A message to the Columbia University Community - Fall 2024

Every summer, the Office of Work/Life gets together for a retreat where we review the past year, concentrating on what went well and what we are hearing from you, our colleagues and clients.   We discuss the results of the annual survey we send to anyone who has interacted with us to find out what your priorities are and how we can best design workshops and resources that respond to your needs. We often use the survey to develop a theme for our programs– for the past few years it has been “community.”  

What did we learn this year? 

• You are focused on caring for yourself and others with a concentration on enhancing your well-being.  As Work/Life has been doing for years, we’ll respond by offering a full calendar of well-being programming including the return of our popular Step Challenge and both a Take a Break and a Bar-less Bar series.
• You are searching for connection with colleagues. You want to have a chance to meet others – either in-person or virtually – around common interests.  You might be looking for schools for children of various ages, or maybe you’re thinking about buying a house or co-op.  For fun, our ever-popular walking tour is back and a great chance to learn about a neighborhood (this semester it’s the Upper East Side) while meeting people from all different parts of the University.
• There is an ongoing need for programs that help you feel you are part of a community at Columbia and that bring you together with others at the same place in the lifecycle.  We’ll continue our discussion groups this semester – one is for parents of young children (ages 2-5) and will focus on specific issues – so please sign-up for any and all topics that coincide with challenges you may be having.  And, since we are hearing more and more that many of you are struggling with concerns about the elders in your lives (or anticipating that you will be), please sign-up for our elder issues discussion group. 

Does this caring, connection, and community theme ring true to you?  How can the Office of Work/Life help you care for your own well-being while connecting to others in the Columbia community?  We invite you to check out our offerings this semester, but also note that most of our previous workshops are available in our video libraries that you can access at any time. Of course, our whole website is brimming with resources and information that we hope you find useful, too. Do let us know what you think or if you have any questions.  We’re always here for you at [email protected].