journal_vol49no3 - 62

Departmental leaders also acknowledged how the scope of the work has changed in
the last 10-20 years, particularly in terms of supporting students in distress. While external
departmental factors influence on-call practices, departmental leaders described
how they recognize the importance of setting tone and culture, even if it's saying, " Hey,
take some time " or " Hey, thank you for all that you have done. "
Aside from the demands of constantly supporting students in crisis, participants
felt pressure to offer a quality customer service experience to their residents. One
participant described the " pressure on making the residential experience be worth it
for our students, a.k.a our customers " so that students choose to continue to live on
campus. Others mentioned the added demands of doing more with fewer financial
resources and the changing expectations of their role due to forces outside of anyone's
control, such as the pandemic.
While the demands of the position make the work difficult, many participants
felt that they were not adequately supported by salaries and benefits. Multiple RD participants
mentioned that their low salaries made it challenging to pay bills and live
comfortably. Some RD staff felt they were " overworked and underpaid, " and, as one
of them noted, " If I'm going to work this much anyway, I want to make more money,
which is not the type of person I thought I was, but here I am. " Staff overwhelmingly
did value non-monetary and inclusive benefits such as policies that allow for partners
and pets. In fact, most salient across nearly all RD participants was the value of being
able to have pets live with them.
Organized Anarchy Seemed to be Central in Managing the Work
Indirectly shared by many participants, both at the resident director and director level,
was the idea that today's RD staff must be all things to all people within the institution.
As one RD described,
I supervise a million people. I do all this case management. I do all these conduct
processes. I'm doing RA selection. If I just truly left for a week and didn't look at my email,
number one, I think people would be frustrated they hadn't gotten a response. Number
two, it would be so punishing when I finally did look at it that it wouldn't have been worth
being away. It's easier for me to work when I'm on vacation or out of the office than
try to get someone to cover this stuff. But that's so unhealthy.
Aside from feeling that the workload is insurmountable, RD participants also felt
that they were the " catch-all " employees for the institution; as one noted, the " biggest
struggle of an on-call professional is the misunderstanding of our role. " Many RD participants
cited examples of how staff in other offices assumed that since the directors
have live-in roles and must respond to calls after hours, work could be delegated to the
resident directors. One university was considering expanding mail room hours based
While the resident director position still involves much of the traditional work of
supervising RAs and facilitating programming for residents, today's resident director
is also likely to deal with far more stressful situations on a routine basis.
Volume 49, No. 3 * 2023 59

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