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Mid-level professionals may be the most susceptible because they are
not only responsible for providing good supervision for new professionals
(a job demand) but may also be most directly involved in trauma helping
work (another job demand) but then may not have the necessary job
resources to balance out these high demands.
job demand and then align demands with equally high job resources. Helping students
who are experiencing a crisis, are traumatized, and need immediate intervention
is one of the highest priorities of the job, since there is a very low margin of error
in these situations, and they place great demands on the professional helper. These
high expectations are unlikely to change. What can change, however, is the number
of resources that departments and divisions provide these highly skilled professionals
after they have completed the acute phase of the helping work. Lessening workloads
in other meaningful ways after these demanding situations is an appropriate intervention.
This study quantifies Renn and Jessup-Anger's (2008) qualitative findings that
early student affairs professionals experience meaningful job stress and that individual
professionals have the ultimate responsibility to make appropriate meaning from this
job stress without the regular support of others. Ultimately, individual professionals
are responsible for their own learning and developing; however, this study centers the
importance of organizations investing in helping professionals to mitigate the negative
impact of their job demands.
Additionally, HRL departments can adapt health standards from other professions;
some police forces, for example, require professionals who have responded to a
highly cognitively or emotionally demanding situation to take 24 hours of immediate
paid leave (Brady, 2017). This gives necessary space for them to remove themselves
from their work demands and may allow them to engage more effectively in social
support, which can serve as a job resource. Although HRL professionals in helping
roles may resist taking this leave because the work in student affairs rarely slows down,
trauma helping work is meaningfully different from other job demands, like advising a
student organization or attending programmatic efforts of resident advisors. Organizational
leaders must maintain this leave as good practice since prolonged and consistent
trauma exposure can have negative effects on helping professionals.
Student affairs professional organizations broadly and HRL organizations specifically
have a role in supporting the professional well-being of their staff. These organizations
can create spaces, policies, and best practices that provide opportunities to
speak more openly and honestly about the professional helping role and the consequences
this work may have. Organizations like ACUHO-I can sponsor professional
roundtables and processing sessions at our conferences and conventions and can dedicate
editorial space for wellness professionals in Talking Stick to support these HRL
professionals who may be more susceptible to burnout. Hosting these roundtables
and sessions with representation from all levels of the profession may create a broader
network of professional support. By creating this kinship with others who do similar
work across the country, new and mid-level professionals may increase social support.
Volume 49, No. 3 * 2023 47

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