A few months ago when I was feeling particularly stressed, frustrated, and burned-out in my position as a solo children's librarian being expected to do all the things and be everything for everybody, I put together an opinion survey to see how many others were in the same boat. I posted a link to the survey on my page as well as in two Facebook groups for youth services and summer reading, and collected 228 responses over one week. It's taken me a while, but I've finally finished going through the results.
*The issues discussed in this article address challenges in the library youth services field as a whole, and do not necessarily represent my specific circumstance or any employer, past or present. Data is the compilation of the responses of 228 anonymous survey respondents self-identifying as youth services librarians and staff.*
All but two of the respondents currently work in public libraries in a youth services capacity; one described working in a mixed-use academic/public library, and another had very recently left the field. Most were employed full-time as either a youth services librarian or manager, though various other positions were represented, as well as a few part-time staff. The remaining survey questions related to experience, job duties, work-life balance, compensation, perceptions of how well supervisors and upper management understood and supported youth services positions, what respondents wish management better understood, and how they could be better supported.
Position & Experience:
Job Duties:
Survey participants were given a list of job duties and asked to check all that applied; additional duties not listed could be written in under an "other" option.
*Various forms of social media, promotion, marketing, and/or communications were written in by 14 respondents under an "Other" option. That number would possibly be even higher if it had been listed as one of the original choices. Other items written in under the "Other" option were (each listed once unless otherwise indicated): transferring materials to other locations, helping patrons in other departments, serving on book award committee, storywalk installation, translation, grant writing, special projects, state committees, library committees (2), person in charge (2), branch management, greeter, cleaning & sanitizing (2), soliciting summer reading coupons, departmental management, volunteer recruitment, budgeting, resource sharing within consortium, cataloging, and other duties as assigned.
These results clearly show what those of us in youth services already know: we are spread very thin, being responsible for a wide range of tasks, many of which are time-consuming and require specialized skills, knowledge, and experience. As anticipated, programming is a primary responsibility of almost all youth services staff, with over half of respondents being responsible for 2-4 programs per week, and over a quarter being responsible for more than four programs per week! That is a lot of programming!
Work-Life Balance:
I also wanted to look at not just what we are doing, but how long it takes us to do it, how many extra hours we are putting in, and especially how much free labor we are doing on our own time.
I have to admit, these results surprised me, in a good way. I really expected that more of us would be putting in more 'overtime' at work, and doing more work-related tasks at home on our own time. So maybe we are starting to be better at having healthy boundaries and limits as a profession, though I must admit I still struggle in this area, partly because it's easier to concentrate at home, I can multi-task and look for program ideas or read over book lists while watching TV, and sometimes I have to take care of something to ease my anxiety or I will never get to sleep. I also can't help but wonder if people may have under-reported unpaid work from home because they don't consider trolling Pinterest, Facebook, Tik-tok, and Instagram as work, but if you are in library-related groups, looking for crafts, program ideas, book reviews, etc., that IS a work-related task.
Though almost two-thirds reported working less than one extra hour per week at the library, and nearly half reported spending less than an hour per week on work-related tasks at home, there is clearly still work to be done in normalizing a 30-40 hour week week (max) and maintaining healthy boundaries and work-life balance. Nearly a third were averaging 1-5 extra hours a week at the library, and a few individuals were putting in as much as ten or more extra hours a week! Then looking at unpaid work from home, a third of us are averaging 1-2 hours of unpaid labor per week, 17% are averaging 3-5 hours per week, and a small, but significant number are spending 5-10 hours per week, or even more, on work-related tasks at home for which they are not compensated.
Though almost two-thirds reported working less than one extra hour per week at the library, and nearly half reported spending less than an hour per week on work-related tasks at home, there is clearly still work to be done in normalizing a 30-40 hour week week (max) and maintaining healthy boundaries and work-life balance. Nearly a third were averaging 1-5 extra hours a week at the library, and a few individuals were putting in as much as ten or more extra hours a week! Then looking at unpaid work from home, a third of us are averaging 1-2 hours of unpaid labor per week, 17% are averaging 3-5 hours per week, and a small, but significant number are spending 5-10 hours per week, or even more, on work-related tasks at home for which they are not compensated.
Misc - Time, Staffing, PTO, & Compensation:
The survey had all of the remaining topics listed as statements with which respondents indicated how strongly they agreed or disagreed. I divided them up into 3 separate figures for the sake of visibility, and tried to group statements in a way that made sense.
I was a bit surprised that more respondents had not disagreed, even strongly disagreed, with having adequate time to perform the myriad of duties and large number of programs shown above, and that responses to having adequate staffing were so mixed, though the results do indicate that while staffing and time may be somewhat sufficient to meet management's expectations, they are generally not enough to fully meet the community's needs.
Supervisory & Managerial Support:
Now to what I REALLY wanted to know! I have observed out-of-touch management, particularly upper management, in every job I have ever had; it is not unique to libraries. But, when combined with the strong sense of vocational awe our field commands, it creates an even more stressful, unhealthy environment than I had observed in my previous career, and Youth Services in particular seems to be more affected by out-of-touch management who have little understanding of what we do. Even when management is made up by former youth services staff, over time they tend to forget how much time and work go into things like programming and collection development. I wanted to see how pervasive this problem is, and whether youth services staff felt their supervisors and upper management really understood what their job entailed and the time and skills required, and gave them adequate support.
The results indicate that most respondents felt that their immediate supervisor understood their job duties as well as the time and skills required, and felt supported by them (though there was a slight drop when it came to understanding the time required). However, the perceived understanding (particularly the time required to perform duties) and support from upper management/administration was noticeably less. This is likely due to the fact many youth services staff are supervised by a youth services librarian or manger who is a former youth services librarian, while many directors and other members of upper management and administration do not have a background in youth services. Understanding the time required to perform all the duties of a youth services position seems to be the area of greatest disconnect.
I also asked open-ended questions about what survey participants wished their supervisor or upper management better understood about their job and how they could better support them, and finally invited them to leave any other relevant comments. The vast majority related to wishing management understood the overall workload, the number of tasks and the time required to complete them (and more specifically to how much time, work, and energy go into programming), and the energy required for interacting with that many people, and sometimes difficult people. Also frequently mentioned was the need for more and better staffing, and a more equitable division of job tasks. Others mentioned unrealistic demands, struggles with mental health, exhaustion, neurodivergence, understanding the needs of children and teens, quality over quantity, understanding that what we do requires special knowledge, skills, and expertise; the need for respect, appreciation, recognition, acknowledgement, and adequate compensation; and more. I provide more detailed analysis, quotes, and links to the several hundred anonymous comments collected in their entirety in a follow-up article titled "What Youth Services Staff Want Management to Know".
Burnout:
And in a final question to assess how pervasive burnout is in youth services, participants were asked to rate their level of agreement with the following statement: "I am feeling some effects of burnout."
It is very evident that burnout is a real problem among youth services staff, with 84% of survey participants reporting that they are at least feeling some degree of burnout. While this is not really surprising in and of itself, it is somewhat inconsistent with the responses to other questions on this survey which indicated more positive feelings about supervisors, compensation, PTO, having adequate time and staffing.
I am not sure what the explanation is, perhaps it has more to do with the mental and emotional labor involved that cause burnout even with working conditions we feel are generally favorable? Or has the pervasive culture of vocational awe conditioned us all to perceive heavy workloads, low pay, and unpaid labor as normal, so we know we are feeling burned out, but aren't sure why, or feel like we can say we're burned out, but feel like we can't complain about specifics because we have been ingrained with the "do all the things, be everything to everybody" attitude?
Whatever is going on, I am confident in saying that if this many people in our profession are experiencing burnout, there is definitely a problem with library culture and management. People do not burnout if they have reasonable workloads, adequate staffing, a living wage, adequate PTO, and management that truly supports them and enforces healthy boundaries and work-life balance.
Don't forget part 2, "What Youth Services Staff Want Management to Know"!
*The issues discussed in this article address challenges in the library youth services field as a whole, and do not necessarily represent my specific circumstance or any employer, past or present. Data is the compilation of the responses of 228 anonymous survey respondents self-identifying as youth services librarians and staff.*
I think a big challenge for a lot of us is that we're expected to be jacks and jills of all trades - while I'm officially a children's librarian, most of my time is spent as a branch librarian, helping seniors with their iPads and job seekers print off their resumes and teens find math books and asking people not to drink their open beers at the computers. It's hard to balance being everything to everyone, especially when more and more systems are short-staffed. I want to do the very best job I can do, but there's only so many hours in the day!
ReplyDeleteYes, there's a million "little" things we do in addition to our main responsibilities, and those who don't do it regularly just don't understand how much that eats into out time, how much time things like good collection development and programming really take, and the energy it takes.
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