The well-being of a modern teacher is largely determined by his personal qualities, which ultimately determine the success of his work and the achievement of the main goal - the education and upbringing of the younger generation. The article considers the result of a survey of 412 teachers from secondary schools in the Novouralsk urban district of the Sverdlovsk region. The use of the methodology for assessing personality traits «Big Five» revealed that teachers are largely expressed such personality traits as: extraversion, friendliness, conscientiousness, openness to new experience. All these features are important for the successful professional activity of a teacher. However, it turned out that almost a third of teachers have signs of emotional instability. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to establish a connection between emotional stability and attitudes towards the profession, as well as ongoing reforms in the field of education. Comparison of groups with varying degrees of severity on the scale of emotional stability showed significant differences both in relation to the profession and professional activity, and in certain issues of attitude to the reforms of the education system. Teachers with less pronounced emotional stability like the profession less, among them there are more of those who are ready to change jobs, choosing a quieter one. Most educators with less emotional stability do not want their children to work as teachers, refresher courses seem like a waste of time to them, and more than half of them said that they were not interested in life at all. It is assumed that emotional instability may be one of the factors of professional burnout of teachers.