Time and Location: 9:00AM - 9:50AM - Room 235 - (Light Breakfast)

This session explores how doing the internal work can remove self-imposed barriers to personal and professional success.

Time and Location: 10:00AM - 10:50AM - Room 230

Using the SHSU Microscopy Center as a case study, we'll take a closer look at the purposes behind work and rest to better understand our needs and the needs of the university community. Without a proper work philosophy, the pendulum either swings toward apathy or burnout. And without a healthy attitude on rest, we can start to feel no less refreshed when Monday morning comes around. The examples given come from the development of the Microscopy Center over the past two years, which is essentially a small-scale research facility built into the Department of Biological Sciences. Typically, these facilities act as a mixture of research efforts, teaching capacities, and industry partnerships. Our efforts in the MC have been aimed at working hard by increasing those aforementioned efforts and capacities, as well as future-proofing our facility through efficient systems, better practice, and sufficiently equipping students and other staff that use our microscopes. By the end of this session, the questions 'Why work hard?' and 'How do I rest?' should be much easier to answer.

As a background to the case study, I (Daniel) have had to devise and implement a variety of systems to adequately serve both our teaching and research capacities in COSET and Forensic Science. Our complex microscopes require expensive and delicate parts, maintenance, and sample prep. In comparison to other core research facilities at R1 universities, we don't have the personnel to run the same systems that they do, nor can I delegate administration, research, and teaching capacities between multiple employees. Future proofing our scheduling, invoicing, safety regulations, and course involvement were all necessary aspects that I was largely developing to best serve the needs of the departments we serve.

One of the biggest efforts (which was by no means required) was my development of a PowerApp for students and faculty to see an updated schedule of all microscope timeslots within their own web browser, considering we don't have the money for the fancier core facility software like iLab and Stratocore! The main goal of many of these systems was to allow me to work at a higher capacity without spreading myself thin personally.

Finally, my goal with much of my free time (typically in between semesters when students and faculty aren't around as much) is to work on grant proposals that can lighten our load either financially or personnel-wise. Because I'm not faculty myself, I'm not interested in obtaining grants just to fill my CV. I exclusively target grant opportunities that can do two things concurrently, (one of which Dr. Justin Williams, Dr. Kaitlin Hopkins, and I submitted in November for nearly $2 million):

• Serve the SHSU community. In many ways grants can give back to the university even just through indirect costs. However, there are many grants that ostensibly possess a research element, though can support academic units, build new opportunities for automation in computer systems, or even give supplemental funding to existing efforts within the university. This is one way to be an element of change even in a department appointment that might not immediately be research-oriented.
• Grant some relief and rest. For faculty, this often means a bit of Summer salary. For those of us full-time staff, this isn't nearly as important - but if I can provide undergraduate or graduate students some opportunity to work (for pay!) and gain some experience, AND delegate some of my more routine responsibilities, it's a win/win!

Time and Location: 10:00AM - 10:50AM - Room 241

In today's fast passed university environment, striving for perfection can lead to stress, burnout, and diminished well-being. This workshop is designed to offer practical, hands-on activities and tools to help SHSU staff find better approaches for managing stress, building awareness, and embracing progress over perfection. Using the SAM framework - Simplify, Adapt, and Move“ participants will gain actionable strategies to align their work with their values, foster self-compassion, and create a more balanced and fulfilling professional life.

Time and Location: 11:00AM - 11:50AM - Room 230

This would be a session designed to promote communication and a mindset of positivity as the employee learns to advocate for themselves and others.

Time and Location: 11:00AM - 11:50AM - Room 241

Generative AI tools are emerging and evolving every day, offering tantalizing new options for tackling tasks at work, whether that means creating daily email replies more quickly or brainstorming a starting point for a challenging new project. But potential dangers are lurking, ranging from accidentally giving a tool (and its parent company) confidential information or unknowingly using generated content that contains inaccuracies or hallucinations. This session will address some key need to know details about how generative AI works and offer some best practices to ensure that you can still explore the possibilities while avoiding the pitfalls.

Time and Location: 12:00PM - 1:30PM - Room 235 - (Lunch Provided)

In today's work environment, exhibiting kindness and looking for collaborative opportunities is more important than ever. Not only does it make a difference for others, it also creates positive micro impacts on one's own wellness. Together, we will discuss why these concepts matter in daily practice and how they can also help make it easier to accomplish objectives.

Time and Location: 1:45PM - 2:35PM - Room 230

There are endless sources for mitigating burnout. Often times, these strategies involve developing habits that don't work or complicate our already complex lifestyles. We all know stress is a root cause of burnout, and we all tend to mitigate stress to avoid burnout, despite knowing life will continue to be stressful. So, how can we keep up? We can change our lifestyles to suit a strategy, or we can choose strategies that complement our lifestyles instead.

Time and Location: 1:45PM - 2:35PM - Room 241

In this session, I want to explore some of the thoughts of Devon Price, who wrote the book, Laziness Does Not Exist. Price argues that laziness is a word that has been weaponized against marginalized people--in particular, neurodivergent people. He also argues that a belief in hard work can be damaging to our sense of community and our rapport with coworkers, when we are used to weaponizing that value against ourselves. I want to argue for the value of seeing our workplace more as a community, and suggest strategies for building community in our workplace.

Time and Location: 2:45PM - 3:35PM - Room 230

This session will be based on the book by Patrick Lencioni’s The Ideal Team Player: How to recognize and cultivate the three essential virtues.

Time and Location: 2:45PM - 3:35PM - Room 241

The start of a new year is a natural time to reflect on past accomplishments and set personal and professional goals for the year ahead. However, many goals are abandoned because they feel overwhelming or unattainable. We often believe that massive success requires massive action, but this mindset can lead to burnout and frustration. While goals are essential for providing direction, it's the systems that we create that lead to progress. This session draws on principles from James Clear's book, Atomic Habits. In this session, participants will :Describe how small, meaningful changes can result in significant outcomes, Apply the four laws of behavior change to create and maintain positive habits, Balance work with self-care by aligning habits with values and Identify and commit to one habit that aligns with goals for success and self-care.