Rethinking Professional Boundaries: When “Being There for Teachers” Goes Too Far

Schools pride themselves on being caring communities. Leaders want to be supportive, available, and responsive to teacher needs. But support has limits. When leaders absorb too much emotional labor, take responsibility for every issue, or solve problems that teachers should solve themselves, boundaries disappear—and burnout follows.

Great leadership requires empathy, but empathy is not the same as emotional overextension. The challenge is learning where support ends and over-functioning begins.

Emotional Labor Is Built Into Teaching

TeacherTalk highlights that teaching is one of the highest emotional-labor professions. Teachers:

• manage student emotions

• navigate parent expectations

• handle conflict in real time

• suppress their own stress to support others

• perform relational work that is rarely acknowledged

This makes boundaries not optional, but essential. When leaders step in to absorb this emotional load without structure, they often add a second layer of emotional labor on top of their own.

When Leaders Absorb Too Much, Boundaries Break Down

Research from NoRedInk Studies shows that blurred professional boundaries create identity strain for both teachers and leaders. Teachers may begin to see leaders not as professionals but as emotional buffers, expecting constant availability and emotional caretaking.

This dynamic harms everyone:

1. Teachers become dependent rather than empowered

2. Leaders lose time, energy, and perspective

3. Professional relationships become personal obligations

4. The organisation becomes reactive rather than stable

5. A boundaryless culture is not compassionate—it is unsustainable.

“Who’s Got the Monkey?” Leadership Without Boundaries

Harvard Business Review’s classic article “Management Time: Who’s Got the Monkey?” offers a timeless warning: when leaders take responsibility for problems that rightly belong to others, they end up carrying a zoo of monkeys—tasks, dilemmas, and emotional burdens that drain their time and authority.

In schools, this often appears as:

• Leaders solving interpersonal disputes teachers could handle themselves

• Leaders taking on student issues teachers avoided managing

• Leaders handling conflicts parents directed at teachers

• Leaders answering questions teachers could answer with existing systems

• The more problems leaders carry, the more problems they attract.

• The monkey always jumps to the person who allows it.

Empathy Must Be Paired with Clarity

Supportive leadership is not rescuing; it is enabling.

Leaders must offer empathy while also reinforcing boundaries:

“I hear what you’re experiencing. Let’s talk through how you can handle this.”

“I’ll coach you through it—you’ll take the lead.”

“That sounds challenging. Let’s build a plan that puts the responsibility where it belongs.”

This approach validates emotion without taking ownership of the problem.

It strengthens teachers instead of weakening their autonomy.

Healthy Boundaries Strengthen School Culture

Boundaries are not barriers—they are structures that protect energy and relationships. When leaders model healthy boundaries:

• Teachers regain agency

• Leaders sustain capacity

• Emotional labor becomes manageable

• Trust improves because roles are clear

• Teams become more resilient, not less

A culture without boundaries burns out its teachers.

A culture with intentional boundaries builds strong professionals.

Conclusion

Being there for teachers is essential. But carrying their burdens, solving their problems, and absorbing their emotional labor is not sustainable or healthy—for anyone involved.

Professional boundaries are not a restriction on compassion; they are what make compassion possible over the long term.

If you want to build leadership systems that support teachers without overextending leaders—and create healthier boundaries across your organisation—contact the AG Nova team. We help schools design teacher-first leadership frameworks that are supportive, sustainable, and human-centered.