Communication Corner Podcast

April 11, 2024

Transcript: 

Kory Floyd:

Welcome to the Communication Corner, a McGraw Hill podcast for the communication discipline. I'm your moderator for this session, Kory Floyd. Today I've brought together two guests to discuss the problem of instructor burnout and share some strategies for overcoming it. We'll start with some brief introductions and then we'll dive right into today's topic. As I mentioned, I'm Kory Floyd a professor of communication at the University of Arizona. I'm also a McGraw Hill author, and this is my 31st year of teaching college, so I've had an experience or two with instructor burnout. Before we get into our topic, I'd like to ask each of my guests to introduce themselves and tell you a little bit about their background. Let's begin with Christina Sharpe.

Christina Sharpe:

Hi. Thank you so much for having me. As Kory said, I'm Christina Sharpe. I'm an associate professor of communication at Rutgers University. I've actually worked at quite a lot of institutions ranging from a lecturer to an undergrad-only institution, and now I work with PhD students at Rutgers.

 Kory Floyd:

We're so happy to have you, Christina. Thank you. And our next guest today is Colin Hesse.

Colin Hesse:

Yes. Hello. My name is Colin Hesse. I am the director of the School of Communication at Oregon State University. Then I'm also an associate professor, though that position is on leave right now, teaching mainly at this university, undergrads and master's students. I've also been at a place where I've taught PhD students as well. And so, can reflect on all of that. And then in my position currently, I do oversee both tenure track and year-to-year instructors, which adds to this conversation as well.

 Kory Floyd:

Thank you, Colin. I'm so happy to have both of you on this conversation because I think together the three of us represent a pretty diverse range of experiences when it comes to burnout, both as instructors ourselves and also as people who oversee other instructors as an administrator, and even those who oversee graduate students and may experience burnout with them as well. I'd like to just make this an informal conversation, but let me throw out the first question to get us started, and that would be what are some common signs and symptoms of faculty burnout? In other words, how do we know it when we see it? What are your thoughts? Colin, would you like to go first on that?

Colin Hesse:

Sure, absolutely. Yeah, I think that some common signs that I have seen are individuals who start behaving in a way that makes it obvious that they don't enjoy things that they enjoyed previously about their job. That might mean individuals that, they stop having their door open or really engage with students with office hours. Or even engage with other colleagues around the building where even that extra social element involved in being a faculty member sort of goes by the wayside. I mean, certainly you might see lack of research and that sort of productivity. But I think that stepping away socially that you see for both students and fellow colleagues is a big sort of sign/symptom of burnout. Where again, they are not enjoying, they're not finding meaning in the job in the way that they used to.

 Kory Floyd:

Such a good observation. They're not finding meaning in it. We all, I think, go through ups and downs in our careers in terms of productivity. There are times when we're more prolific and times when we're less prolific, and that to me seems normal. That's just a normal trajectory of a career. But you're really describing a different kind of experience of withdrawing and feeling exhausted. Feeling maybe negative or cynical about things that we once enjoy. Christina, what sorts of observations would you add to that list?

Christina Sharpe:

Yeah, I think burnout is one of those things that creeps up on you. It's not like a sudden thing, but slowly over time. And one of the things that I've observed is that it feels like you're working harder and getting less from it. Like the idea of diminishing returns, you're putting in more and more hours and you feel like you're getting less and less done. And that is a really kind of wear and tear on you and it can make you feel really stuck.

 Kory Floyd:

I imagine that's the way a lot of folks would describe burnout is that feeling of being stuck, and not really knowing what else to do. Maybe so many of us felt that way during the pandemic when it really seemed like our jobs just suddenly changed and we had more to do and had to do it differently. And a lot of us probably felt that experience of stuckness. That's a good metaphor, I think. I wonder then, in what ways do things like workload expectations, our teaching load our research expectations, administrative responsibilities, service responsibilities, those types of things that so many of us have to deal with as instructors?

One might say that they all contribute to the experience of faculty burnout. I guess the real question is how can these expectations be better balanced? One thing that I was thinking as I was listening to each of you talk about what common signs and symptoms of burnout were that a lack of balance. Maybe a balance that we felt like we used to have but now we no longer have in our jobs could also be added to that list. And so, when we think, when we sort of look across the landscape of everything that we have to do as instructors, what are some strategies you think we could use to find balance when we feel like that's been lost? Christina, maybe we'll start with you this time.

Christina Sharpe:

Sure. I think it's really tricky because our jobs offer quite a lot of flexibility. And so, that means that while we might be able to go to a doctor's appointment in the middle of the day, it also means we can be working all the time. I think there's this expectation that we are excelling in all aspects of our job. And unlike some other jobs that might be more routine, I think as you mentioned before, our jobs ebb and flow in terms of how busy we are. So I think it's about being able to determine how much of yourself you're willing to give and set boundaries, and know that sometimes are going to be tougher than other times.

But making sure that you carve out what you need to live your life when the job could be all-encompassing, which I think is different than some other jobs where some people come home from work and get to leave their work at home. I think that being a professor means that there are really opportunities when work could be happening anytime.

 Kory Floyd:

It's such a good observation that flexibility in our work, which is something that so many of us crave and really enjoy and appreciate about our job, really is a dual-edged sword. It also does mean, as you said, that no one else is necessarily putting restrictions on how we use our time. And so, that falls on us to do, it falls on us to set those boundaries. And it very easily can be the case that we are working, or doing emails, or writing, or whatever it might be, grading, et cetera, at all hours of the night.

I was getting emails from students as I was crawling into bed last night. And realizing, "Okay, it's up to me whether I'm going to take time right now to answer this quick email or respond to this quick question." Or whether I'm simply going to say, "That's tomorrow's responsibility and not today's." Colin, you've had some experiences in the last few years as a full-time administrator. I wonder how that might have changed some of your own perspective on balancing the workload expectations.

Colin Hesse:

Yes, absolutely. It really plays into what I was going to talk about. Because I think of this in terms of the curse of the competent. And you see this really both as a faculty member and as a administrator. You get into a role and you're asked to do some tasks and then you succeed at those tasks. That doesn't necessarily mean those tasks are taken away. It means you're asked to do more tasks. And then you try to do well on those tasks, and that means that you get even more tasks.

And so, all of a sudden because you've been competent in the tasks that were assigned to, you have 27 more tasks that you're also assigned to do. And so, this plays into this, be better balanced, both from a faculty member and administrator. As an administrator, I feel the pressure to ask the competent people to do all the work because I know that they're the ones that are going to do it well.

As a faculty member, it really is ... And it plays into what Christina was saying, but it really is being able to say no or take stuff off your plate at times in ways that you would feel capable of doing. I mean, these can be rather simple things of when if a fourth master's student asks me to chair their committee and I'm already chair of three of them, having to say no. If it's that I'm on four committees and I'm asked to serve on a fifth, and I say, "You know what? Until I can get out of one of these current four committees, I can't get on the fifth."

As an administrator, it's actually realizing that I am overtaxing some faculty members and knowing that I have to say no to asking them. That I have to not just rely on them and go for some of the other individuals who really need to in some ways up their service game.

It really is learning that strength of being able to say no. And I understand that that is tough for some faculty members, especially year-to-year instructors who feel like saying no is going to have some large consequences even on their job security. But there has to be some way in small ways or large ways that you're able to create those boundaries. And by creating those boundaries, you're able to say no. Because if you're only saying yes with more teaching responsibilities, more service, more research, more everything it is going to lead ... Or let's say it's more likely to lead to burnout at some point.

 Kory Floyd:

As an administrator, you have a bird's eye view, I suppose, of workload and especially service that faculty members do. And I suppose there is a real tension, on the one hand, as you said, you want to give tasks to faculty members who you know are competent and are likely to follow through and do those tasks properly. At the same time, you want to be mindful about not overburdening them and making sure that everyone is sort of pulling their weight in that process. And that has to feel a little tense at times, I imagine.

Colin Hesse:

Oh, absolutely. I mean, because I know that if the work isn't done, then I will have to do it. So in one sense [inaudible 00:12:17].

 Kory Floyd:

Then it's going to fall on you. Yeah. Okay.

Colin Hesse:

Yeah, so I'm making the decision that might end up backfiring on me. But the other way backfires on me too in one sense, right? Because I'm overtaxing these competent individuals so that they are going to be more burned out. So it is more of like a long-term benefit to me of not overtaxing them in the short term.

 Kory Floyd:

I suppose also there's the related problem that the people who are not getting those service opportunities then are not getting the opportunity to develop the kinds of skills that would make them more competent.

Colin Hesse:

Absolutely, and sometimes it just takes a couple steps in the door of serving on those committees to showcase the skills that you have. And again, then being asked to serve on more committees certainly. But yes, no, I think your point is valid.

 Kory Floyd:

Right. Something that we talk a lot about at the university level, at the college level, and many people feel like we talk a lot about it, we don't necessarily do a lot about it, is the lack of diversity and inclusion.

And so, I wonder for faculty members especially who feel less included, less represented, what role that may play in their own feelings of burnout. And the grand question, what can institutions do better to foster a more inclusive environment? I suppose this really could be directed at any instructors from faculty down to graduate students who feel underrepresented or under included. Christina, what are your thoughts?

Christina Sharpe:

That's a really good question, and I think that my answer pertains a lot to what Colin was talking about of these sometimes problematic cycles we can get into. Where diverse faculty end up either getting tokenized or taking on additional labor, especially when it comes to mentoring diverse students and creating this extra workload, which then leads to attrition and burnout. And then that leaves the existing faculty having to take on additional effort, and expending a lot more energy because there's just less people for the workload to go around.

And so, I think that the students are wanting to see faculty members who look like them who have similar experiences to them, and that's really hard for universities not only to recruit those folks, but I think there should be more effort into maintaining them. Because I think that universities are sometimes recruiting diverse faculty, but then they might leave in a couple years because they just have this really large workload.

I've seen that at different institutions where I've been, where the more diverse institutions have a much better infrastructure and the less diverse institutions, only a few people end up doing the work. And so, I think at the university level, working not just to recruit, but to maintain those faculty who are serving the more diverse students, who can see themselves in those faculty would help build a stronger pipeline. Not with just the faculty, but even in mentoring the PhD students who will one day enter into the institutions.

 Kory Floyd:

Right. That's such a good observation that if, say, a minority graduate student comes into a program and sees minority faculty, on one hand, that's such a positive thing for representation, for inclusion. On the other hand, if what they see is that those faculty members are especially burdened, especially put upon and end up burning out faster and don't stay at the university, that really sort of defeats the purpose. Would you agree?

Christina Sharpe:

Definitely. I think that it could be a deterrent, but also have them question whether there is even a place for them.

 Kory Floyd:

Right. That's what I'm thinking. Having them second-guess whether this is what they want to do with their career in the first place. I could certainly understand that question. Colin, from both a faculty member's perspective and also an administrator's perspective, how do you see issues like diversity and inclusion playing a role in faculty burnout? And then, again, what thoughts do you have on what we might be doing better as an institution to combat that?

Colin Hesse:

Yeah, I mean, I think Christina touched on several aspects of this in terms of the extra hidden requests that happen for individuals that come from underrepresented groups. I would just add that you need to, from the very beginning ... And there's several meetings, and seminars, and places that I've had to talk through this as now this administrator role, of helping make sure that these individuals feel like they belong before day one.

And that issue of belongingness isn't just that they belong as an academic, that they belong because of the research that they do, though certainly it includes that. But it's also that they feel that who they are, their identity, their background, their everything fits, and that they can find similar individuals, similar ideas, and similar backgrounds at the university. This might mean that even during interview processes, you're showing them places at the university where similar ...

I work in Corvallis Oregon, this place is 99.9% white. It means that we have to go above and beyond in making sure that when we are recruiting individuals of non-white backgrounds, we are making absolutely sure that they see a place where they belong. Because if they just walk around campus, they might not think that they belong.

It means for us meeting with them on a very regular basis during the first couple of years, at least, that they are here and trying to walk them in terms of, "Are you feeling that you belong? What are ways that I could help you in any way to make sure that I could connect you across campus to places that will make you feel like you belong? Are you feeling overburdened?" It is making that a specific concern from the very beginning in trying to help that problem of retention that Christina is talking about. Because I think we all know that if you feel safe, you feel like you belong, you feel like your work matters, that's going to help the mental health of that faculty member, that's going to help them feel more secure at a place.

It's going to help them feel less stressed. It's going to help them feel happier about where they're at. But it's hard for someone to feel that sense of safety and security if they just firmly don't feel like they belong.

 Kory Floyd:

Yeah, and representation is so important, especially when you consider that so many communication departments are quite small relative to, say, other departments at a university, that ... To follow up on your comment about making sure that people see what's available at the broader institutional level, and not necessarily just at the local departmental level. Because institutions may have resources that we just don't have available to us in our building, in our departmental level. And I love that opportunity. I love that idea of prioritizing inclusion from day one, even before somebody may come to work at a school.

Colin Hesse:

No, that's right. I mean, I think that if you're truly making it a priority, then understand that that person is thinking about this position before that official first day on campus. And so, as much as possible, making sure they know that these things are a priority concern for you before that official day one can only help.

 Kory Floyd:

Yeah, I think it's useful to point out for listeners, and I think we sort of all understand this experientially, that none of the things that we would talk about in a conversation like this are magical. None of them are by themselves going to prevent burnout, going to eliminate it, going to solve it. But each step may be a way to make it a little bit better, help to prevent it a little bit or help to manage it better a little bit.

What's going to work better than other suggestions will depend so much on the individual, and also on the circumstances in which they're working. But prioritizing that from day one also sends the message implicitly that this is something that we care about, that we don't want you to feel un-included. We don't want you to experience burnout.

It's something that's on our minds as well as the minds of the faculty that we're working with. One of the really perennial stressors, I think, for all instructors of all stripes is the stressor surrounding keeping our jobs. And for some faculty that is simply a process of being on a year-to-year or sometimes even a semester-to-semester contract.

They may not know from term-to-term what their employment is going to be. And for some faculty it means going through the tenure process or the long-term contract process, whatever that happens to look like at their university. That's sort of a given, I think, for all of us, especially early in our careers. I wonder what your thoughts are as to people who have gone through the tenure process but are still relatively young in your careers. Since I called on Christina first last time, maybe Colin, I could ask you to chime in about your thoughts on what kind of a stressor this represents for instructors, and is there anything that universities or colleges can do or should do to help people through that process in a more constructive way?

Colin Hesse:

Yeah. Well, I mean, first I want to say bless you for saying that I'm still young in my career. That right there took some stress off [inaudible 00:24:23].

 Kory Floyd:

I mean, Colin, young is a relative term.

Colin Hesse:

Oh, okay, yeah. That makes sense.

 Kory Floyd:

Younger.

Colin Hesse:

Yeah, younger.

 Kory Floyd:

[inaudible 00:24:30].

Colin Hesse:

We'll be very specific on that one. Yeah.

 Kory Floyd:

But you're welcome. [inaudible 00:24:34].

Colin Hesse:

It's one of those things where you can't ... There's no answer. It kind of speaks to what you were saying even before asking this question. There's no magic bullet answer where the stress will be removed from a pre-tenure or any sort of job security standpoint. I mean, that just is going to be somewhat stressful. I know that for myself and for other people that I have worked with, one of the main aspects that can help to some degree is as much clarity as possible in terms of expectations.

When I am told you need some publications to get tenure, and then you say, "Well, what does some mean?" And they shrug their shoulders, that is more stressful because you are really doing a poor job of communicating to the faculty member what they actually need to do. And they live in a constant state of anxiety at that point as they approach tenure. When you say, "Okay, from a teaching or service standpoint, what needs to happen?"

And again, there's a shrug of the shoulders. The more clarity that I was given, the better in terms of at least just knowing clearly these are the expectations that I need so that I can not only meet them, but for me ... I can only speak personally on this one. But for me to exceed them, to help me feel as confident and secure as possible as I approached tenure.

The last little thing I'll say before letting Christina answer this too, is now as an administrator, that's very important, both in how I communicate to my pre-tenure faculty members and how I communicate to my year-to-year instructors. And that clarity even includes, "Here's the whole budget that we have for the area so that you can see even financially the stability that we have," trying to help them understand what's under their control and what's meant by being a successful member. And not having to just think about job security every hour and every day of their life. I try as hard as possible to make that something that they don't need to constantly be anxious about on a weekly basis.

 Kory Floyd:

I hope that any administrators who are listening will take heed of that. I think that's such a healthy way to approach taking care of the faculty who are working with you. Christina, what thoughts do you have?

Christina Sharpe:

I think Colin took the words right out of my mouth about expectations and understanding what is expected so you can set milestones and goals. And I think it's really hard when there's vague and moving targets. I would say maybe in addition, something that departments could do in particular is helping their faculty navigate some of the bureaucracy of tenure and the policies that are so idiosyncratic to a department. But also, making sure that they're networking their junior faculty so they can get exposure to potential letter writers.

And a lot of our tenure requirements about having a reputation, a national reputation, and then hopefully eventually an international reputation. So some grad schools are better at it than others in terms of helping students create networks. But if that's not an advantage that you have, or especially if you're hired into a department where that wasn't your degree, being able to connect to people in the field I think is a really helpful thing that could reduce some anxiety when you're going for tenure, just being better embedded in the community.

 Kory Floyd:

That's great. One of the things that my department does, and I imagine many others do as well for junior faculty, is pair them with a senior faculty mentor who is not a supervisor, who will not necessarily take a direct role in determining their retention. But who can help do, as Christina is suggesting, some of that translation of the bureaucracy. Help them navigate through the processes at the department level, at the college level, at the disciplinary level.

The kinds of tasks that, again, depending on the level of your position and the circumstances surrounding your employment, what's going to make you more successful. Often we may feel intimidated by going to an administrator to ask questions of that nature. Either because we don't want to look incompetent or because we worry that it will affect us negatively when that administrator is making a decision later on. So we provide this other person who can sort of talk offline with a junior faculty member, and I hope it's helpful.

It was useful to me certainly to have a mentor, and I hope that I've been able to be useful in that way to the people I've advised. All of this makes me think so much about mental health. Obviously, burnout can have physical health effects as well by impairing, say, our immune response so that we're more susceptible to getting ill.

But I think that really the way that so many of us notice burnout is that we start to feel the symptoms of depression, or we start to feel the symptoms of anxiety. Or for some people, I suppose it almost feels like PTSD. And those are really serious mental health concerns. On one hand, I think higher education at large is doing a much better job these days of recognizing the mental health issues that faculty members and students alike are having to navigate. On the other hand, it's like so many other things at the level of the institution. There's never enough resources, it feels like, to respond to those needs properly.

And so, given that quandary, given the fact that, "No, we can't just wave a magic wand and have all of these support available to us that we might need, what are the kinds of things that we might do even just at a local level within a department to help prioritize and support the mental health of the instructors that we have?? Colin, what are your thoughts on that?

Colin Hesse:

Well, there's a couple of things that come to mind for me. One is, and I know this is a little tougher post-COVID, but it means having a general culture where there are some doors that are open on a regular basis. Because even just some of the research that we do in general, Kory, talks to just, when people feel that they have a social belonging beyond the work that they do, things are better for them.

So a place where they are able to talk about random stuff that has absolutely nothing to do with their job, that they're just talking about whatever new movie that came out or whatever, is going to be helpful in terms of the faculty member feeling that they belong and that this is a place that they enjoy. I also am somewhat contradictorally, paradoxically would say that making sure that faculty members still feel that little bit of flexibility that makes sure that when they're experiencing a tough day, that they don't feel like they need to be present in the office eight hours, day in and day out. That we're able to take that time for ourselves to rest and recover. And that you don't have people that are noting with disdain when the door is never open and you never seem that you are there.

I know that those two pieces stand in contradiction to each other. And even as I was writing them down, I knew that that's challenging when we're talking about this, but both matter. That you have the time of connection and you have the time of rest and recovery, especially for people like myselves that tend to be a little more of an introvert. But it's all about being able to connect to people when you need that connection and being able to take a break when you need to take a break.

 Kory Floyd:

It's such a good point. And yes, they are somewhat in dialectical tension with each other. But we know from that perspective that that means that they both matter, and we have to find a way to balance them. Christina, your thoughts?

Christina Sharpe:

Similar to Colin, I think that the freedom of time is one of the most valuable resources that we have, and that could come in a variety of way. Some of the best would be course releases, but alternative to that, just reducing the amount of reps that people have, course preps, or making sure that people are teaching at a schedule that's really conducive for them can really, I think, help alleviate some of the burnout.

Because I think all of us feel when we're feeling burnout that there's just never enough time. So any kind of way in which the university could help us recapture some time, I think, is a really helpful thing for mental health and well-being. In addition to what Colin was saying, I'm really lucky I have a department that also gets together outside of work where we can see each other as people and not just colleagues. And that's also, I think, really helpful. Creates a really kind of cooperative environment where people then want to be at work to see the people who they like as human beings, not just as colleagues.

 Kory Floyd:

I love that. We are winding down, but I don't want to let us end our conversation without posing this final question. And that is that some of the instructors, maybe all of the instructors listening today have likely experienced burnout at one point or another themselves. So could we end with just a few pieces of somewhat concrete advice that the listeners who are with us today could implement to reduce burnout in their own lives? Colin, would you like to begin?

Colin Hesse:

Yeah, sure. I's start with two in particular. One is, when you're there, when you're in the midst of the burnout, and understanding that it's natural and it's okay. But try to start with something small that you still feel like you enjoy or that brings you meaning.

Instead of just thinking about all the things at work that you might not like right now, focus on one thing. To me at times that could be just sitting down with a stats program and just running some stuff and smiling, even though the test was not significant. But just finding that little thing. Because the classes were terrible that day and I screwed up, but doing that one little thing was enjoyable. And kind of starting from there. So instead of pressuring yourself to go from everything is meaningless to everything is meaningful in the span of a day, which is completely unlikely and impossible to happen.

Start with those small things that still might bring you that joy. And the second thing that I have written down, and it kind of speaks to what Christina was saying towards the very beginning, was to find and enact boundaries. And being able to say no. Having times where the cell phone mail might just pile up and that little red number goes to 15 to 20, but it's Saturday and you just let it go to 20, to 25 to 30, and you just don't do anything with it.

Finding those boundaries where you say, "From the hours of this to this, I am not doing it." And sometimes these are even things within the week. So for example, because I'm trying to give specific examples with some of this stuff. With my current job as administrator, I have pulled out a couple of hours every Monday morning that I go and work at a coffee shop, and that work is specifically not administrator related.

So it's even taking a little break from administrator stuff to, "For these hours I am writing and doing research and doing stuff that I really enjoy," and that helps give me the energy for some of the stuff in the rest of the week that might not be my favorite thing. So again, finding those little boundaries that you do and then be very loyal to those. Make those matter, because the more that you let those lapse, the more that you're just going to find yourself back at the very beginning.

 Kory Floyd:

Right, being intentional about those. Yeah, that's great. Thank you, Colin. Christina?

Christina Sharpe:

Yeah, I would say expanding on what Colin said about the boundaries. I try to schedule time off, and I try to adhere to it the same way I would adhere to an important meeting or teaching a class, and making that a part of my life. Not that all my free time is scheduled, but especially when I'm really busy, making sure that I honor that time the same way I would honor any of the other commitments I have in my life. Because it's just easy to let it all go, especially when you're feeling overwhelmed.

One of the second things I do is when I'm feeling really overwhelmed, I walk away from the work maybe for an hour, maybe for a day, whatever time I need to in order to reset. Because I think that all of us are really tenacious, right? We've worked really hard to get these degrees, and we're used to pushing through a lot of stuff. But sometimes you're just not really creating the type of progress you want.

I think it's okay to be able to set your work down. Say, "I'm not at a place to do this right now." Give yourself the time you need to reset and then come back. And then I would say, finally, it's okay to ask for help. All of us need help. All of us can't do things completely by ourselves. So having excellent mentors and collaborators has been really important for me, and it's really great to get other people's perspectives and let people play to their own strengths, especially when they're different from yours. So this idea that many hands make light work.

 Kory Floyd:

That's such a great suggestion to end things on today. Well, I just really want to thank both of you for your insights, for sharing your experiences and what's been important to you. And most important, I want to thank everyone who's listening today. We hope that you've learned something new that might help you recognize and respond to instructor burnout when you experience it. We really appreciate you being with us today. Please tune in for the next episode of Communication Corner.