How the Great Resignation Impacts K-16 Education

The Great Resignation continues to bring into focus the need for employers to show appreciation for their workers in the form of pay, accommodations, and most of all a good workplace. Employees are realizing that they don’t have to stay with an employer who doesn’t treat them well. Simply put, there are other opportunities out there and unemployment is at a low 3.4%, which correlates to 5.7 million unemployed people.

Work in education has not been immune to this trend. There is a Great Resignation occurring in this profession as well. In a Politico.com article called The Great Resignation Comes for Schools, author Myah Ward tied K-12 education firmly to the same trend:

Workers in low-paying industries like hospitality, and high-stress industries like health care, have moved on to other jobs. Many education jobs fall into both categories on the pay and stress scales.

It is sad for me to hear that K-12 teaching is both high stress and low pay. It does not have to be that way. It turns out that colleges and universities are also being impacted by higher-than-normal resignations, forcing leaders to rethink benefits such as requests for remote working arrangements.

Before the pandemic and the lockdowns, employees were met with suspicion when they asked for accommodations to take care of themselves and others. This was also the case for teachers and academics. However, the past two years created a “proof of concept” for an entirely different work environment. It forced a reevaluation of trust and boundaries when teachers and academics stayed home, worked remotely, and change their work schedules away from the classroom.

Back in November 2021, Ray Schroeder wrote in Inside Higher Ed:

Remember that many of these adults have resigned their jobs in part to escape the rigidity and lack of prospects for advancement at their former places of employment. However, it is not all about money and flexibility. Over the past two years, we have seen again and again that an empathetic and supportive working culture is valued highly by employees. The pandemic has advanced the importance of well-being, inclusiveness, innovation, and entrepreneurship. We should be sure to model these practices in the delivery of all programs.

Just as with the larger workforce, educators have adapted to these new conditions. Educators are part of the public sector, something that they chose specifically because it traditionally offers more freedom, stability and flexibility: different work hours, a sense of collegiality, the idea that they work towards a greater purpose, and oftentimes a pension! So, if the new work environment can offer more freedom, stability, and flexibility, educators can readily accept it as a leap forward. This is essentially what happened.

Consequently, many educators already felt that education was moving towards a more corporate-minded environment that appeared to reduce or erode that freedom, stability, and flexibility. Working remotely offered a way out of becoming the proverbial cogs in the machine, and what they felt was a trend away from their ideals.

In essence, the changing work environment brought with it an acute awareness that the power dynamic was shifting towards the employee. With so many teachers and academics either leaving or working remotely, the draw of the corporate structure was diminished. They now had choices they did not have before. Even leaving was no longer the hurdle it was before.

Those of us in education administration must understand that much institutional knowledge and expertise also leaves when teachers and academics leave. Those qualities are invaluable and difficult to replace. Leaders in education administration must shift their expectation and offer new incentives for teachers and academics to stay. We can start by increasing pay to reflect that expertise and institutional knowledge.

Like Schroeder mentioned, for many employees it is not just about the money (although that is vitally important). Those who study employee work satisfaction have known this for decades. For everyone in the employment structure of education, it is also about acknowledging the humanity of the person, creating an environment where everyone feels they can bring their best selves to work, and fostering collegiality and creativity. This is before we even begin to speak about the impact this environment has on student learning. Employee needs must take precedence over the corporate mindset and the bottom line.

Frankly, this is a no-brainer for many of us. It is already inherent in the work we do as educators in the K-16 (both inside and outside the classroom). Reducing the effects of the Great Resignation in education will require a shift away from a culture that focuses on the product, profitability, deliverables, and returns on investment. Instead, it needs to focus on new types of incentives that center on the person and their place in the educational mission.