In early Spring of this year, I teamed up with Tracy L. Pizzi (Charlotte Mecklenburg Public Library) to learn more about how people dealing with workplace abuse and neglect perceive their treatment after they give notice that they are leaving the dysfunctional organization that harmed them. The impetus for this project was a tweet I saw earlier this year (account anonymized):
Additionally, conversations with library colleagues who’d left their organizations due to their low-morale experiences also shared how they were treated after announced their resignation from positions. From increased harassment from their established abusers to puzzling levels of silent treatment from previously cordial coworkers, anecdotes of this career phase were intriguing. Tracy and I decided that we’d like to learn more, so we began our work and released the survey in April 2024. We shared initial results at this year’s Metrolina Library Association conference (at that time we had 66 respondents; these reports reflect 72 respondents). This inaugural briefing is the first-ever one that will be shared in three parts. This first part shares quantitative reflecting respondent demographics and a retrospective of abuse and neglect they experienced at the organization before they resigned. Part 2 will offer qualitative data about deciding to resign and their treatment during the resignation period; Part 3 will share expanded respondent qualitative data.
- 85% are female; 8% are non-binary; 6% are male
- 63% are Caucasian; 11% are Hispanic/Latinx; 10% are African American; 10% are Asian/Pacific Islander; 6% are Multi-racial; 1% are Native American/Indigenous
- 49% resigned from an academic library; 43% resigned from a public library; 4% resigned from an Archives or Special Collections; 3% resigned from a special library (Legal, Health, Business); 1% resigned from a school (K-12) library
- During their low-morale experience, respondents encountered:
- 94% Emotional abuse
- 84% negligence
- 74% System abuse
- 65% Verbal/written abuse
- Other reported abuses include
- “Sexual harassment”
- “Disability harassment”
- “Harassment after a complaint”
- “Gossip”
- Perpetrators of abuse during respondents’ low-morale experience were:
- 80% Supervisors/Managers
- 69% Library administrators
- 64% Co-workers/colleagues
- 38% Human Resources employees/representatives
- 21% Library users
- 18% Campus administrators
- 7% Board of Trustee members
- 4% Friend of the Library members
- 3% First responders
- 1% Vendors
- Other reported abusers include:
- “The staff I supervised”
- “Direct report”
- “[Spouse] of the library dean”
- “College student library employees”
- Influences and Impacts on low-morale experience before resigning:
- 76% Uncertainty & Mistrust
- 75% Leadership Styles
- 74% each: Burnout
- 69% Library Workplace Culture
- 64% Resilience Narratives
- 54% Contagion
- 51% Library Behavior Culture (“Library Nice”)
- 50% Staffing & Employment
- 44% each: Organizational Structure; Politics
- 39% Vocational Awe
- 35% White Supremacy
- 34% each: Diversity Rhetoric; Promotion & Tenure
- 30% Racism
- 28% Personal Safety; Policies
- 26% each: Deauthentication; Whiteness
- 24% each: Collegiality; Human Resources Limitations; Stereotype Threat
- 19%: Training
- 16% Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
- 11% each: Perceptions of Libraries/Librarians; Social Contexts
- Other reported factors include:
- “Sexism”
- “witnessing hate speech”
- “Watching the youth services department descend into a practice of racially stereotyping young boys and them getting banned from the library for things while their white counterparts were redirected. Watching security assert more control over youth services policies and police be called on children.”
Please participate in this ongoing data collection project – and I’ll share periodic updates.
Seeking support during your recovery from workplace harm? Need insight as you transition to a new workplace? Let’s schedule a Connection Call!
