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What School Leaders Do to Demoralize Their Staff?

By Ryan Crawley,

24 Jan 2020

What are some of the things an administrator can do to demoralize their teachers and leave them wanting to call in sick for the rest of the week? There are quite a few things which can demoralize I have witnessed myself over the years, and I am sure many of you could share even more stories of your own. There are three things that can be troubling in a teaching career.

These things can demoralize and make a year great or unbearable.

One of these are the students in your classroom.

While they are all mostly good kids overall, sometimes students can play off of one another and it can become detrimental to the behavior of the whole class.

The second item that can make or break a year are the parents of the students.

I’ve had a few classes that were full of great kids, but their parents could be close to impossible to deal with.

Sometimes you just can’t make people happy no matter what you do. The third thing that can make a school year difficult, or even demoralize a whole teaching career, are the leaders of the school.

The administrators in the school district are usually solid individuals and interested in helping their teachers succeed.

However, there are a few administrators out there that are entirely clueless and it is unpleasant to work underneath them.

It is not uncommon to have disagreements with your principal or superintendent, but it is always tricky to walk a fine line between sticking up for your case or being insubordinate.

It doesn’t help that the person you are disagreeing with is the one that demoralize and has the power to write you up on your permanent record or even fire you. Listed below are just a few of these instances where an administrator can break the spirit of their staff and leave them disheartened. Fail in Backing Up Your Teachers Every classroom will have discipline problems.

There is no way around it.

Some are major difficulties and other times it is only some minor headaches.

Most of these troubles are handled by the teacher in the classroom.

The principal is not even made aware of the woes in the classroom because the teacher is able to handle almost anything. However, if you have taught long enough, there will be a time when a student is just too out of control and needs to be removed from the classroom.

Sending them to the office for the principal to have a chat with them can usually straighten kids out quickly.

If that doesn’t work, the principal even will call the student’s parents to talk to them about the difficulties their child is creating in the classroom.

At least, that is what a good administrator does. I am betting that many of you have had the complete opposite reaction from your administrator.

It was my sixth year of teaching and it was the very first time I had to send someone to the office.

The student was just out of control and talking back without showing any sign of respect.

I sent the student down to the office after he was repeatedly disrupting class.

The principal sent him back five minutes later with a note that said I should be able to handle it myself.

The first time I sent a kid after six years of teaching, and the administrator response demoralize me.

I lost all respect for the administrator at that exact moment. Making Decisions Without Discussing Them with the Staff First Almost every administrator was first a teacher before they moved up the chain of command.

But once in a while, it has appeared that they have forgotten just what being a professional educator was like.

Making important decisions without consulting those who it is affecting the most should be common sense to most bosses.

Being asked your opinion by an administrator goes a long way in the respect department. Throwing Teachers Under the Bus As an educator, have you ever made a decision that you felt was correct at the time, but then it doesn’t go so well? Everybody makes important split-second decisions no matter what career they are in, and sometimes they don’t always turn out as we thought they would.

Still, if you were acting in the best interest of your employer, then they should definitely have your back. How many educators out there have felt like their administrator has thrown them under the bus? How many of you feel as if the administrator not only ran you over with a bus, but then reversed it and ran you over again? Whether they are pointing the finger of blame at you to pacify parents or doing it to save themselves from having to answer questions from the school board, it makes you start questioning why should you try so hard to appease someone when they can demoralize you at the drop of a hat. Keep in Mind You didn’t get into the teaching field to play politics and make administrators happy.

You entered into the educational world because you wanted to make positive changes in your students’ lives.

Keep this in mind when you are struggling with administrators that just don’t seem to understand.

You aren’t in it for them.

You are doing all of this for the kids.

Keep your head up and keep trudging forward.

Look on the positive side, maybe your administrator is retiring in a couple years anyway.