Quitting is good.
It’s a sign of knowing yourself and honoring that.
The word quitting has earned itself quite a negative little connotation, but it’s smart to recognize when something isn’t working for you and change course accordingly.
Quiet quitting teaching is not about quitting your job. It doesn’t even mean you have to stop caring about your job or stop doing it well. Not at all. It’s about quitting the practices that have allowed it to become toxic to your well-being and for the profession at large.
Now this might look different for every teacher, but there are some common threads that I hear most educators talk about.
- The unspoken expectation to take on unpaid labor
- Increasing demand without increase in pay and planning time to match
- The unspoken expectation to spend our own money on classroom materials
- Unrealistic expectations regarding differentiated instruction and data collection
- Supervising (babysitting) students during non instructional hours
Teachers can’t solve these things single-handedly, but we can practice our ability to set and maintain perfectly reasonable boundaries. It is easier said than done, but with practice we can keep getting better and better.
My Teacher Quiet Quitting Story
This is the hardest teaching year I’ve had by far. I was burnt out weeks into the school year. That was a first for me. I’m in a new school district teaching a new grade level in a new state. As if that’s not hard enough already, there have been some other major shocks.
- The culture of micromanagement and group think with very little room for diversity of thought
- Pervasive student behavior issues with inadequate and ineffective support systems in place
- Days with no break all school day- no planning time, lunch break, etc (I’m still blown away that this is even legal!)
- Babysitting students before school, after school, at lunch, and at recess.
My whole life was work, sleep, eat, repeat. I was miserable. And I was getting physically ill as well. It was not sustainable.
At first, I thought the only answer was to change jobs, maybe even careers. But I’ve made some changes that have made a huge difference. More than I could have imagined possible. And now I can honestly say I enjoy my job most days again.
I still have a long way to go, but I can definitely tell I’m headed in the right direction.
What Teacher Quiet Quitting Is Not
Because of the negative connotation the word quitting has, I think it’s important to clarify a few points.
Quiet quitting is NOT
- Giving up on my students
- Not caring about my job
- Phoning it in and doing my job halfway
Quiet quitting is sticking to reasonable workplace expectations when administrators, parents, and other stakeholders are constantly trying to push unfair and unrealistic ones on you. It’s deciding for myself what it means to be a good teacher and maintain a reasonable balance in my life.
The Quiet Quitting Practices I’m Working On
1- I’m actively trying to drop all the balls that don’t matter.
Earlier this school year, I listened to an amazing podcast called Unlearning Self-Sacrifice for Women. It had me examine what it meant to me to be a good teacher. For me, that was easy.
- My students feel safe, comfortable, and happy in my classroom.
- My classroom environment fosters a love of reading and learning.
- My students are learning and growing.
That podcast encouraged me to drop all the balls that other people wanted me to keep in the air that did not help me fulfill my ideal of being a good teacher.
It turned dropping the ball from a negative thing into a positive one.
What does being a good teacher mean to you? What can you drop today that does not meet that criteria?
2- I’m actively aiming to stick as close to my contract hours as possible.
This is hard in my current school district. I’ve never had so many demands and so little planning time. It’s been a very difficult combination.
First, I set a boundary that I wouldnt’ work past 4:30 on weekdays and no more than a few hours on Sundays. Now I’m at a point where I leave before four on most days and rarely work on weekends at all.
This has been the single most rewarding change I’ve made. It’s allowed me to spend time doing things I enjoy with people I love. And that has rejuvenated me beyond words. It’s also been fantastic for my students and everybody around me.
When I am at work, I can be present, joyful, and energized. At least waaaay more than before!
3- I ask myself “Is this really necessary?”
Kudos to my therapist for this one.
It goes hand in hand with number two above. In order to reduce my working hours, I’ve gotten better at working smarter instead of harder and longer.
I kind of keep these two questions in my mind for everything I do at work now.
- Is this really necesaary?
- Is there a more efficient way to do this?
Is it necessary to grade as many papers as I do?
Is it necessary to grade all of them that thoroughly?
Are there tasks I’m doing that students could be responsible for?
Are there tasks I’m doing a parent could help with?
Are there tasks that are eating up my time that I could get rid of all together?
Can I prep this while the kids are in the classroom? Can they help me or do it altogether?
I’ve stopped grading as many papers, sending as many parent communications, and prepping for the next day after work hours. The world did not fall apart. In fact, it got a little bit brighter.
I’ve learned that things will often take as long as you allow them to and there will always be more work waiting for me. I might as well find a reasonable place to pause that doesn’t leave me feeling exhausted and resentful.
4- I started creating workflows and a weekly schedule.
One of the ways I’ve been able to accomplish more in less time is by creating workflows and a weekly schedule for any repeatable tasks.
I don’t always stick to them, but having them in place saves me a ton of time and mental energy. Here are some examples.
- I only check my mailbox on Friday mornings.
- I only check my email at the start and end of each school day.
- I write lesson plans during my contract hours on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. Anything I don’t finish now gets finished in our weekly planning meeting instead of on my own time.
- I have a template for my lesson plan so I just have to plug in any changes each week.
Knowing when and how I’m going to do repeatable tasks gives my brain less to remember and saves me time.
5- I ask forgiveness instead of permission.
Let me keep it real.
I’m not asking forgiveness at all. I’ve been giving two full-time jobs without the compensation or time to be realistic. So I will not apologize for what does not get done.
Teachers are constantly bombarded with other people’s expectations. Most of them have nothing to do with what’s best for my students or fair and realistic for me as a professional and human being.
Document this data.
Differentiate instruction in every subject.
Post all learning targets and keep them current.
Write your lesson plans this way by this date.
There’s no way teachers can keep up with the demands without driving ourselves crazy and burning ourselves out. So I’ve largely stopped trying.
As I stated above, I’m dropping any balls that I’m not convinced are worth my time. Any demands that I don’t think are the best use of time for me or my students.
If anyone takes me to task, I can explain what I choose to do in my classroom, and I can also explain what I don’t do.
I need more time. Two hours a week (Yep, that’s about how much planning time we get in my district.) is not enough time for me to plan, grade, make copies, contact parents, and do all that you’re asking me to do. If you disagree, please do show me how. I am totally open to learning!
6- I’ve started opting out of unpaid labor as much as possible.
On quite a regular basis, I get an email guilt tripping me for more unpaid labor.
We need more teachers on this committee.
We need volunteers for this event.
We need help with this task.
My first instinct is to say yes.
I want to please my administrators. I want to help my school community. I want to be there for my students.
But then I have to stop and ask myself why no compensation is even being offered. I have to stop and ask myself what I’d be giving up to fit in this one new thing
Time away from my business? Family and friends? Rest? Play?
Plus I remind myself that continuing to say yes to unpaid labor continues to send the message that teachers are volunteers. We are not. Furthermore, we need and deserve that compensation. We put in more than our share of unpaid hours as is. We need it to be noted that we need more. Me continuing to work for free does nothing except preserve the status quo.
I’m not saying you should say no to every request that comes your way. But I’ve started to weigh these insidious “requests” a lot more carefully.
7- I started creating and maintaining work/life separation and boundaries.
After setting boundaries around how many hours I worked, I took steps to preserve them.
- I do not keep work email on my phone. This prevents me from checking it outside of work hours unless I’m making a conscious decision to do so.
- I try not to text colleagues about work related matters outside of work hours. I also try not to respond until school hours when people message me about nonurgent work matters in my free time.
- I turn my ClassDojo notification off at the end of each workday. Then I turn them on again during school hours. I usually remove the app from my HomeScreen altogether on weekends.
I’m already constantly thinking about work outside of school hours. Having these boundaries in place helps me to focus on other important aspects of my life as well. I am not an on-call employee, so I stopped acting like one.
8- I’m setting myself up to have several viable options in my life after teaching.
Having to constantly set and maintain these quiet quitting boundaries is exhausting. If teaching keeps going in this direction, it is not a sustainable long term career for me any longer. It’s exhausting to constantly try to respect yourself in a system that doesn’t. It’s hard to have to swim upstream
All.The.Time.
However, setting all of these boundaries also allows me time to plan and prepare for my life after teaching, whenever that may be.
Even with quiet quitting, it is still difficult to find enough time to work on my business. It would be impossible without those boundaries in place.
But I prioritize it. I make the time to set myself up for success week by week, little by little. I know the work I’m doing now is increasing my skillset and making me more marketable. It’s expanding my options for when I choose to leave teaching and what I can do when I do.
I’m setting myself up to have several viable options. It’s better to have them and not need them than the other way around.
What would quiet quitting look like for you? What would it take for you to be happier and more at ease in your teaching role?
Whatever it is, remember that it’s about practice, not perfection. Its about showing yourself that you matter and showing up for yourself over and over again. And you never know who else is taking notice.
I read a great quote (I wish I cold remember where) about the education system being built on the unpaid labor of teachers. Sadly, this is too true and quiet quitting won’t fix this.
But it can help us preserve our sanity while building up our options and opportunities for the day the system completely loses its mind to a point we can no longer tolerate.
I feel a lot better and happier the more I quit toxic workplace habits. It’s also been better for my students and everybody in my life. It doesn’t solve everything, but imagine if we all took more steps in this direction.
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