By Chris Ingate, ASCL Conditions of Employment Specialist

You may be familiar with the story of Sisyphus….

Sisyphus was condemned by the Greek Gods to an eternity of pushing a massive boulder up a steep hill in Hades, only for it to roll back down upon reaching the top.   The French novelist and philosopher, Albert Camus, described Sisyphus’ toil as part of the human condition, creating a perception of those who toil and work hard in the face of adversity as ‘absurd heroes.’   Indeed, as a former headteacher, I vividly recall that Friday evening feeling: a sense of euphoria and exhaustion having got through another week, trying to recover over the weekend all for it to begin again on Monday.  My very own Sisyphean struggle!  And to my family, the absurd hero.  

At ASCL, we are seeing system-wide struggles as well as individual members on their knees in some cases.  In a recent conversation I had with an experienced school leader, he described headship as incessant – waiting for the Monday Ofsted phone call, funding shortfalls, SEND provision, staffing gaps, parental complaints and statutory reform.   To an extent, we are all dopamine addicts; high achievers who get a lot of reward from completing tasks and seeing progress.  But this can come at a high price. 
 
Increasing pressures
In my role as Pay and Conditions Specialist for ASCL, I have certainly seen a significant increase in the pressures confronting school and college leaders. Whilst pay is important – and still remains 14% below where it should be in terms of cost-of-living comparisons – working conditions, workload and wellbeing are now the biggest issue we see at ASCL’s member support.   Recently published reports such as Education Support’s Teacher Wellbeing Index 2025, the 2026 NFER Annual Report and even the DfE’s Working Lives of Teachers and Leaders wave 4 2025 report paint a gloomy picture for the teaching profession.  The Sustainable School Leadership report (February 2026) focuses at a more granular level the key things that negatively and positively affect school leaders. The top three detractors include poor work-life balance, staffing issues, and financial constraints whilst the top three ‘attractors’ include student interaction, collaboration and support from colleagues, and making a difference.  The trouble is that the top three seem weightier at the moment, leading to a record number of school and college leaders being exhausted by physical and mental health problems. 

Our own recent member survey reflects this with the top concerns relating to working conditions, wellbeing, workload, mental and physical health along with job security and redundancy.  Even with members whose jobs are not at risk, their workload has increased due to a reduction in SLT headcount.  Our July 2026 survey shows that the average working week across nearly 1,000 respondents is 61 hours, with busy weeks recording over 65 hours.  This is unsustainable and undermines the 48 hour Working Time Directive upper limit. 

Leading a school, college or trust, of course, is still a brilliant job but it has become, for too many leaders, a rollercoaster of highs and lows which are having a detrimental impact on physical and mental health. This is manifesting in terms of leader retention and recruitment with record numbers of re-advertisements and unfilled positions.  

Are there green shoots? 
Among this sea of concerns, we are seeing some green shoots. Teacher recruitment into ITT is improving in England and there is some evidence that teacher retention is also improving (NFER 2026).   Furthermore, organisations who have embraced flexible working opportunities, embedded a supportive appraisal culture, or who are trying to think proactively about the weight of current legislative changes are finding that their positive work culture is reducing staff absence, improving retention and recruitment.  I have been very grateful to trusts such as Excalibur, CELT, and Star for sharing their stories, showing how things can be done, as well as the challenges developing a positive working culture in a difficult financial climate.   

However, the pressure remains high amongst school and college leaders, juggling their own work commitments and improvement priorities.  Ultimately, you can’t change the weather, but you can affect the climate; creating a kinder, more supportive working environment which should, in turn, also help improve your own working conditions.  This is the theory but in practice, it is challenging to achieve.  

Share your experiences
At ASCL, we will continue to negotiate better terms and conditions for our members as well as develop resources and share case studies to help reduce the size of that boulder that needs pushing up that hill. If you have any stories where you feel your school or trust is making helping to improve the working conditions of staff, please let me know, either by email or LinkedIn.  We are really keen to widen our network of case studies and share these through our weekly newsletters or Leader magazine.