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If you read the job postings on HigherEdJobs, you’ll find a lot of opportunities for people to do the hard work required to operate colleges and universities. But as higher education professionals know, there’s a lot more to succeeding in academia than what appears in a job description.
Some of it is self-imposed, like hustling to earn the praise of people in your peer network, and some of it could delegated to you under the category of “other duties as assigned.” A lot of the work outside the job description, while necessary and beneficial, can be exhausting and lead to burnout.
It’s important to recognize the work that surrounds your core responsibilities because, after a while, all work blends together like a fish’s relationship to water. The next thing you know, you’re working more than 60 hours per week.
The hard work from your job description can be enough. Make sure you distinguish between, and in some instances take advantage of, three different types of work surrounding your work.
But first, let’s acknowledge what “not work” is. Scheduling doctor’s appointments, browsing vacation rentals online, or watching YouTube during the time you are on campus should not be considered part of the hours you consider work. Some of these items might be personal obligations that must be done at some point, but it’s not work.
Soft Work Helps Build Trust
Getting coffee with a coworker or engaging in small talk about popular culture might be considered by some as “not-work,” but it is what Derek Thompson would call “soft work.”
“If networking, schmoozing, gossiping and mildly annoying people on your floor with ‘Hey, does this idea suck?’ are species of behavior, soft work is the genus that contains them,” Thompson wrote in his 2021 article in The Atlantic titled “Hard Work Isn’t the Point of the Office.”
As Thompson explained, casual conversations aren’t hard work, but “they build the trust necessary for groups to freely exchange ideas and feedback without making everybody hate one another.”
Yes, we’ve learned from the pandemic that collaboration can occur, and companies can be productive without physical proximity of its workers. But, especially in higher education, soft work is a value proposition for campus communities. Soft work prevents employee interactions, and really the whole higher education enterprise, from becoming strictly transactional.
Listening to a coworker or student drone on about their problems might seem to prevent you from getting your hard work done, and it could even subject you to compassion fatigue. But in moderation, soft work can be essential to your success as a higher education professional and building relationships.
‘Work Under the Work’ is… Hard Work
A similar and perhaps more intentional approach to work outside your job description involves all the things you need to do to stay relevant in your career. It’s self-advocacy and building worth, security and meaning, and not simply letting your work speak for itself.
In his book, “Every Good Endeavor,” pastor and theologian Timothy Keller referred to these efforts to chase away insignificance as “the work under work.” He said it is what makes work so physically and emotionally exhausting.
Social media and the need to continually maintain a personal brand has made work under the work more visible, blurring the lines between work and private life. But there’s always been pressure on professionals to grow their network, elevate their status and do performative tasks to survive in a competitive work environment.
This type of work includes documenting and sharing your successes for everyone from your manager for performance reviews to your campus’s marketing and public relations offices. It could be just showing up somewhere, such as a visitation day or a campus event because you know your dean will be there.
None of this typically appears on a job description, but it’s required if you want to be promoted or save face if your worth becomes scrutinized.
Work Between the Work Can Lead to Big Ideas
The final type of work is done subconsciously. It’s when you step away from your hard work to let your brain enter a default mode network. Often a walk around the quad or performing a less demanding task is all you need to come up with ideas or solve problems. There is a psychological phenomenon known as the incubation effect that activates the structures of the brain associated with creative thinking. It’s why people often have their greatest insights while in the shower.
According to Gloria Mark, a professor of informatics at the University of California, Irvine and author of the book “Attention Span,” rote activities that require mindless attention have advantages.
“It occupies the mind without using up much cognitive resources,” Mark wrote. “Its easy engagement keeps people’s minds open while they put hard-to-solve problems aside, making room for new ideas to appear or half-baked ones to progress.”
Don’t underestimate activities like cleaning your desk or stuffing envelopes. Allow yourself to be bored every once in a while. Your thoughts around hard work are like cars on a highway. You need some space between them to avoid gridlock or the stop-and-go patterns that can wear you down.
A Final Word on Work
Hard work should be hard. But don’t take for granted the work that surrounds and supports it. Having awareness of and the right mix of soft work and the work under and between the work can make all the difference in a sustainable, successful, and, yes, satisfying career.
