Article Link: http://www.exchangepress.com/article/you-gotta-catch-fire-before-you-can-burn-out/5007003/
"Give me a break, I'm burned out." It has become popular to blame burnout for much of the uninspired performance in child care centers. However, in our experience, problems of motivation have much less to do with burnout than they do with the fact that many employees never catch fire in the first place.During our first 12 years of staff training, in which we trained hundreds of child care workers throughout the country, we discovered that we had spent a great deal of time teaching child development to some who thought they already knew all they needed to know and to others who didn't care much about the topic in the first place. Even many of those who vociferously expressed their love for children didn't seem overly interested in learning more about them.
Admittedly, child care wages are nothing to get fired up about. But, as we make our way around the country, we see a disturbing trend emerging: more and more staff who are less and less enthusiastic. Given what most child care centers can afford to pay, we are not always able to attract the most fired up people; and when we do attract ...