Customer centric, with little concern for employees and growth
Pros
- pro customer approach - emerging technology - updated technology for staff & patrons - can be fun - interactions with patrons - ability to develop programming - ability to transfer between branches (mostly due to vacancies)
Cons
- Constant turnover due to low pay and over reliance on extra help (sub staff). - High school interns lacking life and professional experience frequently hired just to fill in gaps. - new jobs are posted externally days to weeks before being announced internally. Common complaints from those who’ve been around for decades & those recently hired: - more than 1/2 staff at a branch are subs who change daily, rather than hiring full time (or even perm PT). - lack of frontline staff means pace of job way more stressful than it needs to be - customer centered approach comes at sacrifice of employees, including pay - low pay compared with neighboring libraries mean everyone from managers to aides leave for higher paying jobs. Went through 3 manager/supervisor changes in 5 years. - lack of basic organizational structure (let alone for any critical incidents), - decisions from central lack any real input from those on ground level - lack of communication amongst teams - dead end job for Library Aides and Assistants without an MLIS. - constant talk of supporting change makers but no real avenue to escalate suggestions to anyone who can take any action. (All window dressing) - poor ergonomics - depending on the branch, lots of broken staff equipment (like chairs that’ll rocket you out of the seat) - managerial / supervisory culture of fault rather than solution finding
