ABSTRACT
Ramifications from a teacher shortage were already being felt across the country prior to the pandemic. The pandemic has not just caused substantial changes to the work and environment of teachers, it has also highlighted existing issues. This includes poor ventilation and climate control, inequities between districts in terms of resources and physical plants, and differences in how teachers are treated from district to district. Framed through Leader-Member Exchange, organizational compassion and forgiveness, compassion fatigue and burnout, and secure-base leadership, this study attempts to determine what steps could be taken to improve conditions and the agency of the workforce.Participants at this school in the northeast United States were afforded first the opportunity to complete a survey and then the opportunity to be interviewed about their morale. This data collection took place in August and September of 2021, after a vacation and before it became apparent that there would be additional surges in COVID-19. Participants seemed optimistic at the time that teaching conditions would be returning to a pre-pandemic situation and were only just beginning to see an increase in student behavior issues. On the survey, teachers highlighted issues pertaining to interactions with the community and salary as issues, while indicating the students and their colleagues were bright spots in their work. In interviews, participants confirmed these survey results, and added significant data around communication and concerns around physical plant. Teachers highlighted increased opportunities for being in the outdoors, completing parent conferences and professional development from home, and more compassion for their homelives during the early part of the pandemic as positives. However, when many of these opportunities were removed during a return to business as usual, teachers cited this loss as detrimental to their morale. Following this data collection, a list of recommendations was created for consideration. The recommended course of action to disseminate this list of recommendations was a series of presentations to board members, administrators, and labor leaders. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2022 APA, all rights reserved)