A study by Burke et al (2021) found a correlation between school leaders who experienced their work as meaningful and being stressed. The higher the meaning gained from work, the higher the stress.

One strategy some people suggest to mitigate against this is to view our roles as 'just' a job and that we should detach from the meaning and purpose that it gives us.

So should school leaders view their roles as ‘just’ a job to protect their well-being in a demanding role?

I find this problematic, for reasons I will explore below.

➡️ It's unrealistic for many educators
➡️ It means we lose many of the positive impacts of meaningful work such as life satisfaction and general health (Allan et al 2019)
➡️ Those we work with, students and other educators, will miss out on the benefits of us finding our work meaningful.

I think there are ways of maintaining this sense of meaning and purpose whilst having better well-being.

My own view is that to deal with some of the ‘dark sides’ of meaningful work we need to focus on increasing self-care.

Making sure we give time to what we find meaningful outside of work and making more time for the parts of the job we find most meaningful.

So for me, the answer to the question above is, no.

This is me posing for my website photo for my last school leadership position - excited and a little bit nervous about meeting the students at the beginning of the year. This role coincided with the beginning of the pandemic and as difficult as this was, it also forced me to be more intentional about my self-care as a school leader - something that both myself and my school community benefited from.

If you would like to find out how my 1:1 coaching can support you through the demands of school leadership whilst supporting your well-being then click below for a free chat.

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Allan, B. A., Batz-Barbarich, C., Sterling, H. M., & Tay, L. (2019). Outcomes of Meaningful Work: A Meta-Analysis. Journal of Management Studies, 56(3), 500–528.

https://doi.org/10.1111/joms.12406Burke, J., Kinnarney, P., & Salokangas, M. (2022). ‘Split in all directions’: an exploration of the impact of wellbeing and daily responsibilities on post-primary school leaders’ perceived stress. School Leadership & Management, 42(2), 110–125. https://doi.org/10.1080/13632434.2021.2016683

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