My thing about this blog is I will not write a bad review of something terrible that I read. Bad things that happen are, for whatever reason, more memorable than good things, and so I would rather promote good things and try to re-wire my brain to remember the good things.
HOWEVER. I am going to use this blog, which no one reads anyway, to write my petty blog post about Lexington Public Library, because I have not worked there in over a year but my friends still work there and I am so tired of hearing about my friend getting consistently passed over for promotions, whether that's being interviewed for a position that admin already has someone in mind for or not being interviewed at all. When I was at LPL, I was a part timer. I was like, this is great, I have my foot in the door, I will get my MSLS and they'll promote me! I loved LPL. I worked at Northside and I LOVED Northside. The vibes were immaculate. My coworkers were all delightful and helpful. The patrons were mostly hilarious and nice. Of course there was the occasional rude person, but overall? It was a great place to work and I wanted to stay there. When I first moved to Kentucky, I was so so homesick for Florida, but after I got a job at LPL I was like, you know, I could stay here. I like Lexington (and still do). I saw myself settling down and being in Kentucky for a while. In retrospect, that was a mistake. I put all of my eggs in LPL's basket. I applied for a full time position and didn't get hired. I told myself that was ok! I didn't want to be a full time Library Assistant, I wanted to be a Librarian I. I told myself to be patient. My bestie at LPL also was a part-time LA with her MSLS. Kickoff to Summer Reading was coming up. This was a huge deal. It was like, petting zoo, outside activities, Scholastic Book Fair, just a very busy day for the branch. The branch manager asked me to come in on my day off to help. I went in on my day off to help and she told me, after the whole day was over (of course), that it was hard to move up from part time to an L1. That I needed more experience in programming, or this or that or the other thing. (It was always some flimsy excuse.) I just sat there in shock. I couldn't even speak. My classmates had just graduated and were getting L1 positions at libraries they'd never set foot in, but I couldn't get an L1 INTERVIEW at a place where EVERYONE KNEW ME? Now, I have programming experience. Any kind of non-academic thing I did in undergrad was RUNNING PROGRAMS. Movie nights, dinners, workshops, dances, Lavender Graduation, bonfires, you name it. I can run programs for adults, I can run programs for teens. I had just come out of what essentially had been running programs from 7am to 4pm for four children under the age of nine. So again, a flimsy excuse. They interviewed my work bestie and she did not get this position. The person who got the position was someone we worked with, who is a fine person, but they did not have the MSLS AND the reason they were hired was because the branch wanted someone who was bilingual. All of that is fine. I have nothing against this person who was promoted. I just think that 1) if being bilingual is the difference between getting hired for something and not getting hired for it, then that should be in the posting and 2) all I ever heard was that this person, who was hired on the basis that they can speak two languages, would only speak the second language to a patron if Literally No One Else Was Available. Otherwise it would be, "Ask _____". One of our managers was retiring and the other manager was managing two branches, so even if I did all the programming every day no one would be there to witness it. Because I had, in fact, not applied anywhere else due to pathological hope that LPL would appreciate me, I had to extend the lease on my UKY dorm because I was about to be completely screwed. My program was up, I had to be out of the housing, and I had no full-time job or the prospect of one. The person who was hired as the replacement to our previous manager listened to everything I told them about LPL, programming, how unfair they were being, and just did jack shit. (Well, not jack shit, because I've noticed that the programming that I wanted to do that I talked to this manager about wound up being programming at the library, just I wasn't leading it or getting the credit for it. As you can see, I have good programming ideas.) (I also emailed someone at Central about having a staff art show in the central branch's gallery, which, of course, happened after I left.) So now here I am a year later and I'm still mad as hell at LPL for shafting me. I went to HR after two days of not sleeping because I was incandescent with rage and all HR did was tell me, basically, You Have Not Because You Ask Not. "Is it poor leadership? Yes," the HR guy said. "But it's not illegal." I also told my work bestie to go to HR about LPL's bullshit and the HR guy looked at her calendar and kept trying to schedule a meeting for the times she was not available. She just got passed over for another promotion, AGAIN, didn't even get an interview. "Part of me just wants to cancel or stop all my programs and leave the library," she said. And I get it! But I don't think that would do anything, I don't think LPL would give a rat's ass, because they don't seem to care about the people who work for them. We would get emails about people being promoted after ten years. Ten years!! I was so alarmed. You were an LA for TEN YEARS and then you got promoted to an L1?? Here's what would happen if my friend packed her shit and left: it would mildly inconvenience everyone for about two months or more or however long it took HR to write and post an opening for her job. No lessons would be learned by branch managers or HR or LPL admin. They would add an item to their yearly meeting plan about how to retain people and prevent turnover (just like they had an item on their yearly meeting when I was there about not relying so much on part-timers, and then every month or so there would be a part-time LA position on the UKY listserv). There's nothing we can do to make them act right. They don't give a flying fuck as long as whatever they're doing isn't legal discrimination (thanks for letting me know, HR guy), and it sucks. I'm mad as hell at them on my behalf, I'm even angrier on my friend's behalf, and it's so frustrating to know that it doesn't matter.
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AuthorArtist, essayist, divinity school dropout. Here for a good time, not for a long time. Archives
February 2024
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