You walk into your classroom each morning knowing you’ll never finish everything on your list. Meanwhile, the administrative tasks pile up. At the same time, the number of students who need extra support keeps growing. And the mental load never stops. This is the reality for teachers across Australia, and the data confirms what you already feel. 90% of Australian teachers report moderate to extremely severe levels of stress. More than two-thirds experience symptoms of depression and anxiety at rates three times the national norm. These numbers come from a UNSW Sydney study of nearly 5,000 teachers, and they reveal a system in crisis.
The Workload Reality
Your workload isn’t just heavy. It’s unmanageable by design. 68.8% of teachers describe their workload as largely or completely unmanageable. However, this isn’t about time management skills or personal resilience. Rather, the system itself creates impossible demands. In fact, Australian teachers spend up to 106 million hours each year on administrative and compliance tasks. That’s time you could instead spend supporting students, developing lessons, or simply recovering from the emotional demands of teaching. The international comparison makes this clear: Australian lower secondary teachers work 46.4 hours per week, the third-longest working week in the OECD. Only Japan and New Zealand exceed this. In contrast, the OECD average sits at 41 hours. As a result, you’re working harder than teachers in most developed nations, and the gap keeps widening.
The Emotional Toll
While the statistics on workload tell part of the story, the emotional reality tells the rest. 73.9% of teachers show moderate-to-high levels of burnout. Furthermore, another 71.5% exhibit signs of secondary traumatic stress. This second number matters because it reveals something often overlooked: the psychological cost of supporting students through their own trauma and mental health challenges.
In other words, you’re not just teaching content. You’re also absorbing the emotional weight of your students’ struggles. The context makes this inevitable. In 2023, 38.8% of 16-to-24-year-olds experienced a mental disorder within the previous 12 months. Consequently, your students arrive carrying burdens you can’t always see, and you carry those burdens with them. Over time, this creates what researchers call compassion fatigue. You give and give until the well runs dry.
The Ripple Effect
Teacher burnout doesn’t stay contained in staffrooms. Instead, it flows directly into student outcomes. Research links poor teacher mental health to lower student achievement, reduced classroom quality, and diminished student well-being. When you’re running on empty, your students feel it. Ultimately, the system that burns you out also fails the students you’re trying to serve.
The retention numbers show how urgent this has become: 47% of Australian teachers consider leaving within their first year. Additionally, 35% intend to leave before retirement (up from 26% in 2019). Clearly, the problem is accelerating, not stabilising. You’re watching colleagues leave. You’ve probably considered it yourself.
What Needs to Change
Addressing teacher burnout requires action at three levels: systemic reform, school-level support, and individual strategies. First, systemic changes must tackle the administrative burden head-on. Australian teachers spend 4.7 hours per week on administrative tasks, the fourth highest in the OECD. In comparison, teachers in Finland and France spend only 1.5 hours. This gap isn’t inevitable. Rather, it’s a policy choice. Therefore, reducing compliance requirements and streamlining reporting processes would free up time for actual teaching. However, this requires government action and institutional will.
Second, school-level support means creating environments where teachers feel less isolated and more supported. Building collaborative teaching structures that distribute workload, providing access to mental health resources without stigma, protecting planning time as sacred (not optional), and recognising and addressing compassion fatigue as a workplace issue are all essential components. Third, individual strategies give you tools to manage stress and build resilience. These include boundary-setting practices, peer support networks, and access to professional development focused on wellbeing. Nevertheless, individual strategies alone won’t fix a systemic problem. You can’t self-care your way out of structural failure.
The Path Forward
The data make the crisis undeniable. Moreover, the human cost makes action urgent. Investing in teacher wellbeing isn’t just about retention numbers or workforce planning. Rather, it’s about the fundamental health of Australia’s education system. When teachers thrive, students thrive. Conversely, when teachers burn out, everyone loses. You deserve a system that supports you as much as you support your students. The research shows what needs to change. Now, the question is whether policymakers, school leaders, and communities will act on what we know. Your well-being matters. Not just for your sake, but for every student who walks into your classroom.
