Abstract

The purpose of this quantitative analysis was to determine the influence of the number of years of service on educational workers’ (teachers, support staff, administrators) rates of compassion fatigue and burnout in Alberta, Canada. Compassion fatigue and burnout are two psychological workplace hazards that can have negative impacts on the well-being of educational workers. Methods: Comparative quantitative analysis was applied to survey results collected between June 2020 and June 2021. A total of 3,900 survey responses were analyzed and compared to find within-group differences based on years of service in the education field. Results: While the risk for both compassion fatigue and burnout was found to be moderate across all groups, significance was found with respondents having more than twenty years of experience. Further, data suggested that the range of symptoms felt by later-career educational workers was different than those of early-career educational workers. Discussion: Findings suggest that years of service are a significant consideration when designing workplace well-being programs for educational workers. Rather than focusing on the needs of beginning-career educational workers, special programming and policies are required to address the workplace well-being needs of middle and later-career educational workers.