I do my job here plus part of the director (due to incompetence), the reference librarian (due to laziness), the other tech services librarina (due to her doing her other job here on our clock) plus other things that should be done and wouldn’t if I didn’t do them.

This is driven by my upbringing and background to find something productive to do at all times.

But, this is a government run union shop, so I don’t get any more pay than anyone else. There is no merit pay. There are no bonuses.

Getting out is a definite option as soon as something comes along.

Raimi isn’t responding to my texts.

and: what doug henderson says. most people are pretty trapped. and it’s not just because of the inability to sell one’s house and relocate. there are so few acceptable job openings, that we’re gridlocked. good, experienced people who would like a change are not leaving jobs they’d like to leave.

heck. we might all feel a little breath of fresh air in our lives if we’d all just get up and move to the first library to our right.

If, during an interview, you give a figure too high or too low, they know you are not the person for the job because you don’t know what the real going rate is.

It is a sham.

They know how much money they have for the position, just put it in the ad and base your hiring on the candidates understanding of MARC, LOC, DDC, or DDR.

I think this is saddest when the library is replacing someone who is retiring after many years. Clearly that person was making more money than a starting librarian. It is not going to sink your budget to pay me less than they were making, even if it is not as little as if you hired someone with no experience. Arguing budget difficulties holds no water in this situation. Likewise when you want someone to do something new and different and energetic. Good people cost money. And the salary differences are so tiny to lose the candidate you want – $3000, $5000, when your budget is $5,000,000. Add the amount of time-in-money the training person spends on your new, bottom-of-the-scale librarian and see how that makes your savings look.

And we wonder why libraries often end up stagnant, with the worst people around for years. The less-competent know better than to look for another job.

If you’d rather say “most satisfactory”, that would rather imply that of several attractive options, you like one of them the most. I don’t think that accurately communicates the opinion.

“Least unsatisfactory” is a way of saying “the lesser evil”, or “the one I hate least”. That is, you don’t like any of the options, they’re all unsatisfactory. But some are more unsatisfactory than others, and some are less.

Thanks in advance for all your help.