How can faculty best telegraph work-life balance challenges under COVID to our administration?
Let me suggest two things. First, the administration is probably acutely aware of the challenges you face and have many of the same issues themselves. Losing some of the &quot;best people&quot; is, itself, a wake-up for administrators.
One of the problems is that large universities (especially) move very slowly and have a lot of inertia. But this sounds like a problem that should be addressed in a bottom up fashion, rather than asking for a top down solution.
Meet with other faculty in your own and other departments. Perhaps there is a faculty association of some kind or even a union. List the problems you face and come up with sensible solutions for them. Try to think of more than one solution, some of which have minimal effect on overall finances, though they might require reapportioning funds.
If appropriate, get department heads involved in this and even deans. Discuss among yourselves how you think it ought to be and then work on those issues, probably one at a time. The long term viability of the institution may be at stake as times change and there is no clear end point to the current difficulties. For state-funded institutions you may even need to enter the political arena to obtain changes, especially additional funding.
If you first get public/open recognition of the problems from administrators you have a better chance of pushing proposals for solutions.
Don't neglect working with other departments. There is a lot of expertise in solving problems among the faculty generally. Some of those people are experts in proposing solutions to social problems and dealing with inertia and opposition.
Small-scale short-term solutions may not be sufficient. There are no guarantees that the university will return to what it was a year or so ago. Think and plan for the future. The universities that do this best will have the best chance to succeed.