How engaged are library employees in their day to day work? Do we feel supported? Are we allowed to do our very best when it comes to doing our jobs?
Partly as a case study of my library management course and partly out of my own curiosity, I began surveying librarians, library employees, and library managers today about their perceptions of the workplace. It’s meant to be more than a neutral evaluation morale, but also snapshot of the library workplace climate. Being engaged in work is more than just about performance, but it’s about expectations of both the employees and the employers. It’s about how supported, developed and utilized employees feel. I know that this translates (especially over the long-term) to how librarians and library employees ultimately serve the public and feeds into public perceptions of us as “the library.” Hopefully at the end of this project I’ll have enough surveys to compare the library to some other industries and organizations.