Abstract
The fact that overloaded plates and stress are common in mid-career is well known. Likewise, we know that the unequal distribution of faculty workload is one of the most important, yet least talked about, inequities that shape the experiences of faculty members within colleges and universities. In particular, women and racially minoritized mid-career faculty face unusually high service, teaching, and mentoring workloads. Often we place the onus for aligning time and priorities, and “saying no” on mid-career faculty members themselves. In this chapter, the author(s) take a different approach, drawing on five years of action research with academic departments. They share key conditions that department leaders can create, and practices they can put in place to scaffold equity and agency in mid-career faculty workloads and rewards.