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How Presidents Juggle Work and Family

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By Jean Dowdall

Most of us in academe think we work hard, and we probably do. But surely the presidency of a college or university must be one of the most demanding jobs on any campus.

The myriad financial challenges, the multiple constituencies that require attention, the meetings with donors and public officials, and the endless work related to long-range planning, construction of new facilities, marketing, diversity, assessment, and the like -- all combine to make the job supremely complicated.

At the same time, presidents, like anyone else, want to "have a life" -- at least somewhat of a life, some of the time. How do they balance the demands of the job with the rest of their lives?

To supplement my own experience and observations, I posed that question to several presidents and their spouses. It was not a scientific study, but the answers do provide both a sense of the thrill and satisfaction of these jobs, and the widespread frustration.

What would it mean for a president to find the right balance between work and life, to devote enough time and energy to both realms? Clearly the answer will be different for different people. Most of the presidents I talked with took their work commitment for granted: They assumed that they would never fail to give their institution every ounce of attention they could. They saw nothing discretionary about that.

Several presidents described the demands of the presidency as relentless and torrential, and dealing with them like trying to take a sip of water from a firehose or a waterfall. Presidents feel that they must be a "symbolic exemplar" of what is expected of those who serve the institution. They thrive on multitasking, on the stimulation of dealing with complex and pivotal issues, on the challenge of setting priorities for themselves and for others, and on the pleasure of working with smart and dedicated people.

But most are still striving for a personal life outside of work. If they have to make compromises, they make them in their personal commitments. Compromising their work to serve their personal life is possible only in times of family crisis, such as an illness or a death.

How presidents cultivate a personal life seems to be closely linked to their family situation. Having a partner is wonderful if the relationship is wonderful, although some presidents in unhappy relationships find relief in going to work. If the partner is supportive and self-sufficient, available to join the president in some of the job-related travel, content to stay home alone periodically, or deeply involved in an equally demanding job, the relationship can be an excellent fit with the demands of a presidency.

Single presidents also seem to have an easier time finding balance than those with partners. Without the demands placed on them by partners or children, single presidents who need to relax from the stresses of the office have more freedom to focus inwardly. They can read a book, take a vacation, get some exercise, or have lunch with friends, as fits their own schedule and needs.

The greatest challenges, when it comes to balancing work and life, seem to face presidents with young children. The desire to devote more time to personal life is driven both internally (the profound pleasure of greeting a child after a long workday) and externally ("my spouse points out that many of the events I attend are discretionary, and says I could make different choices if I wanted to," one president remarked).

One president described canceling a meeting in order to go to a child's parent-teacher conference, but asked the staff not to let anyone know that that was the reason. When I suggested that letting others know the reason would help to create a more family-friendly workplace for others on the campus, the president observed that "everyone supports fulfilling family commitments except if it's their meeting that is canceled." The president concluded, "It's not a great idea to be a president with a young family."

The demands of the job seem to change over time, and thus the difficulty of finding balance also changes.

At the start of a presidency, you have to figure out how to do the job. There are many obligations linked to being new: visiting all the vice presidents, deans, professors, and staff members to get to know them and learn the institutional culture; meeting with the largest alumni groups or the community groups that are eager to "touch" the new president; calling on key donors or legislators early in the presidency to show the respect that helps set the stage for long-term resource development. All of these take extra time for the new president, making that period the most difficult in the life cycle of a presidency and the time when personal life is most limited.

Another time-consuming task for the new president is evaluating the inherited senior team and making the necessary changes. Four or five years can easily elapse before that task is complete. Investing time to do it right is essential because having a good leadership team is essential to a president's ability to balance work and family.

Presidents, as one observed, are "dependent on a lot more people than are faculty or staff members or other administrators." Again and again, presidents say that they wish that others could take on more responsibility (e.g., that trustees or staff members could do more to cultivate major donors, allowing the president's time to be saved for "the ask"; that bureaucratic issues that might come to the president's desk be diverted onto someone else's).

In the end, it is a mistake to compromise by hiring a less-than-ideal staff member, or to stick with a not-so-good inherited senior administrator simply because you don't have time to orchestrate a change or because you want to avoid shaking up the institutional culture.

Does the job get easier over time, making it easier to balance work and personal life? Yes and no. Many presidents find that their jobs become more externally focused over time -- cultivating new board members and a wider range of major donors, taking leadership positions in professional associations, lobbying at the state or national level on critical issues for higher education. Unfortunately, these external activities take more time and require more travel, thus increasing the demands of the job.

But other presidents observe that over the years they develop a stronger team whose members can be counted on to share even the most critical responsibilities. They have learned from experience not to allow their calendars to become solidly booked for months at a time. They have been through all the difficult issues at least once (from the predictable cycles of tenure and promotion or accreditation, to the crises of student deaths or fires or floods).

Some very seasoned presidents say that the relentlessness of the job is overblown and that presidents who portray the job in that way have an inflated sense of their own centrality and should learn to delegate better or build a more capable team. With a good team in place, presidents can take the time to take a vacation, spend time with children or grandchildren, catch up on the scholarly work that drew them to academic life in the first place, or simply spend a day at a spa.

Does the president's salary provide adequate compensation for the work and the lack of a normal personal life?

The astronomical salaries that draw attention annually in The Chronicle are not as prevalent as the news-media attention might suggest. Some of the hardest-working presidents I know are seriously underpaid relative to their peer institutions, not to mention their corporate-sector counterparts.

Trustees who recognize the demands of the job, and especially those who know their presidents are underpaid, often urge the president to slow down or take time off, but that rarely stops them from adding to the president's agenda at the next board meeting. Some presidents retire earlier than they would have had the balance in their lives been better. One president told me that no matter how attractive the golden handcuffs were that her board offered, they couldn't compare with the appeal of spending more time with her grandchildren.

A satisfactory balance between a president's work and personal life doesn't emerge on its own. Presidents and the others in their lives grapple with the effort to find this balance. For most, it is an elusive goal. Their dedication to the institution and the job is just too powerful, and the compromises made almost always involve having less of a personal life than they might like.