Let me start by saying that I am not against sharing personal news and accessing support from colleagues at school. However, friendly work banter is quite different from gossip, which can be quite destructive to workplace relationships, morale and productivity.
Negativity affects the morale, performance and productivity of our teams. Complaining and negativity are a kind of cancer in an organisation. It grows hidden beneath the surface, if not caught it eventually spreads.
Schools are people places filled with multiple relationships. By its very nature this contributes to our stress levels as we have to work with a range of people, with different personalities and a vast array of factors impacting on their mood on any particular day. One of the things that we know through working with a student whose behaviour is challenging is that WE can’t change OTHER people’s behaviour. We can’t really FORCE another person to do something if they really choose NOT to. We can’t change other people’s behaviour. Successful behaviour management strategies provide an environment where students are ‘encouraged’ to make better decisions. Ultimately the only behaviour that we can control is our own. Understanding and accepting this…