This afternoon, however, I am refreshed by a good night’s sleep and a weekend of relative serenity. As a result, I feel like I can accomplish the task at hand. The argument – and analogy – for which I was searching seems pleasingly within reach. Although my difficulties in concentrating over the last week have been at times tortuous, such experiences - as well as my newly acquired sense of energy and purpose after decent rest - have confirmed in my mind the accuracy of a point we at Teacher Support Network have been making for some time.

Last Friday was the Trade Union Congress’ Work Your Proper Hours Day. By their calculations, the problem of unpaid overtime is so big in the UK that the average employee effectively earned nothing between the beginning of the year and 27 February. It’s a startling insight: if he or she had returned back from the New Year’s Bank Holiday on Monday and worked normal hours for the rest of the year, only then would his or her paycheque truly reflect their working hours in 2009.

Of course most teachers will be familiar with the concept of working extra hours without financial reward. In almost every school, there is an expectation that the job entails either staying on way into the night or taking a great deal of work home – or both. Weekends too, are rarely sacred and holidays themselves can be dominated by marking and preparation.

In the main item of last week’s Teachers TV news, statistics from out recent survey on teacher wellbeing told the full story. 87 per cent of respondents said they had experienced stress over the last two years; 73 per cent of which blamed excessive workload.

As we know from the calls and emails to our advisors, the resulting toll on the wellbeing of teachers can range from becoming run down and unnecessarily ill to serious mental health problems. The culture of ‘presenteeism’ – where teachers ‘solider on’ despite sometimes debilitating emotional and physical ailments – is causing long-term damage to thousands of teachers each year.

However, it is education which suffers too. A culture where teachers are expected or encouraged to work hours well beyond what is reasonable prevents those within it from teaching to the standard that they would like. It is simply impossible to do anything consistently to the best of your ability when you are constantly operating on partly-charged batteries. The effect of teachers spreading themselves so thinly is quite the opposite of those who seek to stretch such a valuable resource: a teachers’ ability to innovate, their resilience and effectiveness can deteriorate beyond recognition and their enthusiasm drop so low that they can give up on the profession altogether.

At Teacher Support Network we are currently talking with the Government on how the problems revealed in our survey can be tackled. We hope that through this positive dialogue we can help bring about real improvements in teacher wellbeing. In the meantime, why not take the time to look after your own work-life balance? Our InfoCentre is packed with advice, accessible anytime, anywhere and our coaches are ready to take your calls and emails any time of day. In addition, why not take our online stress test, which has been designed to help teachers find solutions emotional problems resulting from your personal or professional lives. Protecting your work-life balance is important: both for your own wellbeing and for your effectiveness as a teacher.