Work/life balance

[Ideclarethumbwar]

I took on a pastoral middle management job alongside my teaching duties in Sept 2020. Quite frankly, as is common in our profession, there aren’t enough hours in the day to do the job and the pastoral role takes a lot away from my teaching; I feel my planning and marking is nothing compared to what it used to be.
Additionally, the long working hours (and still not getting everything done) is encroaching on family time with my husband and young children. I do not cope with stress very well, and I find this new role and its responsibilities quite stressful.

I recently had another job offer which I declined in order to stick with my current job. I decided this as it’s a good job, and the pay is great so I’d rather try to make it work. I am taking steps to work on my stress management and also beginning to take more care of my mental and physical health.

Does anyone have any tips on maintaining a good balance between work and home, particularly when the job is time consuming/stressful? And any stress management tips to help me work on that would be gratefully received.

You need to accept that not everything will get done and prioritise. Have a clear cut off time that you leave work and don't take anything home. If it's the point that you can't do the basics of the job in a realistic time frame, then workload and school policy is the issue, in which case you need to speak to a line manager (who probably won't listen.)
I'm in a middle management position and I don't work outside of school. I work 10 hours per day, 5 days per week. I don't work on school holidays. I think what I do is plenty but part of that is accepting I can't do it all, and ensuring school are aware. The last school I worked at, I was working 12 hour days, 7 days per week. They didn't listen that it wasn't me who was the problem but their procedures, so I left. It was the best thing I ever did for my mental health. It makes me sad hearing about my ex-colleagues days because nothing has changed, and nothing will until people realise and stand up for the fact that schools need to take more responsibility in work-life balance.