Great coworkers and inclusive culture overshadowed by poor management
Pros
-Great coworkers, lots of very inclusive and progressive people work here, so it can be a safe haven for those from marginalized communities -Loved engaging and building relationships with regular customers -Part-time work comes with PTO and sick time
Cons
-CEO is more concerned with the library's image in the media than actually doing things to take care of employees and customers. She put in a $500,000 private bathroom to her office last year that took up a quarter of the building's only staff kitchen, does that say fiscally responsible to you? Especially after the Rudisill shooting when her response to putting in metal detectors at branches was that they couldn't afford it. They instead hired armed security guards for certain branches. -Higher ups LOVE to reward mediocre/poor male behavior. If you are a mediocre white man who does the absolute least, you will love working here! -For a place that has "innovation" as a top value, they are sure not welcome to new ideas or anything resembling innovation as compared to other library systems, especially since they are so proud of being one of the top 5 library systems in the nation. (i.e., changing up the Summer Reading Program to make it more engaging, having any kind of quality social media presence, they don't even have a TikTok, which is how you reach the community in this day and age) -The training for any kind of position is sooooo poor, especially for managers. Managers end up with bad behaviors and bad habits because no one trained them properly. -There are not enough full-time positions for jobs that require you to have a bachelor's degree at minimum. -Because of so many part-time positions, the turnover is very high and that leads to burnout for everyone else -Library staff are extremely overworked and underpaid. The responsibilities for a full-time Children's Library Associate (plus the duties of just being a branch worker) are way too much. I'm now working at a nonprofit that pays me way more to do way less with a lower degree. -It's very disparaging to work for a place that claims to be so inclusive and progressive and props up BIPOC and queer people in public only to tear them down and be so eager to cover up bad white male behavior in private.