Job Stress / Plateauing / Professional Isolation / Balanceby Tom Shaughnessy Job StressIf asked to name jobs that are stressful, it is doubtful that the average person would ever think of librarianship as a stress-filled job. Increasingly, however, many librarians are experiencing more job stress and less job satisfaction. Some of the pressures on libraries and their staff are caused by perceptions of a threatening environment. In the public sector, competition for funds has put libraries on the defensive. Funding for education and cultural institutions has declined in many states as the costs of health care, public safety, and transportation have consumed most of the dollars available. In Minnesota, the budget squeeze has caused the elimination of many professional positions in school libraries and media centers as well as in some public libraries. While it is still true that the US still leads the world in spending for libraries, we are eighth in the world when library spending is calculated as a percentage of a country's GDP. Other external causes of librarian stress might be the torrent of new technologies -- from search engines and ILS systems to cell phones, text messaging, and digital objects. Perhaps related to the impact of the Internet and allied technologies are the debates over the alleged decline of reading and the importance of the book, the information haves and have-nots, and whether virtual libraries can really substitute for libraries as physical places. Although external factors may be the leading cause of stress in some libraries and in some positions (e.g. administrators), there are many internal causes of stress and these can more easily be mitigated. In the mid 1980's, Charles Bunge1 surveyed some 800 librarians from all types of libraries in the Midwest on the causes of stress in their jobs. For public service librarians the chief cause was patrons and their demands, followed by workload. For technical service librarians, workload was the major cause of stress. A university library director described the situation as follows: In my day-to-day work life, I find that I am focused on what is on my desk now and how I can get from here to tomorrow without creating or running into a crisis. Under these conditions, I find that I have little energy to think about innovation and what sorts of opportunities I have to make changes that make positive changes in people’s lives.2 The stress caused by heavy workloads has been exacerbated by the recent reductions-in-force in many Minnesota libraries and by increasing service demands and the growth in library use. To cite one example: although the MnLINK "get it" feature has not been publicized, it has already produced an increase in interlibrary loan requests of more than 30 percent so far this year. This statistic does not reveal the vast amount of material handling that library staff must now perform, a significant transfer of work from library users to the staff. Stress is also increased when work is so routine as to be mind-numbing. Studs Terkel in his 1985 book, Working, describes this type of work as "a Monday through Friday sort of dying."3 Work can become so fragmented that staff are unable to grasp how their work contributes to the library's goals and effectiveness. Yet this is a critical dimension for the purpose of one's work is what gives work its meaning, and meaning is the key to motivation. It is difficult, however, for librarians to remain motivated if they perceive their work to be lacking in challenge and their career aspirations unfulfilled. In the mid 1980’s, the American Library Association conducted a survey of some 1400 ALA members. Forty percent of those responding believed that they would not achieve their career goals, while one-third believed that they would remain in their present jobs but did not want to.4 It would be interesting to know whether such perceptions persist today. One of the questions that has puzzled me during my 30 years as a library administrator is why so many librarians seem to get "stuck" at certain points in their careers. Some of us obviously want to be where we currently are; others may have lost the motivation to climb higher; but there are others who seem to hit ceilings that are beyond their control. One can speculate as to how much leadership and creativity is being lost to our profession because of these conditions. PlateauingFor most professions there are five career stages:
It is unfortunate that many librarians never seem to reach the fifth level. Often they appear to get stuck at levels three or four, sometimes despite the efforts of libraries to assist with career development. Some tried and true examples of such assistance include:
But sometimes there are plateaus which are beyond our control -- they are inherent in most organizations in which we work. These are known as structural plateaus. "Structural plateauing" indicates the end of promotions (but not salary increases) -- that is, the end of upward mobility, and this happens to everyone sooner or later. Unfortunately, many professionals reach their "career level" well below their level of competence; there simply aren't enough promotions to go around, a situation frequently caused by flat organizational structures versus the old pyramid. Despite being plateaued for structural reasons, one can still be a valued employee, one should not personalize the situation; it’s not the individual’s fault. The second type of plateauing is called content plateauing. This occurs when we stop learning. It's a time of stagnation, of almost retiring on the job. It is not necessarily tied to structural plateauing because one can stop climbing the organization ladder without losing one’s ability to contribute. In other words, content plateauing is avoidable. Content plateauing is typically caused by:
The best barometer of a content plateau is one's level of passion for your work. The key is to keep learning. Sometimes we stop learning because of structural plateaus. In some cases librarians choose to stay at their present level in the organization even though they have the ability and opportunity to assume higher level positions. Frequently these individuals continue to be valuable contributors without climbing the corporate ladder. I've seen it happen so often that failure to keep learning can quickly lead to professional obsolescence. This occurs when one's duties and responsibilities require change in magnitudes beyond the proficiencies of employees who perform them. But how to keep up? The work not only keeps getting more complicated, but there is so much more of it. But let's face it: the work will continue to grow and working harder or faster may not be enough, especially when the answer may lie in doing the work very differently. This is where one's commitment to learning comes in -- reading the journals, attending workshops, networking with colleagues, going back to school -- when strategies such as these become so important. Professional IsolationA feeling of isolation, of being without a peer support group, is sometimes found among people in any profession. A study of physicians practicing in rural Australia found that many were experiencing professional isolation brought on in large measure by the vast spaces separating them. But librarians can also feel such isolation arising from the very specialized work that they do, for example, the archivists who work in library settings and believe that "no one understands the important work that we do." Other examples of isolation might include the branch library with one or two staff members where the librarian may sometimes feel that he or she is chained to the service desk. This type of isolation is frequently structural in nature, but sometimes structures are related to status. This may explain why some librarians find it difficult to feel that they are truly part of a team. Examples include the isolation felt by school librarians/media specialists vis-à-vis classroom teachers, or those academic librarians who yearn for faculty status, or the corporate librarian who cannot penetrate the culture of the company's scientists or engineers. A more insidious type of isolation is the isolation imposed by racial, ethnic, or gender stereotypes, which may be exacerbated by the types of isolation described above. An unusual form of professional isolation which is endemic to librarianship is the isolation imposed by type of library barriers. The strength of these barriers is demonstrated by the difficulty librarians experience in trying to move from one type of library to another even though job requirements might be the same. Since when have our library "silos" become so important? Not only have they hindered the career growth and development of many librarians, but, arguably, have segregated us to the detriment of library users. These and many other isolating factors underscore the importance of breaking out of our boxes and interacting with other librarians. It is ironic that at a time when the Internet has made networking so easy so many of us feel isolated. This is one of the professional issues that Metronet is seeking to address. Although librarians in Minnesota have been exemplary in their willingness to share collections, less progress has been made in sharing staff expertise particularly across type of library lines, and in meaningful collaboration. Networking involves more than participation on a listserv or attendance at an annual conference. It is another one of those skills that must be learned and then practiced. Each librarian needs to find his or her own network and if one does not already exist, it must be created and then maintained. Many of us are willing to join a network at least for a brief time, but are not willing to expend the energy to keep it going. It is too easy to return to one's former state of professional isolation by claiming that there is not enough time for networking. But as we all know, whatever is important gets our attention; networking is important not only from a professional perspective, but also from a personal viewpoint. Even the sharing of so-called "war stories" can help one's morale. Although each network will have its own quality and character, there are a few principles that are normally observed. First is the need to respect confidentiality, and second, is the need for integrity. Reputations are fragile entities and must be protected. Networking with other librarians is often closely allied with mentoring where advice is easily shared, professional insights communicated, and possible career options discussed. It is so useful to get the perspective of trusted colleagues when dealing with a difficult problem or issue. For many librarians this is the primary motivation for networking. Balancing Work and Personal LifeAll of the issues discussed thus far affect librarians in all types of libraries: public, school, college/university, and special. A librarian in a special library described her situation by stating: As cost centers, libraries in for-profit organizations need to justify their existence, especially when profits overall are down. When the organization is booming, workloads usually increase, but additional staff don’t necessarily follow . . . Certainly, most organizations are doing more with fewer staff nowadays . . . . 5 This, and similar situations, contribute to the conflict between work and one’s personal life. In some libraries there is a "culture of hours" -- the belief that one has to work long hours to succeed. This organizational culture becomes even more dysfunctional when management believes in the myth of separate worlds, as if employees' work and personal lives are separate. And then there is technology (cell phones, email) which blurs the line between personal time and work time even more.6 The solution to the problem, if indeed there is one, lies with ourselves. Finding the balance between work and life commitments is the quandary of our time and requires an individual response from each of us.7 1. Charles A. Bunge, “Stress in the Library,” Library Journal (September 15, 1987). 2. Diana Paque, “Innovation, ASCLA Style,” Interface 27 (Winter, 2005), p. 1. 3. Studs Terkel, Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do. (New York: Pantheon, 1974), p. xiii. 4. Ellen Bernstein and John Leach, “Plateau,” American Libraries (March, 1985). 5. Debbie Schachter, “Work and Personal Life Balance,” Information Outlook 9 (October, 2005), pp. 10-11. 6. Chris Higgins and Linda Duxbury, “Saying ‘No’ in a Culture of Hours, Money and Non-support,” Ivey Business Journal (July-August, 2005), pp. 1-5. 7. Schachter, op. cit., p. 11. |
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