There are any number of workplace variables for your own school which you could think of to plug into the chart, but here are some general ones for you to consider. It will be most helpful to give your immediate gut reaction to how much of these or other self-selected variables are at issue for you at school. Specifically, does it seem like there is too much or too little of each of these variables? Recall the work satisfaction graphic in the "Debilitating Work Conditions" section of this chapter -- because too little or too much of these variables also will correlate with lowered work satisfaction for you, in the same way as the more general notion of too little or too much stress.
- workload
- job status
- accountability / responsibility
- variety of tasks to do
- human contact
- mental challenge
- physical challenge
- environmental variables (noise, clean air, heat/cold, etc.)
Given what you have found, would you say that you are operating inside the "comfort zone" associated with reasonably high job satisfaction, or, on balance, are you outside that? Our next section, on Burnout, will indicate that the best guess is that you have pretty high job satisfaction as a new teacher regardless of what all is going on for you at school. But the key issue is whether you begin to develop positive, adaptive coping skills to deal with the inevitable stresses of the job as you embark on your professional career as a teacher.