Faculty Facilitator

Topic

People

relates to working with people

NIH Letters of Collaboration (formerly Letters of Support)

updated August 2026 Per NOT-OD-26-094, the NIH is replacing Letters of Support with Letters of Collaboration. This change brings the NIH into alignment with the NSF. The change takes effect with the implementation of NIH Forms J in January 2027.This change only applies to Letters of

Documenting Performance Issues

Managing poor performance is key to running a productive lab and to being an effective faculty member. It can be an emotionally draining task, and also often quite frustrating. Here are some tips that can make the process more productive. Please note that this is for mundane issues. In cases

Book review - "Be Useful", by Arnold Schwarzenegger

I’m going to riff off on how James Clear does his book reviews, providing an overall summary and then notes I took while reading. Final Thoughts: The title says it all. I liked this book- it is remarkably practical about its suggestions for how to move yourself closer to

Termination, Layoff, or Non-Renewal?

Termination, layoff, and non-renewal are 3 separate mechanisms through which an employer can stop working with an employee. The process for initiating each, documentation required, timeline, experience of the impacted employee, and perception of the employee by a future employer all vary. Below is a conceptual overview. For specifics

Wellness Checks

A wellness check is when law enforcement or public safety officials visit the home of an individual that friends, family, or colleagues have expressed concern about. This post includes guidelines for a wellness check.

Employment Level versus FTE

Life happens and sometimes life happening leads to someone wanting to make a formal administrative change to their role to reduce their working hours or job complexity. This is definitely possible, but it is important to realize what various HR terms mean so that the adjustment made to someone’s