Article Link: http://exchangepress.com/article/techniques-for-avoiding-director-burnout/5001109/
An article in the September, 1979, issue of Child Care Information Exchange explored the reasons for the alarmingly high burnout rate for child care directors. This article will be presenting ideas directors can use to avoid burning out. Ideas in this article were adapted from writings on stress from the field of organizational psychology, particularly from works by Harry Levinson, Hans Selye, and Richard Bolles (see "Helpful Resources" below).THRIVERS AND NON-THRIVERS
Elizabeth Prescott has focused considerable attention on children who are thrivers and non-thrivers in child care centers. But just as there are children who seem to thrive in centers and others who don't, there are also directors and teachers who are thrivers and others who are non-thrivers. The scant attention that has been paid to this issue in child care research seems to indicate that as many as one in three directors are non-thrivers �" persons in the process of burning out. Another large segment of directors, the marginal thrivers, are exhibiting early symptoms of burnout.
Only a minority of child care directors clearly appear to be thrivers. The box below, "Characteristics of Thrivers,” provides a simplified picture of what these thriving directors look like.
To get an idea as to whether you ...