Hey mamas!
In the online ESL industry, most of us are working for two or more companies to bring in a stable income that covers the bills each month. However, with the responsibilities of motherhood, taking care of the family, cleaning the house, making breakfast, lunch, and dinner, looking after the kids all day or taking them to school, picking them up, checking homework, making sure everyone stays on their daily routines…. and maintaining our careers. Sigh! It’s hard! And sometimes we suffer burnout. I have definitely experienced this during my ESL career. It’s actually quite funny because some people think because we work from home our lives must be “so easy” and our jobs must be effortless and we just “sit around all day at home”. It’s insulting and those people really have no idea how hard and mentally exhausting being an online ESL teacher can be, especially if you work for multiple companies and have a family to take care of.
The other day I was speaking to an ESL mom and she was telling me that she works throughout the night so she can home-school her kids during the day. She’s tired and quite frankly, sometimes, we all are. Currently, I work morning shifts with one company and night shifts with another. It’s working for me but in order for it to work there are a few things I must do to avoid burnout.
We should probably understand what burnout really means –
“Burnout is more than mere tiredness, and it goes beyond the ordinary stress of everyday work. Burnout is characterized by chronic exhaustion and strong feelings of frustration and powerlessness. You lose motivation, and become less productive. Studies also link burnout to numerous emotional and physical health problems.” -Awake!
Burnout can definitely cripple you and make you totally useless to yourself, your job and others.
This is something you should do before you reach burnout. It’s important to always think about what’s most important to you. Family? Spirituality? Your peace? Maintaining friendships? Yes, our careers are very important but if we don’t prioritize the things that are most important to us and make time for that we will become unhappy, unmotivated and eventually burnout strikes. Making sure we prioritize the things most dear to us can positively impact our careers as ESL teachers! How? Well whether you’re teaching kids or adults, we need to be energetic, outgoing, fun and interesting. It’s much easier to exude those traits when we are genuinely happy because we’re taking care of the things that are most important to us.
I always recommend working for at least two ESL companies at the same to ensure job security. However, if this is something you are doing with two or more companies, you need to make sure you’re not only working for them but those companies are working for YOU. For example, you know it’s hard for you to keep up with everything in your life and work without getting exhausted, maybe work for a company with a fixed schedule and let the other company be something that has a flexible schedule. One where you can take time off easily or book classes on a weekly basis. In that way, you can gauge how you are feeling on any given week and schedule your work around that. Another suggestion would be to take up a secondary position, writing lesson plans or mentoring teachers. This is a good idea because you don’t have to put out as much physical energy or constantly be hyped for a long period of time.
Find something that can help you blow off steam that is not harmful to you or others around you. Being a working mother while taking care of the family and the home can be exhausting and frustrating. It’s important to let go of some of that frustration sometimes. For me, I enjoy going to the gym and weightlifting, for you it may be running or doing some other physical activity. But I strongly suggest keeping up with a routine of physical exercise as much as possible. It’s great for your mind and body and helps relieve stress.
“Good quality sleep is important for brain functioning, emotional well-being, physical health, daytime performance and personal safety.”-Heath Navigator.org.
Please don’t underestimate the value of sleep. Getting enough sleep might be difficult for some of you moms because you may be teaching during the night in order to take care of your kids during the day, however, it’s important that you try to make necessary adjustments in order to make room for this important part of our lives. This might mean taking a nap during the day while the kids are napping, asking a friend or your husband to watch the kids while you take a snooze, or it may even mean replacing a couple hours of teaching at night with sleeping and taking on a secondary position, like curriculum design that you can do during the day while your kids are around. It’s also important that you eat a healthy, balanced diet. Eating a lot of fried, greasy foods will slow us down and make us feel sluggish. I totally understand that when you have kids, it’s very convenient to just munch on whatever snack you have around the house because you may not have time to get in a proper meal, but please don’t do this to yourself mama. Try to get in your fruits, vegetables, drink lots of water and maybe even a daily multi-vitamin.
“It is health that is real wealth and not pieces of gold and silver.” – Mahatma Gandhi
Yes, find the time to do fun things that you love to do. After you’ve taught your classes, get someone to babysit the kids and just go have fun. Anything you love! Meet up with your girlfriends to chit chat and have coffee, go shopping, go for a long walk, go swimming, go to the hairdresser and get your hair done, or get a mani-pedi at the salon, treat yourself and just relax. Taking a break from routine from time to time is very good for your mental health. Please don’t feel guilty about doing that, especially if you have been working hard both secularly and taking care of the family. Trust me, I know all about mommy guilt but even though you’re called “mom”, you are still [Insert name here]. Once in a while, there’s nothing wrong with taking time off to enjoy yourself.
I hope these steps can help make your life and your responsibilities more manageable. Although this advice might be easier said than done, remember that burnout helps no one. So, it’s better to slow down when we are feeling overwhelmed than to stop completely because we’ve reached burnout. Our mental health as ESL teachers is important to keep up the quality of our work, the happiness and well-being of our family and our ability to prosper as an individual. Take care of yourself mama; fill yourself up because you can’t pour from an empty cup.
With all my love,
Becky
Sources: https://www.jw.org/en/publications/magazines/g201409/job-burn-out-prevention/#?insight[search_id]=d9cd602a-34b6-4526-a66e-18b3a66686db&insight[search_result_index]=0 , https://www.thebalancecareers.com/how-to-deal-with-work-burnout-4142144 , https://www.healthnavigator.org.nz/healthy-living/sleep/why-sleep-is-important/, https://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/features/foods-fight-fatigue#1
Disclaimer: The material on this website is not to be used for medical advice, diagnosis or treatment.
