Teachers Quit Principals — Or Stay Because of Them

People don't quit jobs, they quit bosses, there's an old saying.

Or you might have heard, people don't quit companies, they quit managers.

And to some extent that's true in education.

You might have had a bad boss, bad principal, bad assistant principal who just made you decide to walk away from the job.

But I wanna talk about the opposite effect.

I wanna talk about how a good principal can be a buffer.

Even if the education profession is going through some difficult changes and Maybe we're not getting the respect we need from society.

A good principle can buffer you from those pressures so that even if you might have felt like walking away from the profession, a good principle can help you want to stay, can give you the working conditions and the encouragement to want to stay.

And I think the same is true at the district level.

People do quit districts, but people can stay in a district even if the district is a little bit crazy, even if things are a little bit dysfunctional, if they have a good principal, if they have a good supervisor, someone who can buffer for them and watch out for them.

Let me know if this has happened for you and send this to your principal if your principal is someone who has done that, who has watched out for you, who has made your job easier, even though there are lots of people who are trying to make your job harder.

It makes all the difference in the world to have a great principal.

And I'm very thankful that I had great administrators when I was a teacher and kind of a dean of students.

I always had great principals who...

We're good buffers and we're ready to deal with all of the stuff that makes our jobs difficult.

So send this to someone if you want to thank them for being that buffer and being a force that makes you want to stay rather than leave because of all the challenges and the pressure that you might face.

And when it comes to districts in particular, I think that's why it's so crucial for districts to make sure that they have principals who have that positive effect, right?

Because if you have kind of a dysfunctional district and you have kind of a dysfunctional principal, well, that's kind of a perfect storm for staff turnover.

Like nobody can survive.

Nobody can thrive.

under those circumstances, but one or the other can get you part way.

And probably everybody has endured a mediocre or poor administrator at some point in their career.

If you've been in this profession long enough, you're probably going to have some subpar administrators.

So if somebody has sent this to you, please note that they are sending it to you because You are not that because you are the kind of person who makes them want to stay and makes them able to stay.

So thank you for everything that you do.

Keep on doing that.

And if you ever feel like leaving the profession or leaving your district, I want you to know that there are good places out there.

There are good jobs out there.

There are good organizations out there.

And if you feel like in order to stay in the profession, you have to leave your organization, That may be a change to consider making.

So send this to your boss if your boss is someone who helps you stay.

Let me know what does make a principal the kind of person who makes you want to stay, who makes you want to stick with it and keep on doing what you're doing.

Leave a comment.

Let me know.