The Great Resignation or the Great Joy in Higher Education: Emerging Lessons from the Pandemic

I. Introduction

The Great Resignation, the Great Attrition, the Great Disengagement, and the Big Quit are a few of the names for the phenomenon occurring throughout different industries, including higher education.¹ Higher education is not immune from this great exodus and is at a turning point as retention of faculty, administrators, and staff is more important than ever.² What’s joy got to do with it?³ Can it drive those who work in higher education to stay, leave, or return?⁴ Money is not enough by itself to retain workers.⁵ Over the last two years, higher education, like other industries, is facing a fundamental shift in how people view their work, their employer, and their life.⁶ Perhaps this is an opportunity for the Great Joy: to (re)discover joy in your work; reevaluate what you want from work, be open minded, and possibly reinvent how you work, where you work, who you work with, and what you work on. This article explores the challenges higher education faces as the pandemic continues to alter attitudes on work. It then offers some strategies to (re)discover joy in work. Finally, it discusses ways to maximize joy in work.

II. The Struggle

Exhausted, isolated, disconnected, burnt out, disengaged, ineffective, invisible, “meh,” unable to focus…These are some words or phrases that came to mind when faculty in higher education responded to a prompt to describe how they are feeling at work.⁷ After the tumultuous last few years of the pandemic, political unrest, and racial injustice, faculty, staff, administrators, and students may be struggling.⁸ Many are more protective of their work-life balance.⁹ Shifting from remote work back to in-person teaching may not be the panacea.¹⁰ The pandemic heightened gender and racial inequities.¹¹ While massive resignations may occur, not everyone may have the option to leave, and this may affect women or faculty of color disproportionately.¹² The struggle also results in issues related to productivity—men may have become more productive, while women may have become less productive as challenges related to childcare arose during the pandemic.¹³ Advancement of women and faculty of color may have slowed down if they elected to delay their tenure review, also delaying any raises that may come with promotions.¹⁴ Additionally, as more people resign, there is an increase in workload and a decrease in resources. While everyone may be struggling, there may be a hesitancy to discuss it for fear of stigma, embarrassment, shame, or punitive repercussions. Finally, even those who have seemingly achieved success may feel joyless. Success doesn’t bring happiness, happiness brings success.¹⁵

III. Identify Joy in Work

How can those who work in higher education identify, with specificity, what brings them joy in their work? How can they craft or adjust their work to maximize the time they devote to what they truly love to do? What strategies can they use to stay focused on their joy at work? These lessons can benefit students as well, as they develop their professional identity and align their personal values with their professional ones.¹⁶

It may not be the case that you don’t have joy in your work, but you may have stopped paying attention to what in your work you love.¹⁷ According to Marcus Buckingham, one way to rediscover your joy at work is to identify your red threads.¹⁸ Your red threads are what excites you, where you feel at ease, and when you are at your best.¹⁹ To identify your red threads, look for three clues: instinct, flow, and rapid learning.²⁰ Answer the three questions below to help you find your red threads and list at least one activity for each one.²¹

1. What do you instinctively volunteer for, look forward to, or get up in the morning excited to do?
2. What is an activity you engage in where you are in a state of flow,²² where you are totally absorbed in the activity, you disappear into the task, and time rushes by or you lose track of time?
3. What activity do you feel mastery at, where you don’t need to think of all the steps involved, and rapid learning just clicks?

Increasing details to the specificity of your loves and loathes, to what strengthens and depletes you, leads to greater fulfillment, performance, and resilience.²³ Many people find it difficult to pinpoint with specificity what brings them joy.²⁴ One example is making a blanket statement like, “I like helping students, or “I like teaching.” But what do you like about that, and why? To get specific about what brings you joy in your work, for each activity you identified when answering the three questions above, answer the five “does it matter” questions below.²⁵

1. Does it matter who?
2. Does it matter when?
3. Does it matter why?
4. Does it matter what?
5. Does it matter how?

IV. Maximize Joy in Work

Your work may not be all red threads; however, think about how you could craft your job to maximize your red threads. Learn how to weave them into what you do in your work every day. Go on a scavenger hunt for joy at work.²⁶

A. Time

Maximizing your red threads or joy in your work is not necessarily about leaving your job or having more time. One key to happiness is how intentional you are about how you spend your time; time over money predicts happiness.²⁷ Being intentional about how you spend your time, including small decisions and small changes in daily activities, can help you maximize joy at work.²⁸ You may be so busy trying to just get through the day that you haven’t taken time to be intentional about what brings you joy at work and what can you do about it.²⁹ Think about how much time you spend on an activity. Maximize time spent on activities that bring you joy; minimize time spent on things that drain you.

To raise your awareness of how you spend your time, complete a time audit.³⁰ Reflect on a typical Tuesday³¹ at work and write down how you spend your time throughout the day (in the morning, afternoon, and evening). Next to each activity/task, write whether you like it or loathe it; does it bring you joy, meaning, or fulfillment, or does it drain you or leave you feeling depleted?³²

After conducting your time audit, note any time confetti you discovered.³³ Time confetti is a term for those shards of time when you engaged in activities mindlessly (i.e., scrolling social media, rolling out of bed and checking your email, etc.)³⁴ Consider how much time you engage in deep work versus shallow work.³⁵ Often, people lament about not having enough time, time starvation or time poverty.³⁶ Be proactive instead of reactive with how you spend your time.³⁷ People tend to gravitate to the path of least resistance, so identify the time, choices, and mental and physical effort required for a desired task and then reduce it. Create a time affluence list—listing which activities/tasks bring you joy (i.e., going for a walk, etc.).³⁸ Then you can refer to this list if you find yourself with unexpected time—i.e., what you could do if a meeting got cancelled.³⁹ Instead of engaging in an activity mindlessly, choose an activity that brings you joy. ⁴⁰

B. Control

If a task/activity doesn’t bring you joy, what can you do about it? How can you maximize the time you spend on red threads and weave your red threads into the work you are doing? Someday you may even craft a job that focuses on your red threads. Twenty percent is a threshold level—spend at least 20% of time at work doing activities you love, and you are far less likely to burn out.⁴¹ In addition to being intentional about how you spend your time, focus on what you can control and consider the following:⁴²

• If an activity/task is not a red thread, can you delegate it? Although it is not one of your red threads, it might be someone else’s red threads.⁴³
• Can you “time fund” it—pay someone else to do it?⁴⁴
• Can you eliminate the activity—i.e., do you need to hold that meeting?⁴⁵
• Can you reframe/change it? For example, “Minimal Meeting Mondays,” “No-Zoom Fridays,” or four-day work weeks?⁴⁶
• Can you be fully present instead of time-conflicted—enjoy your leisure time without checking work emails; take work emails off personal phones; take your vacation time?⁴⁷

C. Teams

By harnessing the power of teams, administrators in higher education institutions can lead faculty and staff in a way that gives each one the greatest possible chance to contribute what brings them joy to the institution. Workers in industries who felt part of a team were not only 2.7 times more likely to be fully engaged, they were 3 times more likely to be highly resilient and 2 times more likely to report a strong sense of belonging to their organization.⁴⁸ Organizations have created disengaging places to work because they haven’t understood the power of teams; if people do not feel part of a team, less than 10% feel engaged, resilient, or connected.⁴⁹ Leaders of higher education should listen deeply, unite widely (connect), and act boldly.⁵⁰

People want to be seen, heard, and appreciated.⁵¹ Knowing what your team member’s red threads are can help with engagement, motivation, and inclusion.⁵² Team members may have different red threads—what is a red thread to you may not be one to another team member.⁵³ A team leader can check in with team members on a regular basis.⁵⁴ The format (a text, email, phone, or in-person contact) and time involved in the check-in is not determinative; what matters is that it happens.⁵⁵ Instead of certainty, because things in the world are so fluid, check-ins can create transparency, communication, clarity, community, and trust.⁵⁶ The check-in could focus on questions, such as: what activities did you love last week, what did you loathe, what are your intentions for this week? What help/support do you need from me?⁵⁷ Leaders can model vulnerability as well.

Leaders need to be intentional about inclusive teams with authentic connections,⁵⁸ connections to the purpose of the school’s mission/work and how their work contributes, as well as connections with those they work with. Connections can occur in three ways: shared time, shared experience, and shared goals.⁵⁹ When feeling stressed, the first thing people often do is retreat; i.e., they spend less time on social interaction, like eating at their desk or working alone, and that may be the worst thing they can do. A Harvard study on adult development revealed that the strongest predictor of happiness—more than class, money, IQ, fame, etc., was close relationships.⁶⁰

Leaders in higher education may need to get creative about ways to connect and engage faculty and staff. They can harness the benefits of remote meetings; however,⁶¹ scheduling additional meetings to connect may be counterproductive. Instead, end meetings early to leave time for informal conversation. Have substantive content for 15-, 20-, or 50-minute meetings instead of 30- or 60-minute meetings. Ask faculty to bring an object that brings them joy at the next meeting and go around and have each one explain its significance.⁶² Hold a writing retreat where faculty disconnect from tech and work on their scholarship.⁶³ Celebrate the small stuff by hosting a lunch or coffee. Focus on wellness over productivity and acknowledge the pivot/change fatigue by taking a pause on new initiatives to reflect and refresh.⁶⁴

V. Conclusion

Everyone in higher education has a responsibility to (re)discover and weave joy into their work.⁶⁵ If joy in your work is truly important to you and vital to your ultimate happiness, specifically and intentionally identify it, prioritize it, and seek it out. Nothing changes if nothing changes.⁶⁶ Take time and space to reflect on lessons learned over the last few years. After reflection, disrupt your daily habits instead of reverting back to the ways things were. Envision what you want your job to be, not just what it has been.⁶⁷ Get creative about how red threads can be woven into new ways of getting jobs done or over time designing roles specifically for red threads. Higher education institutions can retain talent “by investing in more meaning, more belonging and stronger team and relational ties.”⁶⁸ The last few years have been so challenging in many ways, but they may also provide an opportunity for authenticity, creativity, connection, and the Great Joy.

References

¹ Stefan Ellerbeck, The Great Resignation is Not Over: A Fifth of Workers Plan to Quite in 2022, available at: ; Aaron De Set, Bonnie Dowling, Bryan Hancock, and Bill Schaninger, The Great Attrition is Making Hiring Harder, are You Searching the Right Talent Pools?, available at: (noting people are changing jobs and industries, retiring early, starting their own business, or taking a time-out to focus on their personal lives and the quit rate is 25% higher than prepandemic levels).

² In addition to faculty retention, this topic is important for recruitment, productivity, satisfaction, diversity, equity, and inclusion, educational programs, and institution/school. A survey from the College and University Professional Association for Human Resources reports more than half of higher education workers seek to leave their jobs. Josh Moody, Survey: More than Half of Higher Ed Workers Plan to Leave (July 22, 2022), available at: . See also Beth McMurtrie, A ‘Stunning’ Level of Student Disconnection, Chronicle of Higher Education (April 5, 2022) available at: https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-gamma/epidemic-student-disengagement (discussing level of disengagement among students).

³ TINA TURNER, What’s Love Got to Do With It, on PRIVATE DANCER (Capitol Records 1984); See Josh Moody, Survey: More than Half of Higher Ed Workers Plan to Leave (July 22, 2022), available at: https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2022/07/22/survey-more-half-higher-ed-workers-plan-leave (cautioning that higher education is facing a crisis in retaining its talent). Among recommendations for retention include: providing salary increases, offering more flexibility with schedules including remote options, managing workloads, recognizing employee achievements, investing in career development, and providing advancements opportunitites and enhanced parental leave and childcare subsidies. Id.

⁴ Aaron De Set, Bonnie Dowling, Bryan Hancock, and Bill Schaninger, The Great Attrition is Making Hiring Harder, are You Searching the Right Talent Pools?, available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/the-great-attrition-is-making-hiring-harder-are-you-searching-the-right-talent-pools.

⁵ Stefan Ellerbeck, The Great Resignation is Not Over: A Fifth of Workers Plan to Quite in 2022, available at: https://humanengineers.com/the-great-resignation-is-not-over-a-fifth-of-workers-plan-to-quit-in-2022-pwc-report/ (noting intangible factors like meaning, job fulfilment, and the ability to be one’s authentic self at work were ranked second and third among employees considering resigning; money was ranked first)

⁶ Aaron De Set, Bonnie Dowling, Bryan Hancock, and Bill Schaninger, The Great Attrition is Making Hiring Harder, are You Searching the Right Talent Pools?, available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/the-great-attrition-is-making-hiring-harder-are-you-searching-the-right-talent-pools

⁷ Webinar: Rediscovering Your Joy at Work: A Discussion for Higher Ed. Leaders (Kathy Vinson & Sarah Siegle Peatman, Academic Impressions June 14, 2022); Webinar: Great Resignation & Women in Higher Ed. (Academic Impressions June 14, 2022); Karen Klesky, The Professor is Out, FACEBOOK, https://www.facebook.com/groups/professorisout/about/ (last visited July 21, 2022) (22,000 members); MARCUS BUCKINGHAM, LOVE AND WORK 21 (Harvard Bus. Rev. 2022). Less than 16% of us are fully engaged at work. Id.

⁸ Id.; Beth McMurtrie, A ‘Stunning’ Level of Student Disconnection, Chronicle of Higher Education (April 5, 2022) available at: https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/higher-ed-gamma/epidemic-student-disengagement (discussing level of disengagement among students

⁹ Stefan Ellerbeck, The Great Resignation is Not Over: A Fifth of Workers Plan to Quite in 2022, available at: https://humanengineers.com/the-great-resignation-is-not-over-a-fifth-of-workers-plan-to-quit-in-2022-pwc-report/ (reporting one in five workers globally planning on quitting in 2022 according to PWC’s Global Workforce Hopes and Fears Survey of over 52,000 workers in 44 countries in March 2022).

¹⁰ Your Brain at Work, Hybrid Work Update: Navigating the Pitfalls of “Back to the Office”, NEUROLEADERSHIP INSTITUTE (Apr. 21, 2022) (streamed on Spotify). A study done of people in the work force showed that 1/3 want to work remotely, 1/3 want to work in person; 1/3 want to mix it up. Having autonomy or even the sense of autonomy and control increased people’s happiness; Your Brain at Work, Beyond the Great Resignation: The State of Discontent, NEUROLEADERSHIP INSTITUTE (Oct. 18, 2021) (streamed on Spotify) (discussing even allowing workers to decorate/individualize their cubicles gave them an increased sense of autonomy at work and increased their productivity).

¹¹ DELOITTE, WOMEN @ WORK 2022: A GLOBAL OUTLOOK 6 (2022), https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/global/Documents/deloitte-women-at-work-2022-a-global-outlook.pdf 53% of women surveyed say their stress levels are higher than a year ago and almost half feel burned out; LOUISE MCBEE INSTITUTE OF HIGHER EDUCATION, IHE 2021 REPORT (The University of Georgia, 2021);
ACADEMIC IMPRESSIONS, PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT REPORT (2022) 49% of respondents indicated a 3 or higher on a 1-5 Likert scale about stress levels and burnout

• 3=“I am definitely burning out and have one or more symptoms of burnout, such as physical or emotional exhaustion.”
• 4=“The symptoms of burnout that I’m experiencing won’t go away. I think about frustration at work a lot.”
• 5=“I feel completely burned out and often wonder if I can go on. I am at the point where I may need some changes or may need to seek some sort of help.”

¹² Webinar: Great Resignation & Women in Higher Ed. (Academic Impressions June 14, 2022). Can you resign from your job if you are a single mother? Can you go on the market as a negotiation tool if you are a single mother? Nonpromotable tasks – organizing gifts, ordering cake — don’t translate to promotable skills
Marwa Shalaby, Nermin Allam & Gail Buttorff, Gender, COVID and Faculty Service, INSIDE HIGHER ED (Dec. 18, 2020), https://www.insidehighered.com/advice/2020/12/18/increasingly-disproportionate-service-burden-female-faculty-bear-will-have; Rebecca Ann Reid, Retaining Women Faculty: The Problem of Invisible Labor, POL. SCI. AND POL., Apr. 2021 at 504-05. People are working more than 50 min longer each day. MARCUS BUCKINGHAM, LOVE AND WORK 7 (Harvard Bus. Rev. 2022).

¹³ While it is good to be generous with promotion and tenure delays without any stigma, note the result may be that men may be more likely to be promoted than woman or faculty of color. Webinar: Great Resignation & Women in Higher Ed. (Academic Impressions June 14, 2022).

¹⁴ Id.

¹⁵ SHAWN ANCHOR, THE HAPPINESS ADVANTAGE (Crown Publishing Group 1st ed. 2010). Making changes in ourselves can impact those around us – “happiness is contagious.“ Id. “Lasting happiness cannot be found in pursuit of any goal or achievement.” HIS HOLINESS THE DALAI LAMA & ARCHBISHOP DESMOND TUTU, THE BOOK OF JOY xii (Avery Publishing 1st ed. 2016); ARTHUR C. BROOKS, FROM STRENGTH TO STRENGTH (Penguin Books 2022) (discussing the striver’s curse).

¹⁶ See American Bar Association Standard 303 (requiring development of law students’ professional identities)

¹⁷ JOHANN HARI, STOLEN FOCUS (Penguin Books 2022).

¹⁸ MARCUS BUCKINGHAM, LOVE AND WORK 78 (Harvard Bus. Rev. 2022).

¹⁹ Id. at 78, 83, 99.

²⁰ Id. at 83; The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos, Burnout and How to Avoid It, PUSHKIN INDUSTRIES (Feb. 21, 2022) (streamed on Spotify) (discussing flow as the opposite of languishing where you flounder aimlessly and identifying three factors for flow – mastery, mindfulness, mattering).

²¹ MARCUS BUCKINGHAM, LOVE AND WORK 99 (Harvard Bus. Rev. 2022).

²² Flow is the deepest form of attention/focus and the easiest attention; to maximize flow focus on only 1 goal.
Id. at 83; The Happiness Lab with Dr. Laurie Santos, Burnout and How to Avoid It, PUSHKIN INDUSTRIES (Feb. 21, 2022) (streamed on Spotify).

²³ MARCUS BUCKINGHAM, LOVE AND WORK 91 (Harvard Bus. Rev. 2022).

²⁴ Id. at 91-99 (noting “we are poorly versed in our own joy”).

²⁵ Id.

²⁶ Id. at 181.

²⁷ Id.

²⁸ Id; JEFF OLSON, THE SLIGHT EDGE (Greenleaf Book Group Press 8th ed. 2013) (explaining small daily habits build happiness and thus, encouraging changing your daily routine).

²⁹ MARCUS BUCKINGHAM, LOVE AND WORK 13 (Harvard Bus. Rev. 2022) (discussing how many focus on surviving and getting through the day instead of thriving); MARIE KONDO & SCOTT SONENSHEIN, JOY AT WORK (Little, Brown Spark 1st ed. 2020) (organizing guru of the book THE LIFE-CHANGING MAGIC OF TIDYING UP discusses the method of finding joy at work).

³⁰ Ten Percent Happier, A New Way to Think About Your Time with Ashley Williams, TEN PERCENT HAPPIER (Apr. 13, 2022) (streamed on Spotify).

³¹ You could also journal a typical week. You could also use index cards and write down each task on separate index cards and write down on the back of the card whether you love it or loathe that task. You could also reflect at the end of each day and write down what brought you joy that day. Id.; MARIE KONDO & SCOTT SONENSHEIN, JOY AT WORK (Little, Brown Spark 1st ed. 2020).

³² Ten Percent Happier, A New Way to Think About Your Time with Ashley Williams, TEN PERCENT HAPPIER (Apr. 13, 2022) (streamed on Spotify).

³³ Id.

³⁴ Id.

³⁵ CAL NEWPORT, DEEP WORK (Grand Central Publishing 1st ed. 2016) (discussing how transforming your mind and habits in a distracted world can cultivate deep work that produces massive benefits). Newport defines deep work as “Professional activities performed in a state of distraction-free concentration that pus your cognitive capabilities to their limit.” Id. at 3. Shallow work is “noncognitively demanding, logistical-style tasks, often performed while distracted.” Id. at 6.

³⁶ Ten Percent Happier, A New Way to Think About Your Time with Ashley Williams, TEN PERCENT HAPPIER (Apr. 13, 2022) (streamed on Spotify).

³⁷ Ten Percent Happier, A New Way to Think About Your Time with Ashley Williams, TEN PERCENT HAPPIER (Apr. 13, 2022) (streamed on Spotify).

³⁸ Id.

³⁹ Id.

⁴⁰ For example, if you want to work out, put your gym clothes out the night before. The path of least resistance may even be to wear your gym clothes to bed! Id.

⁴¹ MARCUS BUCKINGHAM, LOVE AND WORK 80 (Harvard Bus. Rev. 2022) (discussing research by Mayo Clinic into well-being of nurses and doctors reveals 20% is threshold level).

⁴² In your list of activities you typically spend time on during a typical Tuesday, note next to each one whether you have any control over them.

⁴³ Ten Percent Happier, A New Way to Think About Your Time with Ashley Williams, TEN PERCENT HAPPIER (Apr. 13, 2022) (streamed on Spotify).

⁴⁴ Id. For example, if proofreading your book draft or creating an index is not a red thread can you pay a copy editor to do it?

⁴⁵ Id.

⁴⁶ Id.

⁴⁷ During the pandemic with travel restrictions being in place many didn’t take any vacation time. 75% don’t take all their vacation. Ten Percent Happier, A New Way to Think About Your Time with Ashley Williams, TEN PERCENT HAPPIER (Apr. 13, 2022) (streamed on Spotify). Maybe take three days instead of one week of vacation as it may be easier to be away and less stressful to catch up with work. Id.; see also Brittany Bowker, A Third of Americans Feel Guilty About Taking Vacation, New Study Finds, Boston Globe (Aug. 7, 2022) (revealing 72% of Americans report experiencing burnout at work but close to half are not using their paid time off due to ‘vacation guilt’).

⁴⁸ 2019 ADP Research Institute Global Study of World’s Workers; MARCUS BUCKINGHAM, LOVE AND WORK 211 (Harvard Bus. Rev. 2022). Loneliness is more dangerous than smoking. Your Brain at Work, The Science of Keeping Teams Connected During Chaos, NEUROLEADERSHIP INSTITUTE (Oct. 11, 2021) (streamed on Spotify).

⁴⁹ MARCUS BUCKINGHAM, LOVE AND WORK 212 (Harvard Bus. Rev. 2022).

⁵⁰ Your Brain at Work, The Science of Keeping Teams Connected During Chaos, NEUROLEADERSHIP INSTITUTE (Oct. 11, 2021) (streamed on Spotify).

⁵¹ Aaron De Set, Bonnie Dowling, Bryan Hancock, and Bill Schaninger, The Great Attrition is Making Hiring Harder, are You Searching the Right Talent Pools?, available at:  https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/the-great-attrition-is-making-hiring-harder-are-you-searching-the-right-talent-pools (noting that among the reasons for those who have left full-time jobs in the past two years is their perception that leaders don’t care about them and absence of meaningful work or a sense of purpose and a lack of community of reliable and supportive people)

⁵² Your Brain at Work, The Science of Keeping Teams Connected During Chaos, NEUROLEADERSHIP INSTITUTE (Oct. 11, 2021) (streamed on Spotify).

⁵³ Think of the cast of characters in the movie Oceans 11 that had different red threads. Someone’s red threat may be mentoring and another’s red thread may be curriculum planning.

⁵⁴ Id.

⁵⁵ Id.

⁵⁶ Id.

⁵⁷ Id. Would changing the class schedule so it is more conducive to working parents help?  Small moments like check ins can also build trust.  Id.  There are different ways to interact with people on your team – exploitative (organization wants most out of you; don’t care about people), depletive, sustainable (net neutral), regenerative (leaving people better than how you found them/they live better lives working in this organization).

⁵⁸ Id.

⁵⁹ Your Brain at Work, The Science of Keeping Teams Connected During Chaos, NEUROLEADERSHIP INSTITUTE (Oct. 11, 2021) (streamed on Spotify)

⁶⁰ HARVARD STUDY OF ADULT DEVELOPMENT, https://www.adultdevelopmentstudy.org/ (last visited July 17, 2022); Practicing gratitude can also increase happiness; . i.e. Email three people first thing morning; send a hand-written note thanking someone; change your mindset from “I have to . . .”   to “I get to” . . .); Ten Percent Happier, A New Way to Think About Your Time with Ashley Williams, Ten Percent Happier (Apr. 13, 2022) (streamed on Spotify);

⁶¹ Introverts may prefer remote meetings on Zoom than in person meetings. Ask everyone to put in the chat their input/answer/suggestion. Instead of shutting your camera off, which can make it challenging to connect; to avoid exhaustion of Zoom meetings you can hide self-view to decrease exhaustion that may come from watching yourself. See Kathleen Elliott Vinson, #ThisIsMe, 29 Persps.19 (2021) for an exercise faculty or students can participate in to increase a sense of community and connection by answering a series of prompts – what is a favorite childhood memory, what recreational activity do you enjoy, what is your theme song, what is something you find challenging, what is something you value a great deal, what is something you are proud of, what is something that scares you. Another idea is to hold a lunch or meeting devoted to faculty trivia – who is a fan of the opera? Who had has been on TV? Who has run a marathon? Who is one of 10 children in their family?

⁶² It can also be helpful to have a physical reminder visually close while you work to remind you of your why and what matters to you. MARIE KONDO & SCOTT SONENSHEIN, JOY AT WORK (Little, Brown Spark 1st ed. 2020); Heidi Brown, Dir. of Legal Writing and Professor of Law at Brooklyn Law School, Presentation at Ass’n of Legal Writing Directors Working on Our Core Conf.: Crafting a Positivity Portfolio (June 17, 2021) To help faculty identify their why numerous inventories can be utilized – VIA assessment https://www.viacharacter.org/researchers/assessments; 5 paths (academicimpressions.com/product/5-paths-leadership-assessment/) Clifton strengths (gallup.com/cliftonstrengths/en/home.aspx?), and 16 personalities (https://www.16personalities.com/).

⁶³ JOHANN HARI, STOLEN FOCUS (Penguin Books 2022); Oprah’s Super Soul, Arthur Brooks: Strength to Strength, OPRAH (Apr. 6, 2022) (streamed on Spotify), (discussing how things requiring deeper focus are getting harder as we check email 74 times a day, every 10 minutes we are switching tasks, resulting in the lack of deep focus at work or deep fun in leisure).

⁶⁴ Webinar: Great Resignation & Women in Higher Ed. (Academic Impressions June 14, 2022).

⁶⁵ Pat Wilson, High Expectations, TRAINING LAWYERS AS LEADERS (May 18, 2022), https://traininglawyersasleaders.org/2022/05/18/high-expectations/ (concluding “we ought to, and our students should be encouraged to, seek things that bring them joy or simple pleasure”).

⁶⁶ Dan Bobinski, Nothing Changes if Nothing Changes, MANAGEMENT.ISSUES (June 15, 2006), https://www.management-issues.com/opinion/3315/nothing-changes-if-nothing-changes/#:~:text=Perhaps%20you’ve%20heard%20Albert,nothing%20changes%20if%20nothing%20changes.

⁶⁷ Aaron De Set, Bonnie Dowling, Bryan Hancock, and Bill Schaninger, The Great Attrition is Making Hiring Harder, are You Searching the Right Talent Pools?, available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/the-great-attrition-is-making-hiring-harder-are-you-searching-the-right-talent-pools

⁶⁸ Aaron De Set, Bonnie Dowling, Bryan Hancock, and Bill Schaninger, The Great Attrition is Making Hiring Harder, are You Searching the Right Talent Pools?, available at: https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/the-great-attrition-is-making-hiring-harder-are-you-searching-the-right-talent-pools