Comments on: Just How Stressful is Library Work?

By: Refdeskwriter

Refdeskwriter — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 11:23:46 +0000

My public library is a wonderful place to work. Yes, some days it’s hard to stay pleasant and helpful while dealing with multiple demands. But I left once for a year in the private sector and came back willing to get down on my knees for my old job back. Now when the administration makes stupid decisions, and the computer users gripe cause their games won’t load, and everybody wants the same bestseller right NOW…I just remember that one year of really stressful work and count my many blessings.

By: Techserving You

Techserving You — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 10:07:38 +0000

Thank you to the last two posters here. The BBC article I mentioned is in line with what the poster above me just wrote – it considers librarians to have the MOST stressful career (of those studied) precisely because of the monotony, lack of fulfillment (and I think it mentions lack of control.) I have tried and tried to point out that ‘stress’ can mean many things and that it makes no sense to say ‘library work can’t be stressful because you’re not dealing with matters of life and death.’ I’ve also not claimed that it IS always that stressful. But sometimes it is and sometimes it isn’t, and I think anotherwhinylibrarian put it well when he/she said it doesn’t have to be inherently more or less stressful than other careers. It all depends on the circumstances.

By: another anonymous

another anonymous — Sun, 14 Jun 2009 12:18:26 +0000

I’m late to the conversation here, but I don’t think I’ve missed much. It just seems to be a game of “my stress is bigger than your stress” versus “it’s not a hard job, wimp – suck it up.”

What isn’t being taken into account are factors which cause stress. It would seem intuitive that higher-up, management-type jobs are more stressful than the front-line “easy” jobs. Or that risking one’s life, or having someone’s life in one’s hands are the factors which determine stress. Yet, studies have repeatedly shown that control over one’s self in a job, being appreciated, and flexibility in work-life balance are actually the biggest factors. These studies suggest that a factory shift-worker on an assembly line has more stress than a CEO of a major company. Why? Because despite the greater amount of responsibility and increased difficulty of the CEO’s job, that person has more control over decision-making, their daily actions, their time, etc. So, the question should not be “is being a librarian HARD?” but “how much control or flexibility does a librarian/library staff member have?”

I would argue that by those standards, library work falls pretty much in the middle of the spectrum of stressful jobs. Certainly not the highest, because we do have some degree of autonomy in our jobs and usually we derive a bit of personal satisfaction from what we do. However, there is also not a lot of flexibility in hours. It’s hard to take time off whenever you feel like it; it has to revolve around the desk schedule (and programs and tours, in the case of children’s librarians). In my previous 10-year career I was a private sector administrator. I had more work to do than I do now in the library. By the logic used in these comments, that should make it a harder job and more stressful, right? It wasn’t. That’s because, even when I had a deadline to meet, I was able to determine how I used my time. I had access to my own computer. I could focus on one task and get it done, with minimal disruptions. In the library, there are constant disruptions, I share a computer with another person, I have desk shifts and programs which break up my day, and so even though there is less work, I am less efficient. I was really good at time management and being efficient as an administrator. I am now realizing that it was because the work environment (and my boss) supported that.

The other factor to consider is that libraries *are* female dominated professions. As gross and crass as it is to say, it means that many library workers are dealing with other stress factors in their lives, like raising children or taking care of aging parents (or both at the same time). Of course, this is true in every profession. And it is also true that it is harder to establish a work-life balance when your job is not flexible. At the administrative job, if I had to make a doctor or dentist appointment during the day, it was easy to come and go and make up the time later. In the library world, I have to schedule appointments for my weekdays off, or mornings when I’m not working, which means that I have far less flexibility in getting appointments quickly. I also am caring for a sick elderly parent. Whereas I used to come home and watch TV while I worked out on a step machine and then got to bed in good time (healthy stress management techniques), I now go from work to my parents’ home and take care of them and get to my home only to fall asleep and do it all again the next day. Does that personal stress affect my work life? Sure it does. If I were still in my private-sector job, I’d be able to take some personal time. In my library world, I can’t.
The point of this rambling? The factors which determine how stressful a job is or isn’t are not the ones being discussed here – it’s not how hard a job is, or even how much you’re paid. The factors are how easy it is to maintain a work-life balance, how much control you have over yourself and your time, whether you are supported by your work environment and your bosses, and how much satisfaction you derive from your job.

Sometimes it really IS the easy, crappy jobs that are the most stressful.

Links to relevant studies: http://www.stress.org/job.htm and http://www.hillsorient.com/articles/2005/04/209.html (and I know you can all find many others).

By: AnotherWhinyLibrarian?

AnotherWhinyLibrarian? — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 22:22:41 +0000

Just a couple of comments: I have been a librarian for 20+ years, in public, legal, and now academic libraries. I have also had what some folks on here like to call “real” jobs in corporate, and even those student flipping burgers brain death jobs. I’ve also worked as a teacher.
In my experience and opinion, working in a library is certainly usually less stressful than jobs such as firefighter etc., where physical stress/life or death isn’t the question. Does that make it stress free? As some others have said, depends entirely on where you work and who you work with. Working as a librarian does not have to be inherently more OR less stressful than any other type of service work.

My current job can be very stressful, when the demands that re placed on my time exceed the available time to accomplish them. Sometimes that happens. My job can also be stress-free when I have extra time. Sometimes that happens.

I’ve worked with toxic directors and/or co-workers – life was stressful. I’ve worked with great people – life wasn’t. For me, as someone else said, it’s more about frustration than anything – the nature of public service is that people can be demanding, rude, impolite. That isn’t limited to libraries.

My job can be mentally exhausting when I am trying to develop new curricula, prepare for area meetings, schedule the reference desk and instruction, and write an accreditation report all at the same time AND then also assist multipe students on the same day with complex research questions. Can any idiot do that? Maybe not.

Other times my job can be completely boring (and frustrating) when I am sitting at Reference and all I do is approx. every 3.5 minutes tell someone where to find the bathroom, point to the stapler, show them where to buy a print card etc. “This takes a Master’s Degree?” I ask myself. So I would agree that I find the profession more frustrating than stressful, but mostly I find it more mixed up, and not sure what it actually is, than anything else.

Of most interest to me, though, are the number of people who have posted on here who resort to finger pointing or making insulting remarks and make assume that their experiences (positive or negative) have to be every one else’s truth. The sheer amount of bashing that’s going on just makes me sad.

I was hoping to find more coherent discussion, with perhaps even some statistically significant research, of stress levels of people who work as librarians. I thank those of you who have also tried to contribute to the same. And by the way, no, I am not posting this from work.

By: Techserving You

Techserving You — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:29:41 +0000

By the way, I was pointing out that not all librarians have the usual 9-5 work schedule in reponse to the poster who suggested that if people have the time to read this blog, their jobs must not be stressful… I meant to indicate that not everyone posting in the middle of the day is posting from work.

By: Techserving You

Techserving You — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 14:09:10 +0000

Exempt employees are paid a salary, and that is how much they get, regardless of how many hours they work. Legally, the employer cannot pay them overtime for hours worked over 40 hours in a week. But, there are other things that go along with the exempt designation which are to the employee’s benefit. For instance, if an employee misses less than 8 hours in a day… even if they’re only there for an hour, pay cannot be docked. (Well, PAY wouldn’t be docked, but a vacation or sick day would have to be taken if the employee were gone for the whole day.) When you are an exempt employee, as most professional librarians are, you are expected to work as long as you need to to get your work done. The issue of the ‘exempt’ status kind of bothers me, though. It was apparently originally designed for people in managerial roles, who had higher salaries, anyway. Now it’s applied to all sorts of white-collar jobs that do not pay well… I think the bottom pay-level for an ‘exempt’ employee (this is a federal standard) is $23,000-something. At my previous job, where I was also exempt, and people often talked about how much money they made, it became very apparent that I was paid tens of thousands of dollars less per year than many hourly employees who could work overtime (and the difference in pay was even greater if you calculated how much I was really getting paid, per hour, when I worked unpaid ‘overtime,’ as I almost always did. Yet all the hourly employees assumed that the exempt (professional) staff were making tons of money and therefore didn’t ‘deserve’ to be paid overtime. I think the exempt status is really misapplied in a lot of cases.

By: Mr. Kat

Mr. Kat — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:40:53 +0000

And regardless of what hours you do have, 40 hours is a workweek and anything over that is overtime. Now every sinlge place I have worked in thus far was very adament that if I was there, I was a paid employee on their clock. this goes two ways; for starters, no goofing off on my part, and for enders, tehy’re paying me for that time. In each case where I was employed, they only had a specific set predefined allotment of hours within I could work. I could not work less than X and I could not work more than X’. Int he case of the former, they were better off getting another body to fill the space; in the case of the latter, if I was there working on uncompensated time, I was being Dishonest!

First, I was cheating myself by giving them time that was my own. Second, I was cheating them because my uncompensated time altered their work productivity statistics, giving them an unfair picture of what they could do withint he project. And further, working for free is even ILLEGAL by State codes, so by me working longer I was further putting them in trouble. So long story short, they taught me and taught me well; the only time that I am at work is between the hours that they assign me, and that’s IT! After that time, I GO HOME!

This is unfortuantely not the case in jobs closer to the humanities and particularly the social science [educaiotn, for example] where we do these jobs out of our love for humanity. In these jobs the only way to get everythign accomplished that is required is to throw in a 60 day work week every week and hope the three months off make up for it. But hey, take those words as a warning when you hear them: “This career field is more of a CALLING”… I learned that here. ;D

By: dork

dork — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:39:58 +0000

Ya know what’s stressful sometimes? Being asked a difficult reference question at the desk while a coworker or a superior is there and you don’t want to sound stupid. :P

By: Mr. Kat

Mr. Kat — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:29:30 +0000

Sure the library job can be stressful – but it is no where near as stressful as a REAL job. That’s what we’re trying to say, I think. Those who are most stressed are very realistically those who have never worked in the real world as well – I fully agree with you there!

By: Techserving You

Techserving You — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:08:36 +0000

Oh yeah, plus I worked in an understaffed corporate office (professional position)with major deadlines, as I have previously mentioned.

I WILL say, I agree with the idea that the biggest whiners tend to be the ones who have never had real jobs. These also tend to be the people active in the union who want to think they’re working in a concentration camp when they instead have cushy jobs and IM all day.