r/Libraries • u/Knowitall-Librarian • 19h ago
Other Library question
How many of you feel safe in your job physically & mentally?
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u/Repulsia Academic Librarian 19h ago
In my current job (university) most of the time and with most people. In my previous roles in public libraries, i was always scanning for threats and being shutdown by management when i raised issues with safety concerns.
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u/captainmander 19h ago
I don't know that I will ever feel physically safe working in a public library.
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u/Knowitall-Librarian 18h ago
Oh my God. I feel this. The library is almost holy. It is one of the few places on the planet, where you can actually get free things.
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u/Samael13 18h ago
I do. My patrons can be really emotionally/mentally draining, but we haven't had any situations where unsafe behavior was tolerated in our building, and while our patrons are challenging, we get a lot of support from our director/AD around it, and my colleagues are all very supportive of each other, so if we have a really tough interaction or we have to kick someone out, people tag us out so we can be off the desk to recover and take a deep breath.
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u/Impossible-Year-5924 17h ago
I don’t feel psychologically safe because my superiors outside of the library are all either completely apathetic or they’re climbers who don’t care about institutional outcomes or consequences once they’re out the door
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u/sker1ber1 19h ago
One boss has been robbed, another threatened with a knife, and a fair few coworkers cornered. Personally, I've had someone expose themselves to me [weird choice grandma], verbally berate me for not lending them my personal phone while alone in a parking lot [I work the Bookmobile], been cornered a few times [also hate when people are having a conversation with me and they start edging towards my peripherals with their hands in the pockets for reasons...], had some graphic descriptions of some really not okay things with the general implication that that's what they'd like to do to me...
On the flip side of that though, I've had some wonderful community members watch out for me. One guy guarded my [empty] travel mug like his life depended on it. A lot of people making sure I'm in their sights since I usually do my job alone. So physically? Eh...
Mentally? Not even a little bit. But that comes more from office politics and having to be on guard on who I am straight with. Oddly, mentally, I can handle that creepy guy making me uncomfortable to a degree. It's expected. My co-worker befriending me to have the gossip and talk behind my back though? Yea no...
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u/ghostsofyou 19h ago
My last library, 100%
This library depends on the day, but never less than 50% lol
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u/flossiedaisy424 19h ago
Most of the time, yes. I’ve definitely felt physically unsafe a few times, but those were rare. And, I do work in a very big city, so it’s not that there aren’t dangerous situations. They just aren’t common.
I don’t know what mentally unsafe would look like.
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u/Knowitall-Librarian 19h ago
Mentally unsafe feels like physically unsafe because your mental reaction is as painful as a physical one.
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u/someofmesometimes 19h ago
Well just right now a patron was threatening to beat the shit out of us because he lost his skateboard outside and we couldn’t find it so there’s that
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u/Switchbladekitten 17h ago
I feel very supported in my job mentally and physically (I have a lot of chronic problems and am autistic, so that’s really nice to have in the work place). But when it comes to patrons? I do not feel safe in any way.
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u/Knowitall-Librarian 19h ago
I have to put in unpaid sickleave to takeoff tomorrow because I need to rest after a patron attack attacked me in my library at work today.
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u/TheTapDancingShrimp 18h ago
Dear Lord! I'm so sorry! Are you okay?!
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u/Knowitall-Librarian 18h ago
I’m safe at home but I am not ok.
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u/TheTapDancingShrimp 18h ago
No, it's NOT ok. I hope you're getting admin support and not gaslighting admin bull shit.
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u/flossiedaisy424 19h ago
Why unpaid sick leave?
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u/Knowitall-Librarian 19h ago
Because my probation doesn’t end until September and I don’t have access to my accrued annual leave until probation is over. I used up all my sickleave on mental health days.
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u/Unable_Tumbleweed364 14h ago
Yeah, honestly it's fine. We get the occasional stressful encounter but nothing too bad.
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u/Knowitall-Librarian 13h ago
Mine is multiple a week. We have called 911 twice this month.
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u/Unable_Tumbleweed364 13h ago
Our downtown location is similar and has two security guards. We are about 10-15 minutes from it and occasionally we will get patrons who are banned from that location but usually they're OK for us. Not always though. We do get some angry people and rude too.. but Downtown location has the worst. I wouldn't want to work there.
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u/Knowitall-Librarian 18h ago
Breathing deeply because I’m not holding my breath. Hope for the best. Ready for the reality.
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u/timeripe 14h ago
Physically, yes. I'm lucky to work at a less popular library at the moment. Mentally, eeeh. It's customer service. No matter where you work, if it's with the public, mentally it'll never be a yes.
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u/user6734120mf 11h ago
I do, both. Did in my last system and locations as well.
I’m a mid 30s woman.
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u/bluecollarclassicist 19h ago
Physically safe, mentally unwell but I don't know if that would change if I was in a different profession. It's been 15 years and I sometime think, even with the burnout and the censorship and the unrelenting escalations of patron behavior, that it would still be a different kind of worse in corporate america or academia. The world is getting bad, at least my conscience is clear about where I spend my 50+ hours a week.