TPC-Journal-V4-Issue5

The Professional Counselor \Volume 4, Issue 5 432 Table 1 Results of Regression Analyses of Noncounselor Duties Predicting Each Burnout Subscale Burnout measure (DV) Exhaustion Incompetence Negative work environment Devaluing client Deterioration in personal life M SD R 2 0.11*** 0.02 0.06** 0.01 0.08*** MSE 13.99 9.10 16.26 2.80 11.00 b clerical 0.27*** 0.08 0.13† 0.09 0.25*** 9.90 4.22 b fair share 0.11 0.02 –0.02 –0.10 0.02 16.26 4.33 b administrative 0.07 0.11 0.20 ** –0.01 0.11 4.54 1.90 M 11.96 9.02 10.16 5.22 8.50 SD 3.95 3.03 4.13 1.68 3.44 Note. N = 212. * p < .05; ** p < .01; *** p < .001; † p < .06. Qualitative responses from participants answering the question, What does performing noncounseling duties mean to you? also echoed these results. Many participants responded to this qualitative question by listing a variety of noncounseling duties they performed at their school, which were fair share, administrative or clerical in nature. The most frequently cited noncounseling duties were testing (46), lunch duty (38), substitute teaching (31), discipline (23), scheduling (19), special education services (15) and bus duty (15). Many school counselors also described noncounseling duties as those that do not fall in the direct services category (16), or are not recommended by ASCA (10). A major theme that emerged from the qualitative responses was that school counselors viewed performing noncounseling duties as having adverse personal and professional effects, including feeling exhausted and burned out (21), detracting from their job (36), serving as a source of stress and frustration (13), being a waste of time and resources (8) and resulting in making them feel less valued (8). One school counselor described performing noncounseling duties as follows: It means that these activities and responsibilities are taking away from my time with students. When I am pushing papers, coordinating everything under the sun and mandated to serve on multiple committees, I rarely have time to design the classroom guidance lessons I’d like to do and I rarely have time to adequately research/prepare for my individual counseling sessions. I often feel like I am “putting out little fires” with students, staff, and parents. Another major theme that emerged from the responses was that performing noncounseling duties was accepted as a reality of the job. Although many school counselors viewed noncounseling duties as tasks that could or should be done by other school professionals (19), or as resulting from role ambiguity (13), many cited that they simply had to be done (28). One school counselor stated, “It inevitably leads to the question of who will do the duty if we were not to. Resources are limited in many school districts these days.” Another