Public school principals have long warned that the job is becoming unsustainable, but a new national study lays bare just how brutal the role has become.
Drawing on 298 first-hand accounts from 256 principals, researchers from Monash University, Deakin University and the University of Sydney revealed a disturbing picture: sleepless nights, nightmares, burnout, physical illness, trauma and, in some cases, symptoms of PTSD.
Principals spoke of switching from a violent incident to a media briefing to comforting distressed students — often within the same hour — and doing it all again the next day.
“Like juggling 10 chainsaws… You are caring for students and staff, managing media, responding to the community, responding to the Minister’s office, reaching out to the actual family of the child, shutting down ridiculous gossip, working with police and attending to a multitude of other tasks,” one principal revealed.
“You go home at night, don’t sleep, and repeat the next day. After a few weeks, it dies down and life returns to normal for everyone else. As my Deputy Principal said to me two weeks following, ‘I don’t know how you’re still standing.’ Adrenalin was my only answer.”
An unignorable crisis
The study shows principals acting as first responders during school violence, natural disasters, suicide, and community-wide trauma. Many described feeling isolated, undervalued and chronically under-supported as they shouldered the emotional weight of entire communities.
Researchers say the findings make one thing clear – the emotional labour of school leadership is no longer invisible, and the system cannot afford to ignore it.
Lead Monash researcher, Professor Jane Wilkinson, said while Australian public school principals are deeply committed to their communities, it’s often at great personal cost.
“Their emotional labour is vital yet undervalued,” Professor Wilkinson said.
“Managing competing demands, and the emotional capacity to switch seamlessly between interactions with diverse members of school communities, can negatively affect principals’ health and wellbeing, leading to chronic stress, burnout and lower job satisfaction.”
Co-author, Professor Lucas Walsh, said that little is known about the emotional labour that principals experience.
“We know that principals’ work is stressful, involving a constant juggle of often-conflicting demands of students, staff, parents and carers, amongst others,” Professor Walsh said.
“What is new is the intensified emotional management work of school leadership. Managing one’s emotions and navigating those of others – ‘emotional labour’ – is widely recognised as a crucial aspect of principals’ work, but little is known about it.”
Professor Walsh said reports like these call for “major reform of the principalship that acknowledges their role as emotional leaders and first responders.”
“Systemic change is essential to ensure principals are supported, retained and empowered to lead schools that foster equity and social justice.”
‘A catalyst for immediate government action’
Australian Education Union (AEU) federal president Correna Haythorpe said the emotional toll described the testimonies that principals shared for the report is “devastating”.
“No principal should be left ‘juggling 10 chainsaws’, as one Queensland principal put it, while supporting their entire school community through trauma,” Haythorpe said, adding that the findings should act as a catalyst for immediate government action.
“Principals are carrying the emotional load of a deeply underfunded system,” she said. “They are supporting children with increasingly complex needs, while navigating rising levels of violence, distress and social volatility.”
Haythorpe said it is “morally indefensible” for governments to ignore the human cost of this crisis.
“If we want strong, stable and thriving school communities, we must protect the people who lead them,” she said.
“We urge all governments to work with principal associations and unions to ensure principal wellbeing is embedded in legislation, policy and funding, including through the Better and Fairer Schools Agreement.”