What If Teaching Was a Job You Could Do in 40 Hours a Week?

Is 40 hours a week enough time to do your job as an educator?

You know, there's the standard professional 40 hour work week, and it's kind of understood that administrators are probably going to have to work more than that.

And I think most administrators work 50 to 60 hours, just depending on their level and where they are.

But for teachers, you know, the school day is not eight hours a day, and it's understood that there's going to be some, you know, a little bit of prep work, a little bit of meeting time outside that.

But somehow we've ended up in a place where most teachers are working far more than 40 hours a week.

And my friend Angela Watson has been challenging people's thinking on that for years, saying, what if we had a 40-hour teacher work week?

You can listen to her Truth for Teachers podcast today.

or go to principalcenter.com slash 40 if you want to see her program for teachers called the 40-Hour Teacher Workweek.

But it's a really interesting idea to ponder.

Even if you think, you know what, I really need to work 45 hours to get everything done, to feel like I'm doing a good job.

Just thinking in terms of a 40-hour work week is kind of a powerful mental hack, right?

To think, okay, this is not something that needs to consume every waking hour.

And I remember as a new teacher, teaching did consume my every waking hour, right?

My first couple of years of teaching, it's just all day, every day, all you can think of, no time for hobbies, like getting your feet under you.

definitely as a teacher does take everything you've got, but it can't stay that way, right?

Like I could do that because I was like 22 and didn't have anything else going on.

My wife was a teacher at the same time.

We were just teachers.

That was all we did.

And eventually we started grad school and eventually we got into other things.

And like you eventually find ways to to make teaching take up less of your life.

But at the same time, if expectations from society and expectations from your district and your school administration are making that number creep up so that it's never enough to work 40 hours, like something is wrong structurally in our profession.

And I think as educators, we have to be willing to say, you know what?

This needs to be a 40 hour a week job, not because I'm actually going to only work 40 hours.

Maybe you're going to make the decision to work 45 or 50 hours, but that should be up to you, not a minimum expectation, right?

The job really should be doable in 40 hours a week.

And if it's not, something is wrong structurally.

This is not a personal failing if you're not willing to work 50.

50, 60 hour weeks, this is a structural issue.

Like look at your friends who work in other industries.

Like if you have a friend who's a pharmacist, do they take paperwork home?

Do they go in early to get ready?

No, they clock in and they clock out.

And I think we need to not leave teaching in its own special category where it's the only job that's hard because what's going to happen is people are going to make rational decisions for themselves and say, you know what, I'd rather be a pharmacist.

I would rather go do something else.

I would rather sell insurance because I can clock out and be done.

And none of us want to do that in a way that would sell our students short.

So I really think this needs to not just be something that we think about as a matter of personal effort, but as a matter of something structural.

And I think that that mental hack is the place to start.

So do check out Angela Watson's Truth for Teachers podcast and her 40-Hour Teacher Workweek program, even if you don't buy it.

Think through that.

What would it mean for you to have a 40-hour workweek?

If you could only...

Like if somebody said you're not allowed to work more than 40 hours, what would you do to get it done?

Leave a comment and let me know.