyday interactions.

Teachers spend much of their day helping students believe they are capable of learning,

recovering from mistakes, and growing into who they can become.

The adults in the building need that same experience.

Leaders who know the strengths of their staff create opportunities for those strengths to become visible. They notice effort that might otherwise go unseen. They remain curious before becoming critical. Over time, those habits shape the emotional culture of a campus far more than a motivational poster ever could.

The schools people remember rarely have perfect schedules, unlimited funding, or flawless systems.

They have leaders who make people feel seen.

That feeling doesn’t erase the hard parts of education.

It simply reminds teachers that they aren’t carrying those hard parts alone.

Burnout is rarely created by one terrible day. More often, it’s built through ordinary interactions that quietly communicate, “You’re on your own.”

The opposite message can be communicated just as consistently.

It begins with one conversation.

Katie Monts is a Licensed Professional Counselor and former secondary educator. Katie also co-owns New Rhythms Therapeutic Center and is the Director of Operations and Professional Resourcing. It is these experiences that give Katie passion to speak encouragement and hope to the educators and administrators of our schools today.