This chapter will present a scholarly introduction and overview of the current concerns in academia. Specifically, how academic work has increasingly become characterised by heavy workloads, high student numbers with reduced staff capacity, pressures to publish and secure external funding, the casualisation of the workforce and insecure employment, historically standing inequities, criticisms of exploitation, and academic rejection. More recently, across the globe rapid changes prompted by COVID-19 have accelerated pressures on academics. In one way, forcing innovation and transformation, in another creating more challenges and barriers. How does the academic find meaning, value and satisfaction in their work when faced with overwork, burnout and stress? Reimagining a workplace that focuses on the gentle academic may offer a response to a culture that has been increasingly described as toxic. The gentle academic outlines a set of principles that embraces vulnerabilities, values and respects others, prioritises collaboration over competitiveness, and agitates against performance pressure. The gentle academic also emphasises the importance of generosity, support, inclusion, and balance. In this chapter, we narratively synthesise the literature and report the research contributing to this area of knowledge. Through the lens of a gentle academic, we will discuss the current workplace climate in the academy and identify strategies that seek to alleviate commonly reported stress and pressure as well as improve teaching, research, and collegiality.