Positive work year practices promote wellness and rejuvenation
Encouraging and promoting not working is an important step a district can take to support the social , emotional and mental health of its administrative leadership .
18 Leadership
A school or district administrator ’ s job is a jealous lover – it constantly craves more of our energy ; it relentlessly demands our thoughts , and whether we like it or not , there always seems to be more to do to support students and staff .
Keeping perspective is always difficult , and when we are out of kilter , it ’ s particularly difficult to make wise decisions . We need to be at our best to do our best for the students , families and staff we serve .
Most districts in the state have job descriptions that set specific expectations around the number of days an administrator works and then , after subtracting holidays , derive the number of vacation days the employee receives . This practice has the potential to conflict with other efforts one might devise to promote healthy work / life balances among district leaders because in this model people have an incentive to “ store ” days in exchange for money at retirement .
Instead , we believe that having a specific number of work and non-work days for each position and no accrued vacation – what is known as a positive work year – is far superior for multiple reasons , and in no small part because it promotes the wellness of the district ’ s leadership team in a way that sets the example for others .
Loving the work we do is a good thing , but , like every relationship , our love affair with our work must be healthy . While there ’ s no panacea for the challenge of worklife balance , we believe that sometimes encouraging and promoting not working is an important step a district can take to support the social , emotional and mental health of its administrative leadership .
We are convinced that positive work year calendars promote employee health and are sound personnel management practice .
The value of vacations in creating a healthy work-life balance
We educational leaders , like everyone else , need recharging and rejuvenating . Our positions entail punishing hours , including multiple night meetings and weekend commitments . The school year rushes by . Others look to us for strength and a giving spirit no matter the circumstances . Every parent group and school activity “ expects ” to see administrators at their meeting , activity or contest .
We often feel that the highest compliment we can hear is “ she ’ s everywhere ” or
By Kevin Skelly and Kirk Black