LibraryLand Skills, Part Deux

I’ve set aside technolust as a subject for an entire post on ALA Techsource, but now that the whistle has blown (and before tonight’s next station of the cross), here are several other thoughts I shared very early this morning before Movable Type ate them:

Stubbornness. When I hit our first budget crisis, in 2002, I was too dumb or stubborn or both not to walk away as fast as I could. I stuck with it, just as I stayed through a few other crises, and rode through it. You do need to know-when-to-hold-em-and-know-when-to-fold-em, but as Dorothea was suggesting, don’t wilt at the first crisis or obstacle you face. There will be many more, particularly in LibraryLand. Your primary job is to deal with and overcome obstacles.

High Grubbyness Tolerance. 80 to 95 percent of work can be classified as scutwork/awful/boring/something you’d rather not do. I’ve had to demote, fire, and downsize workers, remove them from beloved projects, fire vendors, hire vendors, sit through interminable board meetings with a smile on my face while I thought, “Take me now, Jesus,” write excruciatingly dull reports, and counsel an employee on body odor (that wins hands-down as the hardest conversation I’ve ever had, and no, it wasn’t a medical problem–well, it was, but psychiatric). I’ve dealt with the aftermath of a boss who was mentally ill, and I’ve dealt with the former boss who meddled (and meddled, and meddled), and with the Saintly Former Employee against whom I was repeatedly measured, and with the legacy employees who know how it Spozed To Be (though MPOW is a blessing in that respect–I’m very spoiled), and with the absolute non-starter of a guy who created more work than he consumed, if you know what I mean, but was a favorite of a higher-up and couldn’t be canned.

I’ve also had to be willing to pretend I don’t know someone has ‘tude about me, and I’ve had to tell a possible project partner “We can’t live with that contract,” knowing that would kill the project and That Would Look Bad, no matter how much it was the right call. I’ve had to continue a project I heartily wanted out of because it was good for the larger job and good for the workers associated with it (even as the project stakeholders continued to chunk rocks at my butt).

I’ve had to keep my mouth shut for the good of the job, even when A Great Unjustice was happening. Why don’t you storm the Bastille, I’ve been asked during some crises, and my response has had to be, Discretion is the better part of valor. Because sometimes it is–and part of the stress is trying to figure out when that’s true and when it isn’t.

Here’s another tip related to grubbyness I find hard to label, unless perhaps as A Caution About Hubris. Your job may be well-funded and you’re feeling fat and sassy, but don’t assume that it’s because you’re entitled to all that. Maybe you are, but sometimes good things don’t get the support or buy-in or muckety-muck endorsement that they need for reasons that have little to do with some cosmic sense of rightness, and sometimes the pie isn’t divvied up as fairly as you think it should be, and it’s not always based on who is truly deserving, and it’s not always something that can be “fixed” if only you did X or Y or Z (which then turns into, well, but you REALLY should do A or B or C; or is it F or G or H…? Ad infinitum).

Which brings me to a really great skill…

Be Lucky. Sure, sometimes it’s about performance–but sometimes it isn’t. Enjoy the good times, live them to the max, shine when you can, but don’t get too smug. Luck plays a role, too.

Jimmy Carter said “Life is unfair.” Lou Grant said, “That’s why they call it work.” Together, that sums up the grubbyness of employment. I wouldn’t work if I were independently wealthy, and trust me when I tell you that now that my hours are reduced, those are the hours I’m working. Nobody’s entitled to more than that. If something doesn’t get done because I couldn’t squeeze it in my 30-hour week, well, there you go.

Know how to be in the moment. After fifteen years in LibraryLand, by and large I have been having a good time, maybe because I know WHEN I’m having a good time. The really high notes, the stuff you strive toward after months and months of grueling meetings and Machiavellian machinations and so forth, the wins and the triumphs and the we-did-its, the workers you respect and enjoy the company of, the vendors you actually like, the project partners you actually look forward to working with, not to mention the many wonderful other people–they are really what it’s all about, and make it all worthwhile. Know when you’re there, when things are good, when you’re lucky. That’s a skill, too.