When Tim Cigelske returned to the office in fall 2021, he knew it was a farewell tour.

The former Director of Integrated Content at Marquette University didn’t have his next gig lined up, but the writing was on the wall. 

Enrollment was down, despite the extra hours his team—or what was left of it after five people resigned in the first few months after returning to the office—was working during the Milwaukee, Wisconsin, U.S., university’s first semester of full in-person instruction since spring 2020. Marquette’s hybrid return-to-work plan seemed inflexible, and Cigelske often found himself required to work on days when the office was virtually empty.

Morale was low, and it wasn’t just at Marquette. In Facebook groups, Twitter threads, and text exchanges among higher education marketing colleagues, many of Cigelske’s peers reported similar experiences.

“Everyone is going through the same thing. Everyone feels like they are drowning,” said Cigelske. Overnight, COVID-19 changed his workplace and its outcomes. By the time he left in October 2021, Cigelske had lost confidence in the path forward, he said.

“You work a lot and a lot, and you still feel at the end of the day that maybe it’s not enough. It’s just murky,” he said. “I hate to say that, because I know people are working really hard to make a difference. But it just feels like: How much can you keep giving? How much can you do?”

At higher education institutions throughout the United States and around the globe, many advancement professionals are finding themselves asking versions of this very question. And institutional leaders are realizing the pre-pandemic status quo needs a serious overhaul to stem the tide of people leaving for private sector jobs that offer more flexibility, career support, work-life balance—or all three.