What Makes Teachers Unhappy
And What Can You Do About It? Building a Culture of Staff Wellbeing.
Many teachers, support staff and leaders are tired, stressed and overstretched. And even though this frequently makes the headlines, it isn’t a new problem.
In this book, Mark Solomons, founder and CEO of Welbee, together with Journalist Fran Abrams argue staff wellbeing has to be rooted in the culture and climate of our schools, colleges, multi-academy trusts and districts.
The book provides a roadmap to deliver improvements in staff morale, workload management and wellbeing.
With a range of real-life examples, this book focuses on how school leaders can build workplace wellbeing in even the most challenging environments. It includes clear links to research evidence and summaries of the key steps necessary to deal with common issues such as:
- Identifying and mapping issues in your school
- Leading for wellbeing
- Creating and maintaining a happy workforce
- Developing a culture of everyday wellbeing
- Overseeing change.
Written in an entertaining and informative manner, this is the go-to guide for education leaders who want to build a positive and supportive workplace to deliver the much needed benefits of higher morale and retention, lower absences, better financial performance and to further raise student outcomes.

"This is a powerful, thoughtful book that goes beyond treating symptoms, towards looking at the root causes of poor wellbeing. We are shown that leaders who build teams that are trusted offer teachers high levels of agency, enabling workload to be viewed as meaningful and purposeful. Strategies are offered that are aimed at supporting leaders to develop a culture of collective endeavour. This is a compelling resource for leaders everywhere - highly recommended for practical audit resources alongside case studies that offer evidence about what truly makes a difference."
Professor Dame Alison Peacock
Chief Executive, Chartered College of Teaching
Available from Routledge here.
The kindle version is available here.
You can preview the book or look inside with the links above.