Job complacency can be a factor for long-time teachers

SELF-EVALUATION AND OVERCOMING SKEPTICISM OF SWITCHING SCHOOLS IS KEY TO CAREER EVALUATION

When most corporate employees reach a certain comfort level with their jobs, they’re less likely to look for a new employer, even if their current situation is less than ideal. Today’s educators can fall into the same trap, staying with a certain school or within a certain district even when they feel like they’ve outgrown their current situation.

“Comfort is a huge factor for any job but it can especially impact teachers,” says Joan Ingalls, a recruiter in South Florida who specializes in high school and college administrators. “Even with the influx of new students every year, which is unlike anything in the corporate world, teachers create routines, and they stick to those routines when they’re successful.”

Ingalls says with new levels of importance placed on testing and rankings, teachers have become skeptical about switching to new districts, knowing that they’ll be faced with new requirements.

“Let’s face it, the goals of today’s teachers — and how they’re judged on those goals — change every few years so you have to forgive those teachers who may be a bit gunshy about finding a new employer,” Ingalls says.

Although there are more than 540 schools in the MiamiDade County Public Schools district, Gloria Hernandez, a retired Miami teachers, says teachers often stay at the school because of their principals, administrators and support staff. “When you get a good principal, you usually stick with that person for the duration of your career, if you can,” Hernandez says. “There’s too much at stake with schools today and if you work for someone you can trust, you don’t want to give that relationship up.”

Hernandez says a school’s support staff can be another factor. “The people who run the school behind the scenes — the secretaries, the aides — play a major factor in how well you can do your job, so they become a reason to stay in one place as well,” she says.

Still, Ingalls knows that teachers often forgo raises, shorter commutes and better teaching situations to remain in the same place. “There’s certainly a ‘grass is always greener’ fear when considering a new job but sometimes, the situation really is better,” she says. “It’s an individual choice. Teachers have to determine what’s best for them.”

Ingalls says one way to make that determination is to come up with the answers to several work- and careerrelated questions, which include:

• How much do you enjoy the subject you’re teaching?

• Are you getting paid what you’re worth?

• Do you have the support of your administration?

• Is your school innovative? “Whether it’s new teaching formats or the increased use of technology, some new schools may feel like a breath of fresh air to teachers,” Ingalls says.

— Marco Buscaglia, Tribune Content Agency