Wellness in the Workplace

By: Alivia English

I had the opportunity to attend the Michigan American Council on Education (MI-ACE) Women’s Network Annual Conference last June. The conference as a whole was very informative, but as one of the very few students in attendance, I found it particularly impactful to learn more about the faculty/staff/administrator perspective in higher education. During this conference, I had the pleasure of sitting in on a presentation on wellness in the workplace, presented by the University of Michigan Wellness Office.

At the Faculty Development Center (FDC), we often speak on student wellness issues, and we make strides to support faculty supporting students by offering opportunities such as our Student Wellness Mini-Grants. Still, we care a lot about the wellness of our faculty, lecturers, and staff as well.

Having worked at the FDC for over a year now, I see professors who care a lot about their students daily, and it has changed my perspective greatly on how I view my own professors. It has made me realize how much effort many professors put in to make our education not only beneficial to our learning, but also to encourage our wellness in and outside of the classroom.

This newer perspective, as well as the conference presentation, ignited my thinking on what it might be like to teach in higher education, and what measures are taken to ensure the wellness of professors. In order for us to pour out onto others, we must also be poured into. My own research in clinical education has shown me that many issues in professional relationships are often a result of a domino effect of people who were treated poorly treating others poorly, and I strongly believe that if some of these patterns were to be broken, so many positive changes would occur.

We know how important it is for workplaces to be safe environments for employees, both physically and emotionally. After all, the average person spends around 90,000 hours at work over their lifetime (Stoewen, 2016). Career burnout is not uncommon, but it is especially prevalent in higher education and it has been made worse since COVID (Chessman, 2023). If mental health directly affects work performance, what can we do to better support one another in the workplace? Hollie Chessman (2023) suggested a few strategies for combating faculty burnout including offering faculty development, practicing flexibility, recognizing the efforts of faculty, and setting realistic expectations and goals for faculty.

We like to think we know a thing or two about faculty development at the Faculty Development Center! We work to build community for our faculty and lecturers, and to help support them in the important work that they do. We try to highlight the joys of teaching while working together to combat the negatives of teaching. No career is going to be perfect, but we feel passionately about building a place where people can leave feeling encouraged about what they do and how they go about doing it.

Recognition has been a frequent topic in the Student-Instructor Partnerships in Clinical Education (SIPCE) learning community that I am co-leading with Dr. Courtney Lewis this year. Through both our research and our discussions, we have quickly come to see the importance of taking time to recognize the efforts of both faculty and students. This could be something minor, such as telling a coworker “great work,” but it could be deeply meaningful for the person receiving the recognition. We sometimes need to know that people see us and what we are doing. What would our departments and offices look like if we were to make it a priority to recognize the work and efforts that our community puts forth?

I would argue that many of these strategies boil down to having empathy for one another. We need empathy in order to show flexibility and recognition and to set realistic expectations for those we work with. In our SIPCE learning community, we had a “challenge” during one of our first few weeks for clinical educators and students to strike up a conversation with each other about something non-clinical related. The responses were incredibly moving and impactful, and it went to show how far a simple “Any fun plans this weekend?” could go.

As a student, I certainly don’t have much say in what each department does with their faculty and staff on campus. However, based on what I have seen working at the FDC, what I can do is encourage you to promote wellness in your department by perhaps doing something like striking up a conversation with someone you don’t normally talk to, or even writing a quick email to someone appreciating their work on a recent project. It starts with us, and together we can make a positive impact on the wellness of EMU community members altogether.

I would also encourage you, as a teacher in higher education, to help us (students) help you. There is often a power differential between students and their teachers, but the best relationships in education occur when both parties are willing to look past that. What can we, as students, know or do in order to help you enjoy teaching more? Even if it’s something as simple as asking us to respect your weekends and refrain from trying to contact you during them, don’t be afraid to share with your class… the worst thing that can happen is that your students will start looking at you as human!

As a student, if I am not in a good state of wellness, it won’t be easy to focus on learning what you are teaching me. I would imagine that for faculty, teaching would not be easy to focus on if you are not in a state of wellness. Wellness in the workplace has significant impacts on our lives and should not be overlooked. I encourage all of you to take these steps, and others, to support your own wellbeing.