Vol.:(0123456789) Research in Higher Education https://doi.org/10.1007/s11162-024-09799-2 1 3 Caring Too Much? Emotional Labor and Compassion Fatigue Among Faculty During the COVID‑19 Pandemic Katie Constantin 1  · Gemini Creason‑Parker 2  · Cynthia Werner 2  · Elizabeth D. Jenkins 2  · Vansa Shewakramani Hanson 2  · Rose L. Siuta 3 Received: 26 December 2022 / Accepted: 14 May 2024 © The Author(s), under exclusive licence to Springer Nature B.V. 2024 Abstract The COVID-19 pandemic brought abrupt changes to teaching that caused increased stress amid an already difficult time. Whether teaching remote, hybrid, or in-person, university faculty were expected to continue teaching throughout the pandemic, despite personal chal- lenges at home. In addition, there were expectations that faculty show greater levels of compassion towards their students. Multiple articles brought attention to these struggles and questioned whether university faculty might be experiencing compassion fatigue—a state of emotional exhaustion brought on by secondary traumatic stress and characterized by a reduced capacity for empathy. Using data from a larger, longitudinal qualitative study of faculty members’ experiences during the pandemic, the present study aims to understand faculty experiences of emotional labor and compassion fatigue during this time. Unsurpris- ingly, most participants reported an increase in emotional labor during the early pandemic; however, roughly one in four described their emotional labor loads as unchanged or even decreased. In those cases, participants often described active disengagement practices in the workplace, or methods of “guarding one’s time.” Overall, compassion fatigue was less evident than anticipated, but there were identifiable signs of burnout among participants. This finding alone suggests a need for additional research to better conceptualize and oper- ationalize the two terms. Keywords Faculty well-being · Emotional labor · Feeling rules · Compassion fatigue · Empathic distress · COVID-19 * Katie Constantin katie.constantin@okstate.edu 1 Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, USA 2 Texas A&M University, College Station, USA 3 The University of Akron, Akron, USA