February 11, 2025 • 14 mins
Adjunct burnout is a pressing issue that can undermine the passion educators have for their work. We share effective strategies for setting boundaries, grading smarter, and maintaining work-life balance to help adjunct professors thrive without sacrificing their well-being.
• Exploring the common experiences leading to adjunct burnout
• Setting boundaries with email response rules
• Managing office hours and student availability
• Emphasizing smarter grading techniques and rubric usage
• Discussing work-life balance and time management
• Navigating extra duties with the no free work rule
• Establishing dedicated workspaces for productivity
• Negotiating better compensation and teaching assignments
• Celebrating resilience and connecting through shared experiences
Until next time, keep grading, keep growing, and keep making a difference in your students' lives.
Dr. Rutledge
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to Grading Papers, the podcast dedicated to
supporting and empoweringadjunct professors.
I'm your host, dr Randi AnitaRutledge, a 14-year adjunct
professor, and I am thrilled toembark on this journey with you.
Today we're talking aboutsomething that every adjunct
professor will face at somepoint in their career burnout.
(00:21):
If you're teaching multiplecourses at multiple schools,
grading nonstop, answeringemails at 11 pm and still
wondering why your paycheckbarely covers your rent, you're
not alone.
The burnout is real.
But here's the thing you don'thave to accept burnout as part
(00:43):
of the job.
In this episode we're breakingdown real strategies to help you
manage your workload, setboundaries and survive adjunct
life without running yourselfinto the ground and I mean to
the ground.
So why are adjuncts so burntout?
The burnout breakdown sayswe're overworked, we're teaching
(01:04):
at multiple institutions withno centralized support and
you've heard it before the lowpay and no benefits.
I'm not trying to beat that inthe ground, but that's just one
thing we do.
We're working more hours justto survive.
Then there's the whole thingwith emotional labor with no
office, no job security, noconnections to the institutions,
(01:26):
and then the endless grading wegot I told you in one of the
episodes 28 students, fourassignments times, 15 weeks,
large class sizes, unpaid preptime and no teaching assistant
support and I know I'm sayingthis over and over and you might
be saying, well, why don't youget another job or whatever?
(01:47):
Well, I mean, when you're ateacher by nature and by heart,
you love what you do Adjuncts.
Let me ask you, when did yourealize you were burnt out?
Send me a message and commentand let me know and I might
feature your story on a futureepisode.
Comment and let me know and Imight feature your story on a
(02:07):
future episode.
The thing that we have to do asadjuncts, because we love this
thing so much teaching we got toset boundaries.
We have to take control of ourworkload right.
So one of the ways that youcould do it is set up the 48
hour email rule.
Some schools already have that,but if they don't, then you
could set it up for yourself andlet me tell you why it works.
It'll stop the students andadmins from inspecting instant
(02:31):
responses.
That's one of the things thatwe do.
We feel like you know that's anadjunct vulnerability and I've
talked about this in otherepisodes when we see an email,
we feel like we just got to rushand answer it, so that we're on
the job, so we can get thiscontract and we could keep
another contract.
No, set some boundaries.
And then, once they see thatyou answer your emails within
(02:55):
this rule, you'll socialize themto that.
So how do you implement it?
You set up an auto reply.
Huge right, an auto reply, sucha small little thing you can do
.
Hey, it might say I checkemails Monday to Friday and
respond within 48 hours If thisis an urgent situation, please.
(03:18):
And then you insert whateverpreferred contact method you
want to right, preferred contactmethod you want to right.
Another hack is the office hoursand availability.
Limit availability to two fixeddays instead of by appointment
(03:39):
only.
That's a good thing, but youmight want to limit it to one
fixed day and let it be the sameday if you're teaching multiple
schools and then you don't haveto worry about appointments.
But now, if that fixed day ison a Tuesday and students are
going to submit theirassignments on Sunday and you
got to between Tuesday andSaturday, somebody is gonna send
(04:00):
you an email or somebody'sgonna want to talk to you or
something.
So think about what.
The university, and then thoseoffice hours you could also use
Calendly.
Now that's interesting, right?
You could use Calendly orGoogle Calendar to block
specific time slots and then youcould have that link.
(04:23):
If the school allows it, youcould have that link under your
signature when you're sendingout announcements or anything
else like that, and if a studentneeded to talk to you, they can
set up an appointment withCalendly.
When you're thinking aboutgrading, you want to grade
smarter and not harder.
That's the thing that I saywith my easyadjunctcom, so I
(04:45):
think I've talked about thisbefore.
But the grading smarter, notharder is like batch grading.
It's when you schedule blocksof time to grade instead of
random time, and I believethat's one of the things that I
needed to do in 2025, becausethus far, I've only been grading
at random times and I probablyneed to set these no, not
(05:06):
probably.
I will set these block times sothat I won't get the burnout on
these random times.
Then, when you think about yourrubrics, your rubrics are your
best friend.
Oh, let me put a pin rightthere.
There are some universitiesthat I teach for and the courses
don't have a rubric, so youhave to create a rubric for the
(05:27):
assignment so you can grade it,and the students need to see a
rubric so they level setexpectations for what they need
to do if they want to get thehighest possible grade.
So for the courses that I teachthat, in the assignments that
do not have rubrics, I use myeasyadjunctcom.
I use ask easy adjunct.
(05:48):
I put in the assignmentinstructions, I click on to give
me a rubric and once I get thatrubric, I can send that rubric
to whatever assignment it is.
So one of my apps is anassignment, one of them is a
discussion.
I can send that rubric directlyto there and start the grading
process.
The rubrics are your bestfriend because they are a clear
(06:12):
criteria.
There's this less back andforth with students as far as
why did I get this grade?
Help me understand right andI've said this in another
podcast voice feedback insteadof typing, so you can give
feedback in the voice by usingGoogle Docs and voice comments.
It's a faster way to grade andthen you'll get that text and
(06:36):
you're able to copy and pasteinto the learning management
system.
So, adjuncts, what are yourbest grading hacks?
Let us know here.
Respond in whatever podcastprovider that you use and let us
know.
So another thing, when you thinkabout reducing the burnout, is
the whole work-life balanceright.
(06:58):
You want to protect your time.
Your time is so valuable andeven though you love teaching
and I could talk about myselfeven though I love teaching I
have to be cognizant of my timebecause I have a husband, I have
a family, I even have a dog wholikes to walk, be walked my
Siberian Husky, hallie B.
And you got to understand that,even though this job is pulling
(07:23):
from you, for all the thingsthat is needed and your
commitment to it, through thiscontract you have to think about
your whole balance in life andprotect your time.
So the no free work rule right.
Adjuncts are often pressured totake on extra duties.
(07:44):
I'm telling you, once you signthat contract, next thing you
know it's like can you do someadvising?
Can you be on this committee?
You have to take training thatyou don't get paid for.
You might have to do officehours and like where's the
office?
We're adjuncts, we don't havean office.
You might have to getprofessional development that
(08:05):
you have to pay for.
Hey, no free work.
So how do you say no politely?
You get a canned.
Hey, I'd love to help, but myschedule is already full.
Let me know if there'scompensation available for this
work.
Didn't that sound good?
I thought that sounded good,right.
And if you must do extra work,find opportunities that will
(08:28):
benefit you, like networking orprofessional development.
So, yeah, you have to do it,but you get the result of that
professional development.
You can put it on your resume,you can put it on your LinkedIn
and you can use it for yourbenefit.
You want to separate your workand your personal time, right?
So you set the no free workrule.
Now you need to set a no workzone no grading emails after a
(08:54):
certain time each night.
Oh, I'm guilty.
Are you guilty?
Do you grade?
Do you sit in the bed with yourlaptop and grade?
Do you wake up in the morningand grade?
Do you grade on your phone?
No, we need to set a no workzone.
Remember, this podcast is allabout having a strategy and
setting boundaries so we don'tget the burnout.
(09:16):
The other thing is you need touse a dedicated workspace.
If you're working from home,don't work dedicated workspace.
If you're working from home,don't work in the same place.
You relax.
I'm in my office right now.
You want to be in your officeand you want to set a time.
You want to block out time tograding.
You want to block out time foryour emails, put in that auto
(09:37):
response.
You want to have a no free workrule and you want to say no as
politely as you can.
I'd love to help, but myschedule is already full.
Let me know if there'scompensation available for this
work.
Oh, I just feel like thatshould be a meme, right?
I'd love to help and just sayit over and over.
The other thing is, you may haveto realize that you should be
(09:59):
teaching fewer classes for thesame pay, that you should be
teaching fewer classes for thesame pay.
So that means that you willhave to have a strategy and
you'll have to be intentionalabout the courses that you teach
and where you teach.
So consider online teachingless commute time and more
flexibility.
I wanna tell you after 14 years, for the last seven years I
(10:20):
have only been teaching onlineand for the last five years only
teaching asynchronously andthat only happened because I
changed my mindset about it.
I was running around because Ithought that was what I was
supposed to do teach on theground or at the location.
But when I changed my mindsetabout what courses I wanted to
(10:44):
teach and how I wanted to teachthem.
Knowing the value that I bringto this university, it was
easier for me to say, hey, allright, I'll teach online two
hours one time a week.
And then I realized you know, Iwas spending a lot of time
doing that.
So I reduced it to justasynchronous where I'm doing the
grading, I'm doing the emailsagain at block time, et cetera.
(11:08):
So you have to consider whatyou're going to do.
Take that power in your handsand listen.
Don't have any fear that youwon't get a certain job.
There's no scarcity.
Every single university in theUnited States is hiring and
continuing to hire adjuncts, andthat percentage of hiring
(11:31):
adjuncts is going upexponentially.
You just need to create astrategy, your goals and say
what you will do and what youwon't do.
Right, then you negotiate forbetter courses.
If you've been teachingundergraduate and you have
master's degrees, ask to teachgraduate courses.
(11:51):
There's no difference in themexcept for the course and what
the expectations.
Right, then you can get ahigher pay per credit or more
stable contracts.
Because if, especially if youget a cohort, if you get a
cohort in a graduate school,that is starting, these students
start out together and you walkthat cohort through and your
(12:14):
credential to teach.
I think there was oneuniversity I was able to a
credential to teach 20 courses.
I was able to teach 10 coursesin that whole program and I
walked with those students allthe way through the cohort and
that was the best experience Ihad.
So you can do that.
Take your power back.
Say what you're going to do asit relates to your teaching.
(12:36):
Say how you're going to do it,when you're going to do it,
where you're going to do it.
So, adjuncts, have you eversuccessfully negotiated better
working conditions?
Share your tips with us andI'll feature them on an upcoming
episode.
I want you to share thatinformation on the podcast
(13:00):
provider that you use.
If you're at Buzzsprout,there's a way for you to comment
and share that information.
Adjunct, burnout is real, but itdoesn't have to be permanent.
You have to set your boundaries.
You have to grade smarter andnot harder.
You have to pick the time whenyou're gonna do emails.
(13:20):
You need to pick your officetime when you're going to do
emails.
You need to pick your officetime when you're going to do
that, and by doing this, youstart to protect your time, and
protecting your time can helpyou stay in this game without
losing your sanity.
If you've got a burnout story,a survival hack or just one
(13:44):
event, I want to hear from you.
Reach out on this Buzzsproutpodcast or send me a message so
that you get a chance to befeatured.
We thank you for tuning in toGrading Papers.
Don't forget to subscribe,leave a review and share this
episode with your colleagues andfriends.
(14:04):
Until next time, keep grading,keep growing and keep making a
difference in your students'lives.
Welcome to Grading Papers, the podcast dedicated to
supporting and empoweringadjunct professors.
I'm your host, dr Randi AnitaRutledge, a 14-year adjunct
professor, and I am thrilled toembark on this journey with you.
Today we're talking aboutsomething that every adjunct
professor will face at somepoint in their career burnout.
(00:21):
If you're teaching multiplecourses at multiple schools,
grading nonstop, answeringemails at 11 pm and still
wondering why your paycheckbarely covers your rent, you're
not alone.
The burnout is real.
But here's the thing you don'thave to accept burnout as part
(00:43):
of the job.
In this episode we're breakingdown real strategies to help you
manage your workload, setboundaries and survive adjunct
life without running yourselfinto the ground and I mean to
the ground.
So why are adjuncts so burntout?
The burnout breakdown sayswe're overworked, we're teaching
(01:04):
at multiple institutions withno centralized support and
you've heard it before the lowpay and no benefits.
I'm not trying to beat that inthe ground, but that's just one
thing we do.
We're working more hours justto survive.
Then there's the whole thingwith emotional labor with no
office, no job security, noconnections to the institutions,
(01:26):
and then the endless grading wegot I told you in one of the
episodes 28 students, fourassignments times, 15 weeks,
large class sizes, unpaid preptime and no teaching assistant
support and I know I'm sayingthis over and over and you might
be saying, well, why don't youget another job or whatever?
(01:47):
Well, I mean, when you're ateacher by nature and by heart,
you love what you do Adjuncts.
Let me ask you, when did yourealize you were burnt out?
Send me a message and commentand let me know and I might
feature your story on a futureepisode.
Comment and let me know and Imight feature your story on a
(02:07):
future episode.
The thing that we have to do asadjuncts, because we love this
thing so much teaching we got toset boundaries.
We have to take control of ourworkload right.
So one of the ways that youcould do it is set up the 48
hour email rule.
Some schools already have that,but if they don't, then you
could set it up for yourself andlet me tell you why it works.
It'll stop the students andadmins from inspecting instant
(02:31):
responses.
That's one of the things thatwe do.
We feel like you know that's anadjunct vulnerability and I've
talked about this in otherepisodes when we see an email,
we feel like we just got to rushand answer it, so that we're on
the job, so we can get thiscontract and we could keep
another contract.
No, set some boundaries.
And then, once they see thatyou answer your emails within
(02:55):
this rule, you'll socialize themto that.
So how do you implement it?
You set up an auto reply.
Huge right, an auto reply, sucha small little thing you can do
.
Hey, it might say I checkemails Monday to Friday and
respond within 48 hours If thisis an urgent situation, please.
(03:18):
And then you insert whateverpreferred contact method you
want to right, preferred contactmethod you want to right.
Another hack is the office hoursand availability.
Limit availability to two fixeddays instead of by appointment
(03:39):
only.
That's a good thing, but youmight want to limit it to one
fixed day and let it be the sameday if you're teaching multiple
schools and then you don't haveto worry about appointments.
But now, if that fixed day ison a Tuesday and students are
going to submit theirassignments on Sunday and you
got to between Tuesday andSaturday, somebody is gonna send
(04:00):
you an email or somebody'sgonna want to talk to you or
something.
So think about what.
The university, and then thoseoffice hours you could also use
Calendly.
Now that's interesting, right?
You could use Calendly orGoogle Calendar to block
specific time slots and then youcould have that link.
(04:23):
If the school allows it, youcould have that link under your
signature when you're sendingout announcements or anything
else like that, and if a studentneeded to talk to you, they can
set up an appointment withCalendly.
When you're thinking aboutgrading, you want to grade
smarter and not harder.
That's the thing that I saywith my easyadjunctcom, so I
(04:45):
think I've talked about thisbefore.
But the grading smarter, notharder is like batch grading.
It's when you schedule blocksof time to grade instead of
random time, and I believethat's one of the things that I
needed to do in 2025, becausethus far, I've only been grading
at random times and I probablyneed to set these no, not
(05:06):
probably.
I will set these block times sothat I won't get the burnout on
these random times.
Then, when you think about yourrubrics, your rubrics are your
best friend.
Oh, let me put a pin rightthere.
There are some universitiesthat I teach for and the courses
don't have a rubric, so youhave to create a rubric for the
(05:27):
assignment so you can grade it,and the students need to see a
rubric so they level setexpectations for what they need
to do if they want to get thehighest possible grade.
So for the courses that I teachthat, in the assignments that
do not have rubrics, I use myeasyadjunctcom.
I use ask easy adjunct.
(05:48):
I put in the assignmentinstructions, I click on to give
me a rubric and once I get thatrubric, I can send that rubric
to whatever assignment it is.
So one of my apps is anassignment, one of them is a
discussion.
I can send that rubric directlyto there and start the grading
process.
The rubrics are your bestfriend because they are a clear
(06:12):
criteria.
There's this less back andforth with students as far as
why did I get this grade?
Help me understand right andI've said this in another
podcast voice feedback insteadof typing, so you can give
feedback in the voice by usingGoogle Docs and voice comments.
It's a faster way to grade andthen you'll get that text and
(06:36):
you're able to copy and pasteinto the learning management
system.
So, adjuncts, what are yourbest grading hacks?
Let us know here.
Respond in whatever podcastprovider that you use and let us
know.
So another thing, when you thinkabout reducing the burnout, is
the whole work-life balanceright.
(06:58):
You want to protect your time.
Your time is so valuable andeven though you love teaching
and I could talk about myselfeven though I love teaching I
have to be cognizant of my timebecause I have a husband, I have
a family, I even have a dog wholikes to walk, be walked my
Siberian Husky, hallie B.
And you got to understand that,even though this job is pulling
(07:23):
from you, for all the thingsthat is needed and your
commitment to it, through thiscontract you have to think about
your whole balance in life andprotect your time.
So the no free work rule right.
Adjuncts are often pressured totake on extra duties.
(07:44):
I'm telling you, once you signthat contract, next thing you
know it's like can you do someadvising?
Can you be on this committee?
You have to take training thatyou don't get paid for.
You might have to do officehours and like where's the
office?
We're adjuncts, we don't havean office.
You might have to getprofessional development that
(08:05):
you have to pay for.
Hey, no free work.
So how do you say no politely?
You get a canned.
Hey, I'd love to help, but myschedule is already full.
Let me know if there'scompensation available for this
work.
Didn't that sound good?
I thought that sounded good,right.
And if you must do extra work,find opportunities that will
(08:28):
benefit you, like networking orprofessional development.
So, yeah, you have to do it,but you get the result of that
professional development.
You can put it on your resume,you can put it on your LinkedIn
and you can use it for yourbenefit.
You want to separate your workand your personal time, right?
So you set the no free workrule.
Now you need to set a no workzone no grading emails after a
(08:54):
certain time each night.
Oh, I'm guilty.
Are you guilty?
Do you grade?
Do you sit in the bed with yourlaptop and grade?
Do you wake up in the morningand grade?
Do you grade on your phone?
No, we need to set a no workzone.
Remember, this podcast is allabout having a strategy and
setting boundaries so we don'tget the burnout.
(09:16):
The other thing is you need touse a dedicated workspace.
If you're working from home,don't work dedicated workspace.
If you're working from home,don't work in the same place.
You relax.
I'm in my office right now.
You want to be in your officeand you want to set a time.
You want to block out time tograding.
You want to block out time foryour emails, put in that auto
(09:37):
response.
You want to have a no free workrule and you want to say no as
politely as you can.
I'd love to help, but myschedule is already full.
Let me know if there'scompensation available for this
work.
Oh, I just feel like thatshould be a meme, right?
I'd love to help and just sayit over and over.
The other thing is, you may haveto realize that you should be
(09:59):
teaching fewer classes for thesame pay, that you should be
teaching fewer classes for thesame pay.
So that means that you willhave to have a strategy and
you'll have to be intentionalabout the courses that you teach
and where you teach.
So consider online teachingless commute time and more
flexibility.
I wanna tell you after 14 years, for the last seven years I
(10:20):
have only been teaching onlineand for the last five years only
teaching asynchronously andthat only happened because I
changed my mindset about it.
I was running around because Ithought that was what I was
supposed to do teach on theground or at the location.
But when I changed my mindsetabout what courses I wanted to
(10:44):
teach and how I wanted to teachthem.
Knowing the value that I bringto this university, it was
easier for me to say, hey, allright, I'll teach online two
hours one time a week.
And then I realized you know, Iwas spending a lot of time
doing that.
So I reduced it to justasynchronous where I'm doing the
grading, I'm doing the emailsagain at block time, et cetera.
(11:08):
So you have to consider whatyou're going to do.
Take that power in your handsand listen.
Don't have any fear that youwon't get a certain job.
There's no scarcity.
Every single university in theUnited States is hiring and
continuing to hire adjuncts, andthat percentage of hiring
(11:31):
adjuncts is going upexponentially.
You just need to create astrategy, your goals and say
what you will do and what youwon't do.
Right, then you negotiate forbetter courses.
If you've been teachingundergraduate and you have
master's degrees, ask to teachgraduate courses.
(11:51):
There's no difference in themexcept for the course and what
the expectations.
Right, then you can get ahigher pay per credit or more
stable contracts.
Because if, especially if youget a cohort, if you get a
cohort in a graduate school,that is starting, these students
start out together and you walkthat cohort through and your
(12:14):
credential to teach.
I think there was oneuniversity I was able to a
credential to teach 20 courses.
I was able to teach 10 coursesin that whole program and I
walked with those students allthe way through the cohort and
that was the best experience Ihad.
So you can do that.
Take your power back.
Say what you're going to do asit relates to your teaching.
(12:36):
Say how you're going to do it,when you're going to do it,
where you're going to do it.
So, adjuncts, have you eversuccessfully negotiated better
working conditions?
Share your tips with us andI'll feature them on an upcoming
episode.
I want you to share thatinformation on the podcast
(13:00):
provider that you use.
If you're at Buzzsprout,there's a way for you to comment
and share that information.
Adjunct, burnout is real, but itdoesn't have to be permanent.
You have to set your boundaries.
You have to grade smarter andnot harder.
You have to pick the time whenyou're gonna do emails.
(13:20):
You need to pick your officetime when you're going to do
emails.
You need to pick your officetime when you're going to do
that, and by doing this, youstart to protect your time, and
protecting your time can helpyou stay in this game without
losing your sanity.
If you've got a burnout story,a survival hack or just one
(13:44):
event, I want to hear from you.
Reach out on this Buzzsproutpodcast or send me a message so
that you get a chance to befeatured.
We thank you for tuning in toGrading Papers.
Don't forget to subscribe,leave a review and share this
episode with your colleagues andfriends.
(14:04):
Until next time, keep grading,keep growing and keep making a
difference in your students'lives.
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