The faculty work-life balance resources below are provided as a part of JMU's commitment to faculty wellness and well-being. As part of this commitment, JMU joined the U.S. Health Promoting Campus Network in the Fall of 2022. As a health-promoting campus, we partner with and learn from other colleges and universities as we develop health-promoting strategies to embed health into all aspects of campus culture. The resources below are not exhaustive and will be continually updated to provide the faculty community with current resources. 

Resouces Provided by JMU Human Resources

Articles on Work-Life Balance

Bartlett, M.J., F.N. Arslan, A. Bankston, S. Sarabipour. 2021. “Ten Simple Rules to Improve Academic Work-Life Balance.” PLoS Computational Biology 17(7): e1009124. http://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pcbi.1009124. 

Burnett, Bill, and Dave Evans. 2018. Designing Your Life: How to Build a Well-Lived, Joyful Life, first edition. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. 

Crawford, Kerry F. and Leah C. Windsor. 2021. The PhD Parenthood Trap: Caught between Work and Family in Academia. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press. (Chapter 4)  

Finding Your Own Work-Life Fit, Office of Faculty Advancement, Drexel University: https://drexel.edu/facultyadvancement/work-life-fit/finding-your-own-work-life-balance/ 

Hernandez, Exequiel (Zeke). 2021. “Yes, You Can Succeed in Academia and Still Have a Personal Life.” Harvard Business Publishing https://hbsp.harvard.edu/inspiring-minds/yes-you-can-succeed-in-academia-and-still-have-a-personal-life. 

Kim, Joshua. “Are Academic Careers Compatible with Achieving Work-Life Balance?” Inside Higher Ed May 17, 2021. https://www.insidehighered.com/blogs/learning-innovation/are-academic-careers-compatible-achieving-work-life-balance. 

Kotini-Shah, Pavitra, Bernice Man, Ruth Pobee, Laura E. Hirshfield, Barbara J. Risman, Irina A. Buhimschi, and Heather M. Weinreich. 2022. “Work-Life Balance and Productivity among Faculty during the COVID-19 Pandemic: A Latent Class Analysis.” Journal of Women’s Health 31(3): 321-330. http://doi.org/10.1089/jwh.2021.0277. 

Martin, Michelle. 2023. “On the Road to Achieving Work-Life Balance in Academia.” CTS: Clinical and Transnational Science 16(4): 553-556. https://doi.org/10.1111/cts.13485. 

Merrill, A. Roger, and Rebecca R. Merrill. Life Matters. 2003. Creating a Dynamic Balance of Work, Family, Time, & Money. New York: McGraw-Hill. 

Owens, Joan, Carol Kottwitz, Jane Tiedt, and Jeffrey Ramirez. 2018. “Strategies to Attain Faculty Work-Life Balance.” Building Healthy Academic Communities Journal 2(2): 58-73. https://doi.org/10.18061/bhac.v2i2.6544. 

Pope-Ruark, R. 2022. Unraveling faculty burnout: Pathways to reckoning and renewal. Baltimore: JHU Press. 

Robison, Susan. 2013. The Peak Performing Professor: A Practical Guide to Productivity and Happiness. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass, 2013. 

Terras, Melissa. 2012. “The Superwoman Fallacy: What It Really Takes to be an Academic and a Parent.” The Guardian https://www.theguardian.com/higher-educationnetwork/blog/2012/aug/17/academic-careers-work-life-balance. 

Reports on Work-Life Balance and Workload

The Surgeon General’s Framework for Workplace Mental Health and Well-Being

Instructional Faculty Workload Report