Faculty and Staff Quality of Life Survey

On January 18, 2012 Provost Rafael Reif and Executive Vice President and Treasurer Israel Ruiz invited MIT faculty and staff to participate in a quality of life survey. The web-based survey was sponsored by the Council on Family and Work, Office of the Provost, and Chair of the Faculty. The purpose was to examine the work-life environment for faculty, other instructional staff, researchers, postdoctoral scholars, administrative staff, support staff, and service staff at MIT. While faculty and other instructional staff were surveyed on similar topics in 2004 and 2008, the last comprehensive quality of life survey, aimed at the entire MIT community, was administered in 2001 by the Council on Family and Work.

Recent Findings (2012 Faculty and Staff Quality of Life Survey)

• Overall, more than 90% of faculty and staff reported being somewhat or very satisfied being an employee of MIT, with similar findings by employee type and location.
• When asked about their satisfaction with life outside of MIT, most groups rated this item slightly higher than satisfaction with being an employee, except for faculty and postdoctoral scholars, who tended to report lower satisfaction with their life outside MIT.
• 80% or more of administrative, support, service, research, and other instructional staff said they were somewhat or very satisfied with their ability to integrate the needs of their work with their personal/family life. Faculty and postdoctoral scholars tended to report lower levels of satisfaction on this measure (64% and 70%, respectively).
• 85% of Main Campus employees and 89% of Lincoln Laboratory employees said that if they could decide all over again they would choose to work at MIT.
• On average, more than a third of respondents said their workload was too heavy or much too heavy. Fewer than 5% said too light or much too light. With the exception of faculty, more than half of employees rated their workload about right.
• Faculty and staff rated their level of agreement or disagreement with: My department/unit is a good fit for me. 83‐87% (depending on employee type) said they somewhat or strongly agreed with this statement.
• The survey asked several questions on mentoring, including one about whether or not faculty and staff felt as though they had received adequate mentoring while they were at MIT. More than half of Main Campus service staff and Lincoln Laboratory service and support staff chose "Not applicable" for this question – compared to 13% of faculty. Faculty were more likely than other groups to say they had received adequate mentoring.
• Faculty and staff were asked how often they felt overwhelmed by all they had to do during the past year. Lincoln Laboratory employees tended to report feeling overwhelmed less often than Main Campus employees. Differences by employee type looked similar regardless of location. For example, service staff were the least likely to report feeling overwhelmed at both locations. Faculty reported the highest level of feeling overwhelmed.
• By and large members of the MIT community reported being in good health, compared to other people their own age. For each employee type, 80% or more described their overall physical health as good or excellent.
• Read more in the Highlights.