Burnout

Last week’s USA Today story on challenges for business travelers may not seem like an education story but it’s got an interesting eduangle because the same stress is hitting a lot of folks in the eduworld. In fact, it’s proving to be a recruitment challenge for some of the big ed foundations and high impact NGO organizations because the amount of travel is virtually incompatible with a decent outside life. Education, as much as any industry, is spread out all over the country and to be good at your work you have to get out, get around, and spend time in schools and communities. And let’s face it, it is fun. But, at almost any gathering you’ll find a lot of Ambien poppers and plenty of folks having that extra drink to get to sleep. And the burnout issue is one that the lead folks at most of the major organizations talk about, a lot…I’m not surprised how frequently these issues come up, but how infrequently they’re discussed in anything but hushed tones.