Why I left libraries

I got some interesting feedback in a course that just wrapped up, that was focused on helping library workers explore other career options and learn to translate their transferrable skills.

In talking about how to navigate career transitions, once you get to the point of actually applying for jobs in your new field, it’s generally recommended that you explain your career change based on the things that attracted you to this new career instead of the things that drove you out of the old field. After all, employers aren’t in the business of saving you from a toxic situation, they want to know how you’re going to help them meet their goals.?

So I used my own experiences to draft two very different explanations for why I quit my job as an academic librarian and became a coach as an example - one focusing on what drove me out of libraries and the other focusing on what pulled me to coaching.?

Maybe I should have expected this since coaching is much more personal than interviewing at a big company, but someone said that the one focusing on what drove me out of libraries would be more compelling to them if they were looking for a coach.?

So in case you’re also interested, here’s my list of “push factors” that drove me out of my career as a tenured academic librarian with a (barely) six-figure salary and full Professor status:

1. My university demonstrated that they didn’t care whether I lived or died or became chronically ill. As soon as the CDC lifted the covid mask mandate, the University System of Georgia (USG) implemented a new mandate - that you’re not allowed to ask anyone to wear a mask anywhere on campus. I couldn’t even ask that of someone who wanted to come into my office.?
2. Beyond that, no administrator at my university wore a mask on campus after the CDC mandate was lifted. USG policy said you can’t require masks, but didn’t discourage it. Admins at other universities were photographed wearing a mask out of courtesy, but not at UWG, not even at mandatory in person meetings! Message received: they don’t value me in the least tiniest little bit.?
3. I was honestly exhausted from dealing with toxic leadership, and that seems far too common in academia and academic libraries. First it was a toxic department head, and I was eventually able to advocate for being moved out of that department. Less than a year later, we got a new dean who was so bad that the whole library came together to get the Provost to address the situation. That dean was removed from power in just 8 months. Things started to look up - we got a great Interim Dean who did their best to implement positive changes... And then, just about a year later, we got a new university president who inspired the full faculty to vote no confidence in his leadership before his first year was done. It feels like a never-ending battle. I just don’t have it in me anymore to play nice with people who brag about manipulating others or who just stand back and let workplace abuse go on because it’s easier than firing the offender.?
4. The USG also passed changes that massively weakened tenure, making that less valuable as a reason to stay. And the idea of moving elsewhere felt futile, because this was part of a coordinated attack on higher education across the US.?
5. Speaking of coordinated attacks across the US, campus carry and other wildly inhumane laws regarding gun possession… Campus carry hit Georgia before covid did, in 2017, but related bills were being introduced all over the US. I’m ready to live somewhere where I don't have to assume everyone I see could be carrying a concealed handgun, even in my classroom.?
6. Trump and his supporters. I’m genuinely afraid that he’s going to instigate more political violence if he’s not elected, and do even worse if he is. I desperately wanted to get out of the US, which meant figuring out something I can do fully remotely.?

And those are just the parts that I feel comfortable sharing publicly. Reading Kaetrena Davis Kendrick’s article on low morale among academic librarians when it first came out was literally painful because it was so familiar. (Painful in a cathartic, productive way).?

Coaching is about working through challenges with a focus on finding a way to move forward in alignment with your values, so I don’t spend much time venting about the past. But I deeply understand the pain of feeling stuck in a toxic workplace.?

I’m also stubborn as all hell, so I can’t just focus only on helping others walk away. I still want to do what I can to make things better, even if I can’t be there anymore. I love working with leaders who genuinely care about becoming good leaders and building healthy teams. That’s why I put so much energy into my Developing a Coaching Approach to Leadership program and why I'm trying to add a program on Taming Your Workload to the mix.

This post doesn’t seem like it obviously fits the title of this LinkedIn newsletter, “Kindness at Work”... But maybe if we could talk more open about these things, it would make work feel a little kinder. Maybe if we focused on being kind instead of nice, we could do more to address these problems before they drive more people out of the field.

At the very least, being able to be more open about leaving because of workplace toxicity would ease some of the anxiety that people feel about how to explain changing to a new career.?

I know this was pretty heavy. If you’re still here, what’s keeping you in libraries or academia and/or what’s pushing you to consider leaving?