In the years since the pandemic and our first ever Women in Research webinar on managing well-being at work, the conversation around mental health, psychosocial safety, and burnout in universities has gained a considerable momentum, leading to more comprehensive discussions at institutional and policy levels.
The reality for university staff remains unchanged however, with latest findings from a landmark study of Australian university staff mental health, working conditions and wellbeing showing the university sector performing below national benchmarks for Psychosocial Safety Climate (PSC), a long-standing measure and predictor of workplace psychosocial conditions and wellbeing.
In this upcoming webinar, Dr Amy Zadow (Senior Research Fellow at UniSA's Psychosocial Safety Climate Global Observatory) will present findings from the 'Australian University Staff: Work, Digital Stress and Wellbeing Survey'. Led by Professor Kurt Lushington and ARC Laureate Fellow Professor Maureen Dollard at UniSA, the survey captured 6,200 responses from university staff across every state and territory from 2020-2023.
She will be joined by lead of the Women in Research initiative, ARC Laureate Fellow and John Curtin Distinguished Professor Sharon Parker (Curtin University) who will share her insights as one of the world’s leading expert on work design into improving university staff wellbeing.
Presentation slides:
Further resources mentioned:
Australian University Staff: Work, Digital Stress and Wellbeing Survey 2020-2023: https://stresscafe.net/e-stress-statistical-report/
Psychosocial Safety Climate Database: https://stresscafe.net/psc-database
Psychosocial Safety Climate Global Observatory website: https://stresscafe.net/
SMART Work Design: https://smartworkdesign.com.au/
Thrive at Work: https://www.thriveatwork.org.au/framework/
'Give and Take' Book by Adam Grant
Previous Women in Research webinars: https://www.womeninresearch.org.au/blog/categories/small-wins-webinar-series
Further resources/tips mentioned by the community:
Marck, C. H., Ayton, D., Steward, T., Koay, H. F., Wiley, J. F., Taiaroa, G., Walton, C. C., Weld-Blundell, I., Greaves, M. D., & Singh, A. (2024). The workplace culture, mental health and wellbeing of early- and mid-career health academics: a cross-sectional analysis. BMC public health, 24(1), 1122. https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-024-18556-0
'Slow Productivity' Book by Cal Newport
'Niksen: Embracing the Dutch Art of Doing Nothing' Book by Annette Lavrijsen
"'Rest' doesn't have to be doing nothing, for many its actually doing something like just mentioned! I'm currently sitting on my spin bike during this meeting to practice self-compassion=not sacrificing my own health!"
"I play netball. Our team hasn't won a game in the 12 months we've been playing. Its so fun, humbling as heck and can't think about my work or my kids when I'm trying hard to catch a ball."
"When I am on leave, I usually do the essentials for 1-2 hours each day to reduce the stress when returning from work. For 2 weeks leave I only take 8 days "official leave" to take into account the hours during the week. Hope that makes sense."
Professor Tanya Smith is conducting a brief anonymous survey of women academics in STEM fields to explore aspects of job satisfaction and the ways women are experiencing and influencing institutional culture, expanding a similar study conducted in the USA. To take part, you please drop a short email to FemaleFacultySurvey@gmail.com
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