Stress and Teaching: Why It’s One of the Most Stressful Professions (and What to Do About It)

Teaching is consistently ranked among the most stressful professions. Surveys and scientific studies from across the globe show that stress among teachers — and what stress actually is and how it affects the body — is not only widespread but also impacts both their health and the quality of education they provide.

Key Takeaways

• Teaching is consistently ranked as one of the most stressful professions due to high cognitive, emotional, and administrative demands.
• Chronic stress among teachers stems from workload overload, constant policy changes, pupil misbehavior, and limited professional autonomy.
• New teachers are especially vulnerable due to classroom management challenges, negative student behavior, and pressure to create safe, high-performing learning environments.
• Chronic teacher stress impacts both health (burnout, cardiovascular strain, mental fatigue) and educational outcomes (lower student performance, classroom tension, and higher turnover).
• Reducing teacher stress requires both individual strategies (mindfulness, boundaries, strong student-teacher relationships) and structural changes (less bureaucracy, consistent policies, more autonomy, and leadership support).

Shocking Numbers Behind Teacher Stress

• 93% of teachers report high stress levels at some point in their careers
• Only 7% consider themselves well-adjusted to their job
• Teachers feel stressed 61% of the time, compared to 30% in other jobs
• 90% have considered quitting due to high workload
• 87% know colleagues who left for the same reason
• 96% say work stress negatively affects their personal life
• In the Netherlands, 20% of teachers reported burnout symptoms in 2014

These numbers, drawn from studies in the UK, USA, and the Netherlands, likely reflect similar patterns in other industrialized countries. Stress affects teachers at every level, from primary school to higher education. Stress in education mirrors the same patterns found in many workplaces — from lack of control to chronic overload.

What Causes Teacher Stress?

Many of these challenges reflect broader workplace stress patterns.

1. Overload and Bureaucracy

Teachers face growing demands for accountability, often involving excessive administrative work. For instance, some must document every piece of feedback or take photos of lessons for auditing. These tasks add hours to their week and reflect a lack of trust in their professional autonomy.

2. Constant Policy Changes

Frequent changes in teaching methods and curriculum — often politically driven — force teachers to rewrite materials and adapt without sufficient support. These changes may not even benefit student learning but increase teacher stress and reduce motivation.

3. Psychological Demands on New Teachers

New teachers are particularly vulnerable. They report high stress due to classroom management challenges, negative student behavior — a form of social stress — that can be especially draining — and the pressure to create a safe, stimulating environment.

4. Broader Categories of Stressors

Stress factors can be grouped into:

• High psychological demands
• Negative social interactions
• Pupil misbehavior
• Organizational inefficiencies
• Limited professional growth opportunities

The first three are especially impactful.

The Cost of Stress in Education

Effects on Teachers' Health

Burnout is a major consequence. According to the WHO, it stems from poorly managed chronic workplace stress. Symptoms include exhaustion, cynicism, and reduced effectiveness. Recovery can take months or years, significantly affecting sick leave rates.

Other health effects include:

• Cardiovascular problems
• Depression
• Cognitive impairments like memory issues

These arise due to chronic stress responses involving hormones like adrenaline and changes in brain function.

Effects on Students and Schools

Stress doesn’t stop with the teacher:

• Students of stressed teachers show poorer academic outcomes
• Classroom tension increases students' cortisol (stress hormone) levels
• Frequent teacher absences disrupt continuity and student-teacher relationships
• Teacher turnover increases workload for remaining staff, and may even lead to conflicting priorities.

One UK study found that 76% of teachers were seriously considering leaving their job due to stress-related factors.

Solutions to Reduce Stress in Teaching

1. Mindfulness (Support, Not Cure)

Mindfulness can help individual teachers manage emotions, but it doesn't fix systemic problems. It may help some gain clarity and emotional distance, but it won't reduce actual workload or bureaucratic pressures.

2. Reduce Bureaucratic Burden

Governments and inspection bodies should trust teachers more and reduce unnecessary administrative tasks. Collaboration between teachers and inspectors could help maintain quality without increasing stress.

3. Limit Political Interference

Frequent shifts in education policy disrupt teaching and increase stress. Educational change should come from professionals in collaboration with policymakers, not be imposed top-down.

4. Strengthen Student-Teacher Relationships

Especially for new teachers, support programs focused on classroom management and relationship-building can reduce stress and improve outcomes. Social-emotional learning programs in schools can also help.

5. Financial Incentives (Not the Core Issue)

While pay is important, poor working conditions rank higher as stressors. Many teachers prefer lower-paid private school jobs due to better environments. Still, modest pay increases can help with retention in high-stress schools.

Empowering Teachers: The Key to Lower Stress

Research shows that autonomy reduces stress. Teachers who have control over how they teach and feel supported by school leadership experience lower stress levels. Giving teachers more say in how they manage their classrooms and reducing external micromanagement will improve both teacher wellbeing and student learning. 

Research consistently shows that one of the hardest parts of teaching under chronic stress isn’t just the workload itself — it’s the ongoing sense of losing control over time, energy, and emotions, without enough space to recover. Feeling this way is an understandable response to prolonged demands, not a personal failure.

If you’d like something practical that helps you regain a bit of control without adding more pressure, I created a free guide called Trapped in Overwhelm: 5 Micro-Actions to Regain Control Before You Burn Out.

It doesn’t promise miracles. Instead, it offers small, science-based steps you can take even when you feel exhausted — to calm your stress response, think more clearly, and slowly reduce the constant pressure. These first micro-steps don’t solve everything, but they help restore stability and clarity — which is exactly what makes longer-term solutions possible again.

FAQs

Why is teaching considered such a stressful profession?
Teaching combines emotional labor, high cognitive demands, and continuous performance pressure. Teachers manage large groups, adapt to policy changes, and meet diverse student needs while often lacking time or autonomy — a combination that activates chronic stress responses similar to those seen in other high-responsibility jobs.

What are the most common signs of teacher burnout?
Early signs include emotional exhaustion, irritability, sleep problems, and feeling detached from students or the classroom. Burnout develops gradually when stress remains unaddressed, so recognizing these early warning signs allows for timely intervention and recovery.

How can schools reduce teacher stress effectively?
The most effective strategies go beyond individual coping methods. Reducing administrative workload, improving leadership communication, and increasing teacher autonomy are key. Support programs for classroom management and peer collaboration also help lower chronic stress levels.

Ready for the next step?

If stress is starting to feel like your “new normal”, it doesn’t have to stay that way. Teacher stress is often structural — workload, pressure, constant change. But your nervous system still needs protection. When stress is left unchecked, clarity, patience, and energy slowly disappear.

To help with that, I created a free guide — Trapped in Overwhelm — with five practical techniques to calm your stress response, regain mental space, and feel more in control again.

👉 Download the free guide: Trapped in Overwhelm