hey fellow anti-workers! first time posting here!
i work at a very small library in a seemingly liberal Southern city. however, no matter how liberal this city is, the libraries here are not seen as a public service at all.
i was not told this before accepting the job, in fact my interviewers made it seem as if our libraries are a staple to the community.
today an admin wide email was sent out to all library staff informing us about the meeting that happened yesterday between all branch managers and our head manager which included a Questions and Answer portion.
the first part of the questions were about hiring more part time staff since we are all so overworked and burned out (they were told interviews will resume eventually, i was told by a co-worker that has been here much longer than me interviews stopped because our HR liaison became aware of people in the system only hiring their friends), the rest of the questions were about library staff safety, salary increases, bonuses etc.
all of the bonus and raise questions were answered with a swift “our county already administered a seven percent cost of living (the COLA plan) raise to all employees, libraries included” she claims the raise plan in working perfectly. the raise plan they have now does not make me eligible for a living wage until two years from now. and everything is so expensive RIGHT NOW.
and even with a promotion or title change this year, i am not eligible for a raise because the COLA plan does not allow that.
the library system along with the couriers and sanitation-janitors have the lowest pay grade in my county.
also seven percent looks a lot different based on position and salary. i am sure that my overpaid manager is very much enjoying her COLA increase while i and other lower library workers can barely see ours after our deductions.
many other issues that were brought up and are also concerning is, a branch manager brought up that people have been siphoning gas from their cars and if they could have more security.
another worker asked if we could have a budget for cleaning supplies because she can’t afford to keep buying Lysol for both her home and the library. we are sanitizing everything ourselves since they fired our daytime cleaners.
the answer was no of course, it’s not in the budget.
it’s not in the budget for you to try to ensure we don’t get our gas stolen?
it’s not in the budget AT ALL for you to get cleaning supplies for us?
this whole experience has made me extremely fed up with these jobs that offer comprehensive benefits (which is so helpful for me and my chronically ill partner) but then the workplace is falling apart due to cut budgets, people quitting from burnout, mismanaged departments, a manager that runs things like a dictatorship….the list goes on and on.
i am taking brief medical leave for two days next week due to a bodily emergency-honestly it might be my body responding to all the stress this job has caused.
during that time, i will be sending my resume out, working on side gig stuff and getting my art business back up so i can quit within the next few months.
posting here to vent and also to say please be nice to your very underpaid and under-appreciated local librarian.