Today's Update: Oct. 10, 2022

October 10, 2022

Dear Student Life team, 

It’s Fall Break week, which is meant to give students a chance to take a breather mid-way through the semester…but I think it’s also an important time for our staff get a break, as well.

That said, consider this my usual pre-break message to encourage everyone to do all you can to simplify your schedules to the best of your ability over Thursday and Friday. If you have a meeting or task that’s not critical, cancel it. If you are thinking of trying to schedule a meeting because the days look open, don’t. If you have the opportunity to take a wellness moment, do it. If you’re planning to take the days to get through a ton of email, use the delay-send feature in case others might be planning to take vacation days. If you can work remotely, try it – this will make less work for our environmental services and maintenance teams who are on campus.

The point is that self-care while at work is important, too, and I urge everyone, including supervisors, to get creative with how to do this for our teams and for ourselves, especially for those whose schedules aren’t as flexible. Just the fact that there will be significantly less traffic on campus should lead to less hectic days for all of us, so please take advantage of these moments to breathe.

I’m even going to take it a step further and recommend that we try to take time each week to simplify our schedules and take time for concentration, connection and lack of busyness. I’m advocating for a meeting-free Friday movement, to the extent possible. I know this isn’t possible all day, every Friday; I just think it’s important that we actively work to find time in our week to slow down our minds and schedules so that we can engage in the type of work that takes more care, thought, consideration and collaboration. Let’s just give it a try, and see what happens – I would love to hear about your experience after a few weeks!

In closing, I want to let you know that I will be modeling this behavior by not sending a High Five Friday message this week and taking time to visit with my family. Consider this a collective High Five to all of you for reaching this point in the semester so successfully. Have a great Fall Break week!

 

Melissa S. Shivers, PhD

Senior Vice President for Student Life
The Ohio State University