Stressors in The Workplace: A Baseline Study for Continuous Improvement of School-Based Management Policies In Schools Division of Zambales

AUTHOR(S)

Prof. Bryan Jester S. Balmeo

ABSTRACT

“We must ensure a nurturing and safe school environment not only for our children but for educators as well.” This is the statement of Senator Sonny Angara as he expressed his alarm over the reported suicide of several teachers allegedly due to depression brought about by their heavy workload (Araneta, 2018).
Last July, a newly-hired teacher named Emmylou Malate from La Paz Leyte hanged herself because of an alleged heavy burden of paperwork, as proved by the teacher’s friends and coworkers. After a month, another teacher named Shannen Espino from Bacoor City hanged herself inside her room still wearing her school uniform. Again, according to her colleagues, Espino complained about her workloads and class observations days before she committed suicide. Meanwhile, at least two teachers groups, The Alliance of Concerned Teachers (ACT) Philippines and the Teachers’ Dignity Coalition (TDC) have expressed concern on the deaths of their colleagues and called on the Department of Education to address the problems of stress in their workplace (Malipot, 2018). The Department of Education, in response, has called the teachers to “manage stress by maximizing the use of technology” (Meniano, 2018). Education Secretary Leonor Briones said the agency felt “very badly” for the loss of the teachers but stressed that deaths should not be attributed to their supposedly heavy workloads (Yee, 2018).
On the other hand, DepEd Regional Director Diosdado San Antonio of Region IV-A responded by issuing Regional Memorandum 550, s. 2018 entitled Measures to Enhance Teachers’ Welfare in Calabarzon Public Schools last September 20, 2018. The said memo discussed, among others, the 6-Hour teaching policy, additional ancillary load, class observations, and annual medical examination. The memo also encouraged providing sessions on stress and financial management during in-service trainings, seminars and orientations; strengthening work-life balance for teachers and school officials; utilizing school funds to cover beautification, renovation, or provision of school materials and classroom; preparing IPCRF in digital format instead of hard copies; and encouraging teachers to use the DLL exemplars available with appropriate revisions instead of preparing new lesson plans.
Therefore, the researcher’s desire to conduct this study to the Schools Division of Zambales (SDO) to provide baseline data of the various stressors of teachers in the workplace. But what exactly is stress, and what are the different factors that contribute to this? The word stress is derived from the Latin word ‘strictus’, which literally means taut (stretched or pulled tight). According to Merriam Webster, stress is defined as a physical, chemical, or emotional factor that causes bodily or mental tension and may be a factor in disease causation.
The teaching profession is considered to be a highly stressful profession (Newberry & Allsop, 2017). Teachers from many countries report high levels of stress (Skaalvik & Skaalvik, 2015). In fact, teachers are actually tied with nurses, with 46 percent of both groups reporting high daily stress (Ansley, 2018).
Smith (2017) cited factors that contribute to teacher stress. These are intrinsic factors (workload, time pressure, classroom management, class size, pace of educational change and reform, decision-making power, physical working conditions, professional autonomy, and career path), workplace relationship (colleagues, parents, superiors), and organizational culture (general feeling of the workplace and management style).
Harmsen (2018), in her study entitled, “The relationship between beginning teachers’ stress causes, stress responses, teaching behavior and attrition”, experiencing a high level stress may have negative effects on the teachers’ well-being. This also seems to influence the teachers to leave the professions and seek work outside the profession. Therefore, it is of great importance to identify the root cause of this problem so that an immediate solution may be proposed. Therefore, this research aims to determine the stressors in the workplace as identified by the SDO Zambales’ teachers to be used as a baseline for the continuous improvement of policies. Specifically, the research will seek to answer to the following questions:
(1) How may the participants’ profile be described in terms of age, gender, highest educational qualification, position, monthly net income, and number of years in service; (2) What are the manifestations of stress being experienced by the participants; (3) How may the level of stress experienced by the participants be categorized in terms of DepEd policies, salary, personal conflict among co-workers, class size, workload, immediate superior’s behavior, lack of support from peers, and lack of professional growth; (4) What are the other sources of stress being experienced by the participants; (5) What present policies in the department do the participants aspire to change or improve and; (6) What is the implication of this study in the continuous improvement of policies in the Schools Division of Zambales?
The scope of this study focused on identifying the stressors in the workplace as identified by the SDO Zambales’ teachers. The result was limited to the group where the study has been conducted. The respondents were asked to fill out a survey questionnaire. After which, 10 participants were chosen to focus group discussion. The respondents were thoroughly oriented about the purpose of the research, potential risks and benefits, and were assured that their participation in this study is purely voluntary
This study is anchored to the Conservation of Resources (COR) Theory by Hobfoll. According to this theory, individuals accumulate resources they can apply to accommodate, withstand, or overcome threats. These resources might be in the form of (a) personal resources, such as self esteem and optimize, (b) material resources, such as money, (c) condition resources, such as status, and social support. However, these resources might be consumed by stressful or traumatic events, thereby adding to their sensitivity to subsequent stressors (Moss, 2016).