Librarians fight rise of precarious work

[inanna]

Source: CBC

Posted: Mar 27, 2016 1:29 PM ET

Unpredictable employment spreads to white-collar jobs once considered realms of stability


They're part-time employees without health benefits or pensions who work split shifts at a number of different locations each week. From one paycheque to the next, their income fluctuates, as do their hours.

These aren't workers hustling behind fast-food counters or holding down other McJobs. They're aspiring librarians, often with at least one master's degree.

A university degree is not a get-out-of-jail-free card from the perils of insecure employment. Precarious work, often associated with service-sector jobs, is spreading to jobs that were once considered realms of stable employment with benefits and pensions to boot.

"This type of employment has increasingly become the norm," said Wayne Lewchuk, a McMaster University economics and labour studies professor, who co-authored a recent report on the impact of precarious work.


Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/precarious-work-librarians-1.3508778?cmp=rss

[Bubzer]

1. It used to be that having a degree would net a job offering a retirement.

Now that those are all but gone, you're almost better off becoming a skilled worker. The pay tends to be about the same, and the educational requirements (and indebtedness) is far far less.

[Victor_c3]

7. plus many skilled labor jobs like that are hourly and have the potential for overtime

That isn't quite the case for salaried jobs.

The only exception I found was working for the federal government. Aside from upper end management jobs, once you hit 8 hours for the day you are either pushed out the door or you get overtime (or comp-time if that's your thing).

The other benefit to skilled work is you usually can't take it home with you so when you're done for the day you're actually done for the day.

[GummyBearz]

19. Yeep

At first glance my salary is very handsome. But if you divide it by the number of hours I actually work (much more than 40 per week), it becomes much less attractive. Add in all the family time I am missing, unhealthy habits (fast food 2 meals a day, no time to work out), and what I am really doing? Slowly wasting away in my office, putting money in the hands of our CEO, and complaining about it on DU. It is better than starving in the gutter, but that is a pretty low bar.

[Victor_c3]

22. I went through that for a while

i used to work for Amazon.com as a low level manager. I was making good money, but the job destroyed me both physically and psychologically. I gained a decent amount of weight and went bonkers with with good ol' war psychosis (that's what I like to call PTSD) and was terminated. I got a job with the federal government and my whole life changed.

Unless you're an upper level manager, you work 40 hours a week. Once you work more than 8 hours a day, you get overtime and life is good. Also, when you work for the government you aren't making some CEO another million dollar bonus, you are actually contributing to our nation and our people. I was really proud of my job and I loved going to work.

It's a pain in the butt to apply for and land a job, but if you do it's worth it. But, then again, it depends on your background.

... Not that I'm trying to tell you how to live your life. Apparently my decisions have resulted in me being retired on disability at the age of 36 and for the last several years I typically spend my the latter part of my springs, my entire summers, and and the first part of fall hanging out locked up in psych wards with other kooked-out war vets. So maybe don't listen to me.

[Baobab]

9. Sorry, not for much longer.

As they say, with globalization, there are winners and there are losers.

[Baobab]

13. The earlier the better!

Scientists do most of their best work by age 35

[madville]

21. I'm encouraging my son to get a technical degree

I have an associates in electronics and make about 70k a year in a rural area. Full-time job is $26 an hour, 40 hour work week, and I have a part-time one that is $30 an hour, averages 40 hours a month.

Something related to automation would be good for him I think. Like industrial electrician and learn PLCs, maintenance jobs at industrial places here average $20-$40 an hour and have decent benefits.

[SheilaT]

2. So many fields that used to offer good, stable employement

with pretty good benefits have gotten this way.

[raccoon]

17. +100. nt

[PasadenaTrudy]

3. That's my boyfriend

Not a librarian but an art professor. He has an MFA and is a working artist. He teaches at two different schools, one in Santa Monica, one in Studio City. Lots of driving, no pension or healthcare benefits at age 53. Life in the big city in 2016...

[Baobab]

10. Its going to get worse, i think

because of trade deals. In exchange for their giving up their public healthcare systems, their generic drugs, things like a constitutional right to education (India), I think the US and perhaps some of the other developed countries are getting ready to - it seems likely to me we may be intending to trade away a lot of US jobs in academia, health care, IT and other skilled professions to developing countries. After all we have a skilled labor shortage. In other words, its an emergency. Look at Obamacare. Who would have known it would collapse right now, exactly on schedule.

Rumor has it that they have been promised to them for a long time. 20 years.

Since its such a sensitive subject they had kept fairly quiet.

[greymouse]

4. plus the plight of unpaid interns.

What a ripoff. Companies and individuals who could easily afford to pay salaries have these kids working for nothing.

[Baobab]

11. people have to stop thinking in those terms, thats the old way.

If you think like a businessman, the business case for "maximizing the values in the supply chains" .. ie. getting several workers for the price of one, is pretty good, huh?

Trade deals basically are getting rid of invideos discrimination against corporations.

Thats what we're supposed to do. the WTO says so. its not immigration- They just come to do a job, like staff a business- L-1 visas are non-immigrant visas.

Services are 70% of all jobs. "everything you cannot drop on your foot".

Hillary is great!

[csziggy]

5. Now a lot of "Library Science" schools are "Information Technology

They not only teach traditional ways of organizing and sharing information, they teach how to get it online in an accessible form. Although people often claim that libraries are no longer needed, information still has to be collected and stored, then methods to locate the desired information have to be established.

While HTML and modern search engines make it easier someone has to create those documents and get them online. Often HTML is not an appropriate format - PDFs are better for some things.

For instance, take a look at the range of formats on Archive.org and how those digital versions of old books are arranged. That degree of accessibility does not happen by accident - people with the knowledge of how to arrange data and to get it online put a lot of work into that site.

We still need traditional libraries, even with all the resources online. Administrators that make librarians temporary or sporadic employees are short sighted idiots.

[livingonearth]

6. Do not let anyone tell you this is from Obamacare.

The trend toward low hours with no pensions or other benefits started long before Obama was in office. It's been going on now for decades, but there are those on the right that would have you believe it all started 7 years ago.

[Sunlei]

8. you're correct the loss of benefits & retirement has been going on for decades.

I have a family member who is a librarian for a major city all her life. City started to offer all employees with the better benefits 'early retirement' years ago. They even paid bonus cash to get rid of people. Most have taken the package and been replaced by less benefited/no benefits people, not her. A lot of the positions were totally eliminated.

[Baobab]

12. Obamacare does help make the case for services liberalisation though doesnt it!

After all, its an emergency, health care workers are so expensive. its not insurance's fault that the US has a skilled worker shortage AND wages waste so much out of each health care dollar. Money which could be pure profit!

Crises, crises, no, emergencies! Thats what they are..

in education, healthcare, IT! Why, nobody saw it coming!

Its just a perfect storm.

[Wise Child]

14. I have an interview with a public library in about fourteen hours from now.

Wish me luck!

I will have interviewed with four different libraries over the last two months, and only one position was full-time.

I am thinking about pursuing a library science degree, myself.

Libraries are part of civilization. I hope they stick around for a little bit longer.

[Zira]

15. Good luck!

I hope it's full time and I hope you get the job!

[llmart]

20. If you do decide to get your MLS.....

make sure it's in an area of library science that's IT heavy. As a former public library administrator, I can tell you that there are very few openings for full time children's librarians or young adult librarians. Heck, as this article points out, there are very few full time librarian positions open anywhere. What I always found despicable was that library directors who almost always started out as librarians were the ones who would then turn around and hire only part time people to save money and please their bosses - the Board of Trustees.

[leftyladyfrommo]

16. I go to the library almost every day.

Here in KC the libraries are really busy places. Lots of people go to use the computers. And there are still lots of people who love to read.

And there are wonderful children's programs just about every day.

Our libraries are happening places. But I think lots of the jobs are part time. The employees have to take all kinds of classes so that they all can help with the computers and everything else. I was surprised at how much on the job
training they all receive.

[Curtis]

18. My wife works for the library in Plumas county in California

She has worked there for 12 years now with ONE pay raise in that time. They keep her hours just under 30 a week so they don't have to give her benefits. They even had her close the library early a few times when no one else could work in a given week to be sure she didn't go over 30 hours and kept her at 29.5 hours.

I finally got her to walk away this winter so we are on our sailboat in the Caribbean, but she will go back to work part time when we get home in June. Still, it's just stupid the way they handle her and the other librarians through the county.

[Dont call me Shirley]

23. But Bill Clinton promised that the new service economy was going to be great for everyone.....