Leadership / First Year of Teaching

Understanding your “shelf life”

( although all of my articles are written with an educational slant, I think this one is especially appropriate for all businesses)

We turn another page of the calendar.  March 1^st always sends to me a signal that many people are thinking about retirement.   As this article is being written, some teachers and administrators are seriously wondering if this is their last year. Will the end of the current school year mark the end to a very long career?  And how will it end?  Once the decision is made, the actual ending can be a reason to celebrate.  But what if you are five years away from this magical date?  Ten years? What if retirement is all you are thinking about?

I am convinced everyone, in every career, has a shelf life.  The secret is knowing when your professional expiration date has arrived.  Everyone always told me that “you will know when this day comes.”  I always inquired, “How will I know?”  No matter who I spoke with, their answer remained consistent.  “You will just know!”  To a degree, they were right.  However, I worry about those who stay too long.  They do not know that their time is up.

If you stay too long, people stop listening to you.  You have used up every bit of magic that you once possessed.  If you are a principal or superintendent, your staff has heard it all before, and they now turn you off.  If you are a teacher, your students do the same.  You have become stale.  Perhaps if you are not ready to retire, it may be a time for a change in districts. You see this type of situation all of the time in the ranks of athletic coaches.  One recent situation that comes to mind was the manner in which Tom Coughlin, the long standing highly successful coach of the New York Giants, left his position.  Did he retire or did get asked to leave?  Whatever is the case, the true answer to this question is, I believe he stayed too long. His shelf life as the Giants Head Coach expired.  You could almost see his frustration build throughout the year leading to this ending. He is an intense competitor, and I believe he never wanted to leave.  It was time to go. His expiration date in this role had come and gone.  This is extremely difficult to hear and extremely difficult to accept when it is not your idea.  I implore you to control your own fate.  Recognize that your career expiration date is coming and prepare for the departure.  When this happens, it should be a cause to celebrate what probably was a wonderfully fulfilling and winning career.  If you stay to long, you and the people you come into contact with will only remember the negative image that you became.  They will forget all of the happiness and good things that you accomplished.  They will forget all of the great wins and only remember the losses.

Let me reach once again into my coaching background and share an old axiom.  It is better to trade a player one year too early than trade him one year too late.  It is important to go when your value is at its highest.  Do not allow yourself to be that person talked about lost your effectiveness and now have become the laughing stock of the school community or your specific business.  Do not allow yourself to lose the respect that you have earned during the many years of your career.  Do not become the teacher that students love to get because you have “lost it”.  Do not allow yourself to become the teacher that students hate to have because you are now too miserable, too nasty and too mean.  You may have forgotten why you became a teacher or a principal.

Vicki Davis in a recent article, lists several things to consider when you are thinking about retirement.  They are:

• You start every class period at the end of your rope.
• You can no longer ask for help.
• You say things in the teacher’s lounge that start with the words “kids today are so…..” and you finish with some stereotype that you know is not true.
• You fail to believe in a student because some student fifteen years ago let you down. (Davis, 2016)

There are some other behaviors that I have personally observed. Namely:

• You hate coming to work every day.
• You have lost all of your creativity and energy. You photocopy the same lesson plans you used 20 years ago.
• You have refused to grow and change with the profession.
• You have refused to grow, change, and accept the students that you now teach.
• All you do is complain. You complain to anyone who will listen.
• You constantly talk about the “good old days”.
• Your health is beginning to fail. Please do not forget when I speak of health I am also talking about your mental and emotional health.  I hope you have a significant other or a close confidante that can directly and realistically tell you that your mental health is slipping.
• You are constantly engaged in little battles and wars with people, most times over nothing. I recall that when my expiration date was approaching, my patience with other people had deteriorated.  I knew that I did not want to be that way.

Also, please remember that in the world of education, when we allow ourselves to deteriorate, it is not an athletic contest whose outcome is only significant for a select few.  When we slip and stay too long, we are negatively impacting the lives and futures of our students.  To me, that is a crime!

I will close with sharing this personal anecdote.  I can remember when I was many years away from retirement and longingly talking about this with my father.  Just like he was, I am considered by many to be a workaholic.  As I was relishing the thought of retirement many years away for me, my father stepped up and told me that when he retired, it was the worst day in his life. On this day, to him he became a nobody.  To me, that was a profound statement.  My response to him was that I have not let the job define me.  I was not my job.  He never understood that.

Please never let the position you hold define who you are.  You are much more than the role you hold for eight hours a day.  I think that when you realize this you can look at retirement as another season in your life for joy and celebration.  You have completed a job and a career. I hope for the most part a job well done.  This part of your life’s journey is over.  Your life isn’t.  There are many new doors still open. Enjoy these new experiences!

References

Davis, V. (2016). Know When it is Time to Quit Teaching.  Retrieved from: http://www.coolcatteacher.com/when-it-is-time-to-quit-teaching/