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Work Life Balance

The document discusses work-life balance challenges for band directors and provides strategies to help achieve a better balance. It notes that band directors face pressure, extensive time commitments, and difficulties separating work and personal life. Proactive strategies include setting boundaries like not working on Sundays, making time for family/friends, finding a support system, being organized and flexible, letting go and delegating responsibilities. The realities of burnout, health issues, and relationship problems from an unbalanced lifestyle are also highlighted. Contact information is provided for further discussion.

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Jon Dough
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35 views2 pages

Work Life Balance

The document discusses work-life balance challenges for band directors and provides strategies to help achieve a better balance. It notes that band directors face pressure, extensive time commitments, and difficulties separating work and personal life. Proactive strategies include setting boundaries like not working on Sundays, making time for family/friends, finding a support system, being organized and flexible, letting go and delegating responsibilities. The realities of burnout, health issues, and relationship problems from an unbalanced lifestyle are also highlighted. Contact information is provided for further discussion.

Uploaded by

Jon Dough
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd

Work-Life Balance for the Busy

Band Director
Ryan D. Shaw, Michigan State University
Laura Hyler, Belding Area Schools

Why don’t band teachers achieve their desired work-life balance?


• The pressure to maintain a program—pressure from students, parents,
administrators…and from oneself!
• Extreme time commitments and administrative duties that must be dealt
with after school, at night, on weekends, etc.
• Time spent with student and parents blends work and home domains—it
becomes hard to switch out of teacher persona
• Personality traits—many music teachers identify as “type A,”
perfectionist, control freak, etc. This makes delegating and letting go
difficult or impossible for some.

Proactive Strategies:
• Setting “hard and fast” personal rules
o (e.g., I won’t work on Sundays, I won’t check/reply to my work
email when at home)
• “Making time” for family/friends
o Prioritizing and setting aside blocks of time
o Date nights (with or without kids)
o Quality one-on-one time with significant other, close friend or
family member
• Finding a support system
o Co-complaining/venting to colleagues, friends
o Communication and partnership with significant other or family
member/friend
o Form a “band director club,” bowling team or other social group
• Become an obsessively proactive and organized planner
o Make a plan for busy times of year/events
o Go home in between school and events OR Skype/FaceTime with
family
o Set up “breaks” and extra help for significant other
Proactive Strategies (continued):
• Being open and flexible in your mindset
o Be willing to consider cutting back or changing something that’s
“always been done this way”
o Be open to the idea that more time spent does not automatically
make for success (quality vs. quantity, the power of a looming
deadline).
• Let go and delegate
o Being convinced that you must have sole control of all aspects of
your classroom and program is a harmful delusion
o Empowering others (students, staff) improves everything from your
work-life balance to others’ sense of identity and worth

Frightening realities to remember:


• Around 50% of teachers quit the profession before 5 years of teaching;
stress can be a major factor
• Workloads are intensifying in subtle ways through new focus on teacher
accountability and “data-driven instruction”
• Off-kilter work-life balance often leads to…
o Burn-out, bitterness, disillusionment with work
o Health problems
o Arguments, disagreements, fights with loved ones
o Divorce (can be a factor among many)

Luckily, many of these things are (at least


somewhat) in your control: take a step
back and prioritize.

Contact us:

Ryan Shaw: [email protected]

Laura Hyler: [email protected]

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