The library is way over budget for subs, so tonight when one of our night crew called in sick, the supervisor under me took one for the team and did not ask for coverage (a substitute). Instead, we'll rely on staff from an allied department to provide a break for the person working alone on that desk. This is an example of how staff routinely sacrifice for the cause and cooperate with one another for the common good.
Sheena, library manager
Another staff member dealt with a temporary change in responsibilities that will have a large impact on the library as a whole graciously, and is helping to find a way to really make things work. No whining, just a quick adjustment, and a willingness to do whatever it takes to make the library work as well as possible.
Elizabeth, support services manager
Before I worked at the library, I was a professional writer for a variety of organizations, including a religious university. (I'm down with Jesus, so that wasn't a problem. The rampant sexism and paternalistic a-hole-ery was.) My direct boss was (and still is) a virtuoso writer, intensely smart and wickedly funny. (Yes, I said wickedly. It is not inconsistent with faith to have a sly and slightly dark sense of humor.) Her boss, and thus my "big boss," would begin every department meeting with a prayer, often asking God to send us "creative ideas and innovative solutions."
Every week, week after week, the same prayer for "creative ideas and innovative solutions."
After 7 or 8 months of making suggestions and then getting shot down, time after time, I was pretty frustrated. I sat in the meetings, listening to the same prayer, seething, thinking, I AM GIVING YOU CREATIVE IDEAS AND INNOVATIVE SOLUTIONS, BUT YOU'RE NOT LISTENING TO ME!
In these stories, Sheena and Elizabeth are not only finding creative ideas and innovative solutions to a pretty tough budget issue, but they are given the opportunity to actually implement them. Essentially, because of a variety of un-foreseen factors, including a particularly nasty flu season, the library exhausted its budget for substitute coverage before the end of the fiscal year.
It's not fun, I imagine, to be a manager and not be able to fully staff public service desks because the budget won't allow sending a substitute to cover for a sick employee. You get pressure from both sides: from below, staff who don't like to work alone (particularly when it's super-busy and you can't get to the bathroom, much less do anything else, during your shift), and from above, administration who tell you sorry, even though you're down three people because of the flu, we can't send any more backup. Yuck.
But these ladies have been figuring it out, and helping their people cope.
In Sheena's case, that means supporting supervisors underneath her to handle a rough evening with help from other departments. In Elizabeth's case, that meant moving a non-public-services employee to work public services desks -- temporarily -- as a substitute.
The lovely thing about both of these stories is the attitude of Sheena and Elizabeth, both managers who supervise large numbers of employees, toward those employees. They recognize that their people were put in not-great situations, and are genuinely impressed with those employees' ability to see the bigger picture in helping the library as a whole.
That's good management.
I'm going to do something I haven't yet here and end with a story, too, just because it shows another, back-door way to an innovative solution -- one that started out to solve one problem but ended up solving another (personal budgetary) one:
The Children's Associate spent her entire shift cleaning out the closet where her supplies are stored, and we found much more than we expected. There were wall hangings from "east regional", light bulbs that were broken, mouse droppings, architectural renderings of the building for its 1981 renovation (which I plan to frame), all kinds of supplies that the teen and children's associate have been purchasing out of their own pocket because we had no idea what was in the closet! Finally we are able to move around with ease in that closet. And it doesn't hurt to know what we have on hand for projects.
Simone, branch library manager
I would only add: and it's good that we can stop spending our own money on supplies and use the treasures that were already there!
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