I work at an elementary school in one of the top school systems in the country. We have 25 lead classroom teachers in our K-6 classrooms. Since October we have had 1 teacher quit in the middle of the day, and we have 4 additional teachers all out on disability leave for the remainder of the year. In all those cases, it's for mental health. One just wrote an email last Saturday to the principal saying, “I'm taking short term disability leave for the rest of the year, so I won't be coming in anymore. You will need to find a replacement for me.”
Personally, I got a blood pressure check this past Monday and it was 173/130. They did multiple readings on different machines and they were all dangerously high. I'd been vomiting often, dizzy, seeing floaters and generally feeling like hell for months, going on over a year. I just figured I was tired or dehydrated. Turns out I was near death. I'm barely 40 and am 5'10″ 190 with no family history of bp issues or heart problems. They got me on meds and a very strict diet to help control it. I have to take my blood pressure twice daily and enter it into a log. My doctor told me that the next time I feel dizzy at work, to call 911. She also told me that if my bp is not improving in two weeks, she'd personally contact HR to request for me to be put on short term disability.
Honestly, I don't do a bunch of “extra” work that other teachers do. I try my best when I'm there but I clock out at 4:00. Most tasks that need to get done, get done during school hours. I only do about 30 mins of work at home a week and that's often just getting files ready and writing my morning messages. My emails are rarely opened off hours and my team doesn't bother me often. My home life is not stressful beyond the expected of having 2 kids. My diet wasn't the best but I'm getting 12-20k steps per day.
The stress of the 8:00-4:00 is killing me….literally.