176: Expats of Higher Ed: Why Many Amazing Higher Ed Employees Are Leaving

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Welcome back, everyone to another episode of the Grad School Femtoring Podcast. This is your host, Doctora Yvette. Today, I have an episode all about expats of higher ed and why so many people are leaving academia. I wanted to bring up this topic because I have noticed that since the start of the pandemic in 2020, I have heard about more and more people leaving academia.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

And it's not just from the faculty side. If you're familiar with the adjunctification of higher ed, or the ways that in academic spaces, more and more tenure lines are getting cut out- istead, they're replacing faculty with contingent employees who are working on part time status or temporary contract basis. Oftentimes, they don't get benefits. Oftentimes they're making below minimum wage or on a poverty line stipend. And it's unfortunate because not only does this impact the livelihoods of the professors who are teaching you, but it also could impact potentially the quality of the teaching they provide, because they're not provided with the resources necessary to do a stellar job.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

That's not to say that adjunct professors are not doing a great job, because I know so many people who put their heart and soul in their teaching. But there is something to say about the fact that higher ed undervalues so many of its employees. Again, it's not just happening among faculty. It's happening among staff. And I have not heard a lot of conversations among different writing platforms, among different social media platforms, among different conferences, and even in publications. I don't know that this conversation is being told enough. So I thought I would share today some of my observations from being part of many different digital spaces where folks have decided to leave, are in the process of leaving, or have left.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

I want to share the common reasons why people are leaving or have left. And one thing I want to say about it- another observation that is not a surprise. You might have made this observation too- that a lot of the reasons why professors leave higher ed and also staff members leave higher ed are the same reasons that teachers are leaving the K through 12 system. So many teachers are leaving their places of employment, and it's not for lack of passion, or joy in the work, or love of teaching. It's because of a lot of other factors that push them out.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

So we'll start with one reason that comes to mind right away - the culture of overwork. I know there's a culture of overwork in general that's part of US American culture. It's a very capitalistic system, a very singular system. It's all about- the more you do -more, more, more. People associating their value with their productivity. That's not a surprise. But it's even more prevalent in higher ed. It's a badge of honor to be busy, and to be overworked, and to do more. And if you're not, then you're seen as not up to par, as not good enough, as lazy. You name it. I've heard so many of these different things. A

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

nd not only is that untrue, but to say that folks that do less can't cut it or good enough is a form of ableism. The culture of overwork is not helpful, and it leads to burnout. It promotes martyrdom, and martyrdom impacts who? It impacts women the most. It impacts caregivers. It impacts people of color, BIPOC folks, because they are off then met with an increased sense of guilt over service requests and needing to be there as a spokesperson for their culture, race, ethnicity, identity. You name it- because of the lack of representation in academia. So, culture of overwork, along with burnout, along with martyrdom, are strong reasons why people are leaving.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Another very, very strong reason people are leaving, both in higher ed and also in K through 12 too, is the low pay. So issues of salary, salary inequity, not getting paid equitably according to other people in similar fields, or even in the same position- who was there before you. Salary compression, where you may be a manager and the person before you advocated for their salary and all sudden, they're only making very little or the same as you and you're their supervisor with more credentials and experience. Then just in general, the low salary compared to other similar positions- either at the same institution, across institutions, or across industries. If you're doing similar work as folks in other industries, noticing just how low your pay is.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Along with low pay, the fact that a lot of positions offer little room for advancement. So you may reach a certain level-let's say a mid level position. You become a director or a manager, and then there's no room for you to go anywhere from there in your current program, department, or unit. So low pay, little room for advancement- also lack of transparency in pay. So even when you're applying to jobs, so many job ads don't include the salary or a range. And I know that now, there are laws in certain states that make it so that companies and institutions are required to put at least some sort of pay range in their job ads. But even then, folks find loopholes. Folks find work arounds. They'll put these really broad or really big ranges that don't give you a clear indicator of what salary is.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

It's really a red flag when you see a job ad, there's no salary range at all. You contact them, and folks refuse to give you an answer or they give you a mean response as if they're offended that you're asking for the salary range. So yes, when it comes to numbers, when it comes to money, the low pay, little room for advancement, lack of transparency with pay- and also the lack of financial support, not only in terms of the salary that you get, or the pay range, or the hourly rate that you get, but also lack of financial support to do the things that you need to get done. Maybe your job requires having a budget and your budget keeps getting cut more and more. So you're having to do the same or more with less funding.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

So it's the high chance of burnout, the monetary or financial issues. Then on top of that, being undervalued in other ways. So many staff members are treated as second class citizens compared to tenured faculty and administrators. I've been there and I've experienced this myself. And I have witnessed it time and time again among my colleagues. Some of my most brilliant, well respected colleagues- because they are staff members and not faculty, have been treated like what some folks have actually said, peons. I've heard someone- high level administrator, this white woman at UCLA- call her employees, peons. And laughing about it. So the lack of respect, the under valuing, treated as second class citizens, treated as replaceable. That pushes people out.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

You know you are replaceable when you see your own colleagues - if you're still in your positions, if you're still working in higher ed. You notice colleagues leaving, and the next day, there's a job ad out. Or there's no goodbye, there's no celebration of their work. There's no appreciation. It's silence and then move on and replace them as quickly as possible. Or even in some cases- I know this is really, really sad. But I've witnessed folks who have passed away, and all they get is two, three lines in an email message. Then the next thing you know, they're moving on to replacing this individual. So being replaceable.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

The other thing I wanted to mention is not only do we have the overwork. But along with the overwork is that there are staff shortages in a lot of higher ed staff units. Because folks are leaving, they're not always replaced, or they're not replaced right away, or that position gets cut, because of budget cuts. Folks are having to do more, and having to do things outside of their job description. Or their job description changes and they don't get any salary increase because of that. So an increased workload and staff shortages makes it an inhospital and unsustainable place to keep working.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Related to inhospitability is the fact that so many-this is not the case of everywhere. There's some really amazing people, amazing staff, pretty good admin, awesome faculty and managers and folks really, really doing the work to promote a healthy environment and to build community. I know some incredible people. So I don't want you to take this the wrong way. But academia is known to be very toxic, and also to be full of scarcity- the scarcity mindset of giving you a sense of like this position that you have is the best that you'll ever have. And that you should be grateful for what you have, and that you shouldn't be striving for anything else, and that you're selfish if you want to move up or move on or ask for a higher pay.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

That's that's toxicity of work, work, work, work, and be grateful for the little that you have and the scarcity. That drives people away, once they realize- oh wait. This is not the case everywhere else. Oh wait, I can find work environments where I can have flexibility in my work? I can work from home. I can make at least two times what I make now? I can be treated with respect? I can move up and advance? All these things will draw people into other industries and push them out of higher ed.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

So why am I having this conversation? Why am I mentioning these things to you? Because I do think that there is something that can be done to improve higher ed workspaces, especially for staff. Again, I feel like so many conversations are had about faculty, and not enough about staff who do so much to keep campuses afloat. I also know that I have faculty members who listen to this podcast. I've got staff members and folks in management positions who listen to this podcast. And I think I have a couple of administrators who also listen to this podcast. This is all from hearsay and anecdotes, and folks that email me, message me, send me DMs. This is how I know who my listeners are.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

If you are one of those listeners, if you are in the position where you can advocate on behalf of staff members, I want you to listen up. These are a few things that you can do to improve the work environment for your employees, for your colleagues, for the people that you are a manager for. The first is advocate for salary transparency. So many job ads get put up and it's normalized to not put a salary band on there. And nowadays, it's getting harder - because it's becoming a requirement more and more. Like I said, more and more states are making it a requirement to share the salary band or the salary range. But even then, try to be as clear as possible about what the salary range is, as specific as possible so that you're not misleading anyone when they're applying. People need to know how much they're going to make and if the position they're applying for will allow them to take care of themselves. How are you going to apply for a position if you don't know If you're going to sustain yourself with it? So advocate for salary transparency.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

The next thing I recommend is to advocate for salary increases among staff. Make sure that staff are being paid equitably. That means among your institution, other institutions, other industries, even compared to current and previous staff members. Make sure that their pay also reflects their achievements, and not just a cost of living adjustment. Because with the rising costs and the huge increase with inflation, a lot of cost of living adjustments actually did not line up with the inflation rates. So folks are actually making less than before, because their salaries are not keeping up with inflation. Again, advocate for salary increases that are equitable, and that indicate or measure up to the employee's achievements.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

The other thing is to advocate for personal and professional development, and offer funding for that. So not only offer time, but offer funding. If you can, find room in your budget- even if it's a little bit. What may not be a lot to you is something to your employees. This includes allowing them to attend conferences, to get professional coaching, leadership coaching, life coaching, academic coaching. I've worked with employees who have had their HR or their program, their units, pay for the coaching that I provide for them. So it's not unheard of. It is possible, and you can be the one to advocate for others to receive this kind of support.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

This also includes not expecting your employees to stay with you forever, to be okay if an employee stays for one year, or even a few years- because if you truly want to advocate for them to move up, they're gonna need to move on too. So knowing and expecting that you will be a reference at some point, probably sooner rather than later. And then preparing for these transitions- being okay with folks leaving and having a plan so that even as folks leave your unit still can have smooth transitions. That's what I mean when I say advocate for personal professional development. It means treat your employees well, allow them to grow, and also be a reference and support them as they move on to bigger and better opportunities.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

The other thing I want to say that you can do is to keep pushing against the culture of overwork. There are so many things that people do that they don't even realize that they don't necessarily have to keep doing things the same way, or even doing those same things at all. You can do less. Could you do something like offers summer Fridays, where maybe staff members can leave early on Fridays if Fridays tend to be kind of slower days for you? Could you make sure that if you have salaried employees and they're working overtime because of certain events- maybe you have evening events a couple times a year. Then making sure that they are getting that time back- that they start late the next day, or that they're working less that week to make up for that over time. Can you plan fun staff events? Can you plan fun team meetings? Retreats? And make sure that you check in with your employees to make sure that they're doing okay. That's what I mean when I say pushing back against the culture of overwork - thinking about the folks that you work with holistically and making sure that they're okay. And not expecting them to be working 24/7 or at the same pace at all times.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

The other thing that you can do is to encourage flexibility and advocate for more remote work opportunities when appropriate. Listen. I understand that some jobs require a face to face engagement. And some parts of people's job description also require face to face engagement. But many jobs don't or they don't require face to face, in person work 100% of the time. I don't know if you realize, but if you offered a day or two days fully remote, that could change lives for individuals. I've got coaching clients who if they got one or two days of remote work, that would allow them to breathe because they have long commutes, because they have kids, because they just need a day where they can focus on their admin work and not have a million interruptions.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

So believe it or not, either encouraging some days of remote work- or even if you notice, there are positions that could be fully remote, advocating for that. You're going to increase your chances of not only do folks stay, but when you do hire folks, you're going to hire stronger candidates, because your applicant pool is actually going to grow. Not a lot of people want to be working in an office 40 hours a week or more or full time anymore. Folks want to have some more agency, some more flexibility. They're willing to work and work hard. But so long as they feel like they have a say. Even if it's just one day remote work a week can make a huge difference and even increase productivity, if that's something you're looking to have.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

The last thing I want to say is- and I can't not say this. As a manager, as an administrator, as a faculty member, as someone who can make a difference in other people's lives in higher ed, you need to do your part to keep learning about how to be an anti racist, to keep learning about how to be an anti ableist, to keep learning about so many of the other forms of oppression and how to push against that, how to dismantle them in some way, shape, or form. To keep learning about social justice concepts, to keep learning about implicit bias, and to learn to find ways to make the spaces that you enter and that you impact more hospitable for your employees no matter what identities they hold. To make it a place where folks have a sense of belonging.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

It would also be great if you required your staff to also learn about these things, to share opportunities with them, to have conversations. You could have a team meeting, staff meeting. You have conversations about these topics. And making sure not just that you're learning about it, having conversations about it, but that you're practicing what you preach. Take a look around. What does your staff look like? Is it diverse enough? In what ways is it not diverse? And what can you do about that? Because another reason why a lot of really good folks are leaving is not just because of the overwork, or the low pay, or feeling like a second class citizen. It's likely because of all those things, and the fact that they don't feel like they belong, and the fact that they may be experiencing a number of different forms of microaggressions. They realize that this is all too much. And if they can find another job where they don't have to deal with all this BS, they will. They have, and they're doing it.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

Again, you can do something about it, I offered a few suggestions. A lot of reasons why so many people are calling themselves expats- there's even an entire Facebook group called expats of higher ed. I know I'm part of it. I know a lot of people I know are part of it. And there are a lot of conversations, stories of folks going in and sharing their experiences anonymously. So if you're curious about what's going on, I encourage you to check that out. And also to do something about it if you have the capacity to do it, if you are in the position where you can make a difference.

Dra. Yvette Martinez-Vu

That's it for this week. I hope that you found something useful today. And even if you're not an admin, faculty, manager, I also hope that you took something from this conversation to advocate for yourself in your work settings. Because odds are if you're listening to this- a lot of you are grad students, or emerging grad students, or recent graduates still working in higher ed. There are ways that you can continue advocating for yourself, pushing for yourself. Some of these things that I mentioned are hopefully going to help you get there. I'll talk to you all next time.