the millionth article on why teachers are leaving the profession

You’re probably sure that I’m going to say it’s about pay.
Or workload.
Or behaviour.
But for me, it’s nothing of that.
I work for the government and am rewarded relatively well for my time. My work week is nothing unreasonable at approximately 40 hours, and I am at the point in my career where I don’t feel the need to labour for the entirety of my twelve weeks off a year. The behaviour of teenagers is one of the reasons I started, god bless those raw little buggers. It’s nothing like you’d think.
For me, the generational gap between administrative leaders and teachers is a major contributing factor to why young teachers are leaving.
I recently came across some research that looked at how the current and largest generation of the workforce operated, the Millenials. It suggested that younger workers need to be heard, solutions to be actioned and above all, model what you want to see if you want them to work for the dollar or the dream. As young teachers, we want to look to leaders who inspire us to find our flair for our classroom, who can self-reflect and change their behaviour, who help us self-reflect safely, and who communicate our role and who fulfil theirs. We are also quite quick to point out hypocrisy, it can make us defensive victims.
To inspire the ‘avocado’ generation, you need to have something more than stiff jaws and uniform socks. Those of us who can’t buy a house are often seen as lazy, but anecdotally it seems that my younger colleagues are often the first to take a bite of a project. Our generation learnt through watching someone do it on a screen and then working it out ourselves. (See many JackAss stunt scars on men aged 25–32) We may lack direction, but many of us do not lack the teeth for teaching. We are a generation of needs, however, like everyone before and after.