August 18, 2023
Last year was a bit of a wild ride for me. I overcommitted myself a bit. I will do better sending out MTI Teaching tips this fall 2023 semester.
I considered several possibilities for this MTI Tip including ChatGPT, how teaching is valued, easing students off lecturing and why students are skipping class. I plan to cover these topics in future tips and decided to focus on faculty burnout mitigation today. Faculty burnout struck a cord for me in this week before the fall semester. Even those that “had the summer off” from teaching may feel a bit stressed by the thought of diving back into the regular academic year schedule starting this next Monday. This tip is provided by Beth McMurtrie in an August 10, 2023 Chronicle of Higher Education article.
Burnout-Mitigation Strategies
As faculty members get ready for a new semester, many are likely worried about how long they can go before feeling exhausted and overwhelmed by all that is expected of them. Burnout has been a growing problem in higher education, so this week I’m sharing a question from a reader about how to mitigate it.
For advice, I turned to Regan A.R. Gurung, executive director of the Center for Teaching and Learning, at Oregon State University. Gurung has written about burnout and is a member of a national project focused on creating more compassionate campuses (more on that below).
The question came from Stephanie Kratz, a professor of English at Heartland Community College who is developing a course on managing faculty burnout for employees in the liberal-arts and social-sciences division. “I’ve been reading about faculty burnout, and there are many blog posts and articles about its existence (!) and why it’s happening,” writes Kratz, “but there are fewer that suggest specific teaching and/or work strategies to manage it. What can faculty members put in their syllabus, establish with students, and/or adopt in their daily lives that will prevent and manage exhaustion and feelings of being overwhelmed? Especially when administration is not actively supporting faculty or listening to what we need to feel seen.”
Gurung’s response:
I resonate with the request for specific strategies to manage burnout. The volume of material on faculty burnout over the last few years can cause cognitive overload in its own right. Yes, there have been numerous books addressing it and even an entire grant-funded initiative to address this issue (Cate Denial’s Care in the Academy), but the volume of such posts may make it difficult to know where to start. Here are some key goals to aim for with pragmatic solutions for how to pull it out.
Protect Your Personal Time and Space.
This is perhaps the biggest issue to tackle. You may not have enough personal time yet. The time you have may not be enough. Before the new school year starts, (re)examine how you schedule your time and try and make some of the following changes:
- Block out times in your calendar that are “you” times. Note, you should have times for personal relationships, friends, and family, as well, but explicitly, add “me time.” This can be when you get physical activity, read something fun, or just do nothing (not even podcasts) so your mind has time to settle. You can create more of these you-times in simple ways too. Next time you are driving home, turn off the radio and have nothing impacting your senses other than the task at hand (driving), take a walk with all notifications on your phone set off, try forest-bathing — walking among trees for a little bit. See this piece for more.
- If you are someone wearing many hats, consider allocating time to each hat and keep to it. I am a faculty member and an administrator. There are times blocked out for administrative stuff and times for my teaching and research. I resist one spilling into the other. This is particularly important when setting times to meet with students. I link my Outlook calendar to a scheduling tool (e.g., YouCanBookme) where I have set times to meet with students versus meeting anytime I have an opening in my schedule. I put this link in the syllabus and my email, and anyone can automatically set up a meeting with me without umpteen emails back and forth to find times.
- Let students know when to expect a response from you. Put this in the syllabus and talk about it in class. It is all right to only work during business hours, especially for administrative work. Even if you do check email “after hours,” consider scheduling when it is sent (e.g., set it to send at 8 the next morning) so you help build a community where people are not working at all hours of the day.
- Find better ways to say no. Two suggestions are creating a “No folder” in your email box (from Eric Landrum, described starting at the 7:30 mark in this podcast), and having a “No committee,” a group of people who you chat with when you get an invitation to do something new (from Mona Xu, in the same podcast). You will gain some satisfaction from saying no and putting it into your No folder, and it actually makes it more likely you will say no.
Be Consciously Aware of Your Mental Health.
Many of us in higher education behave as if we are superhuman, balancing multiple responsibilities, students, families, caregiving, and more. We rarely cut ourselves enough slack and often miss when our bodies and minds are wearing down. Take a moment to assess if you are burned out. Are you more irritable than normal? Do you no longer feel motivated to do your academic work or teach or work with students (all the elements that are core to being an academic)? Do you wake up and dread the day? These are all signs of burnout. Reach out to your campus or personal health-care providers. Many of us could use some more help, and we mistakenly think that it is a sign of weakness. Administrations and HR are getting better at helping staff get help. Here at Oregon State University, we have scheduled “quiet weeks” or “quiet Fridays” where the administration urges recuperation. There is a lot needed to change the culture, but you and I talking about our needs and the ways we create spaces are specific active ways we can move toward addressing burnout in general.
I have kept this list short to avoid adding to the mental load. That is a key tip right there. Pick a few things you will work on. Focus on them to the exclusion of all else. That will help you cope in the long run.
I am going to put some of these strategies into action in the coming year. I hope you have a great semester.
Cheers, Paul
Paul Laybourn (he/him/his)Professor, Biochemistry and Molecular BiologyDirector, W2R S-STEM ProgramDirector, NoCo B2B ProgramDirector, REU Site in Molecular Biosciencespaul.laybourn@colostate.edu970-491-5100
