Haters Gonna Hate: Handling Workplace Conflict, by Dolly Moehrle

If it’s true that we spend more time at work than we do with our families, then it follows that we’ll inevitably deal with conflict; after all, families don’t get along all the time, and neither do colleagues. But where raising your voice, slamming doors, and the silent treatment are all tried and true methods for dealing with siblings or parents who just don’t understand, those techniques are considered “unprofessional” and “rude”—even when the co-worker is being THE WORST.

My previous supervisors will tell you that I can be controlling, a perfectionist, not into compromise. They might actually use the word “aggressive.” My low tolerance for bullshit gets me in trouble, you see. I’m one of those types of people that resent having my time wasted, resent inefficiency, resents “but we’ve always done it that way.” And I usually don’t keep those thoughts to myself. (Even when it would be best if I kept my thoughts to myself.)

There are certain things that are not even a question, in my mind, in terms of taking them to your managers and human resources. Harassment of any kind is not okay. Bullying is not okay. Discrimination is not okay. When these behaviors are obvious, you can and should report them. For a lot of situations, however, the behaviors are less blatant, and the conflicts more subtle.

Generally my workplace conflicts have fallen into a few categories:

1. Misunderstandings: You make a joke about paperclips. Bob is deeply offended as his mother designs paperclips. This can devolve into item 3, Passive Aggressive Crap, very easily if it is not addressed. And it can be addressed very easily as well: “Bob, I’m sorry I was insensitive about paperclips.” While some misunderstandings handle themselves, if a simple apology or an attempt to see the other person’s perspective and talk to them respectfully will help, then why wouldn’t you try? Harmony is more important than pride.

2. Incompatibility: Sandy’s a democrat! You’re a republican! Steve loves Nickelback! Karen can’t stop talking about saving sea lions! In the grown up world, not everyone likes each other. It happens. It really only makes a difference if it leads to you being treated poorly. Being incompatible shouldn’t impact the work. If they’re leaving you off emails, not letting you know about important things, or anything similar, then it’s an issue of…

3. Passive Aggressive Crap: It’s tempting to dismiss this stuff as the cost of being in the workforce. The enemy of passive aggression is directness. “Sally, I notice you didn’t include me on that email. In the future I need to see those, too.” The problem, of course, is that clear communication is hard, and letting stuff build and build until you ultimately explode is much easier, at least before the explosion and fallout. Sometimes, though, what you’re interpreting as deliberate is a mistake, or an oversight, or otherwise not on purpose.  It’s Hanlon’s Razor--“never attribute to malice that which is adequately explained by stupidity.” Confronting actions you see as passive aggressive before they drive you nuts can give you a chance to see what you’re up against, malice, or the other thing.

Also, making an attempt to resolve the issue with Sally before taking it to your manager will help your case if it escalates to…

4. Serious Issues: Like obscenity, a Serious Issue can be hard to define. For me, it’s something that impacts me in all areas: quality of my work, stress level, ability to get things done, etc. Or something I’ve tried to address with the other person but had them rebuff while the behavior continues. You can’t deal with these alone, and you shouldn’t have to. Your manager should be there to manage: Not only because it’s part of their job, but also because workplace conflict can result in lost productivity, high turnover, liability, and even workplace violence. But keep in mind the first three categories and ask yourself what, if any, role you’ve had to play. Like I said up top, I’m not super easy to work with, and I acknowledge that. Whatever I can do to help others tolerate me I’m happy to do before things escalate.

When you bring it to your manager, stay dispassionate. What matters most is the behavior making your work life miserable, not the fact that you hate Tom’s laugh. And document, document, document. Without specific examples of problem behavior, your manager isn’t going to be able to help you.

This list is by no means exhaustive. But until we’re all replaced by LibrarianBot™, as long as you’re working with human beings you’re going to experience some type of conflict. The best advice I can give you is to be prepared, and be willing to stick up for yourself. You deserve to be treated respectfully in the workplace.

Dolly Moehrle is a law librarian at the Ventura County Law Library in Ventura, CA. She was a 2012 Eureka! Leadership Institute Fellow and received her MLIS from SJSU in 2012. She blogs sporadically at dollymegan.com and tweets obsessively as @loather.

So, You Want to be a Law Librarian?, by Janelle Beitz and Mari Cheney

Janelle and Mari are law librarians. Both work in academic law libraries but their individual academic experiences, as well as their career paths, differ.

Source

What education does a law librarian need?

Mari: I came to law librarianship by accident. I was an English major in college and figured out early on I didn’t want to teach. So, what to do next? I applied to law school and decided on a D.C. school because my fiance (now husband) was moving there for a job. I could write an entire book on why law school was probably the wrong choice for me. However, I was lucky enough to take Advanced Legal Research during my second year of law school. It was taught by a law librarian who also oversaw my seminar paper. It was during my conversations with her that I found out about law librarianship. She encouraged me to apply to library school. It was the best decision I could have made at that point in my career. Very few library schools specialize in law librarianship - I chose the University of Washington as it has a one-year library program for people with J.D.s.

Janelle: Like Mari, I came to librarianship by accident. However, librarianship for me followed several years of legal work. My parents are both lawyers, and I went to law school a couple of years after undergrad (French major here!). I got a joint J.D. and a Master’s in Public Policy at the University of Minnesota, and then I had various and sundry lawyer jobs - I was a judicial clerk (awesome legal job, by the way, and good librarian training), an associate at a law firm, and an editor at a legal publisher. I was not, shall we say, terribly happy with my legal career.

Finally a friend suggested that I look into law librarianship. So I started a series of informational interviews with law librarians, and discovered that they were, by and large, happier with their careers than my lawyer friends. I decided to go to library school. While still in library school, I got an internship at one of the law schools in the Twin Cities. They ended up hiring me as a reference librarian, and it couldn’t have turned out better for me; I’m still here!

I do want to note, though, that not all law librarian jobs require a J.D., especially if you want to work in a law firm, or you don’t want to do reference work. That’s definitely one thing you should talk to law librarians in your area about. If you want to be a reference librarian in an academic law library, however, you pretty much do need a J.D., at least at this point.

What does a law librarian do?

Janelle: Anything her bosses ask her to do!

Seriously, though, at least in academia, that really depends on the institution. I started out mostly staffing the reference desk, answering student, faculty, and public patron questions. Now I not only do that, but I also teach, manage the library’s Twitter and Facebook accounts, work with various student groups on how the library can better serve them, assist faculty with research projects, work at promoting faculty scholarship, and am one of the library’s main point people for educational technology. I do a wide variety of different things each day and couldn’t be happier. I’m always busy and rarely bored. I’m lucky that even though the market is rather rough right now, my library is really open to hearing new ideas and willing to let people try new things (as long as what needs to get done still gets done!).

Mari: After library school, I moved to Salt Lake City to work at the Utah State Law Library. As a public law library, it was open to anyone who wanted to visit but we also served judges, law clerks, other court staff, and attorneys and their staff.

As a reference librarian in a public law library, the majority of my time was spent with public patrons. I helped them find resources like court forms and self-help books, referred them to legal clinics and guided them through the legal research process. The hardest part about working in a public law library is walking the fine line of legal research so it doesn’t cross into legal advice (which is the unauthorized practice of law!).

About a year and a half ago, I moved to Portland to work at an academic law library. I am now the Digital Resources and Reference Librarian. I work at the reference desk, teach Advanced Legal Research, maintain the law library’s website and social media presence, manage the law library’s electronic databases and work with vendors.

A Word to the Wise

Even as an academic law librarian, some of your time is spent dealing with difficult patrons. From stressed-out, highly competitive students, to impatient, arrogant faculty (we probably have more degrees than they do!), to the clueless, scary public, these patrons represent the hardest and sometimes the most rewarding part of law librarianship. (And no, not all patrons are like this.) With students, it’s about calming them down and managing expectations; for faculty, it’s learning to speak their language and communicate the way they want, whether it’s by phone, email or in person. The public patrons are often scared because they don’t know how to navigate the legal system; sometimes they’re scary because they have a mental health issue that influences their behavior and lack of bathing. This topic alone could be its own post!

What’s Next?

You may have heard how the legal job market has tanked, which has a direct effect on law schools. Enrollment is down across the country, which means there is less money for law libraries. Law librarians are expected to do more with less. Jobs are being cut and if someone leaves, their job isn’t being filled. It’s happening everywhere, from the lowest ranked schools to the highest. If you are thinking about becoming a law librarian, know that you will have to move where a job is available. While jobs are harder to find than when when we each graduated from library school, law librarian jobs are still available.

We’ll never be rolling in money as a law librarian, but the job has many perks that make up for that! Interactions with patrons make this job absolutely worthwhile, especially when a student comes up to the desk asking, “Is this the Emergency Desk?” and after I help him he exclaims, “You’re the Master of Everything!”

If you’re trying to decide whether law librarianship is for you, I (Janelle) would highly recommend engaging in some informational interviews. Talk to law librarians about what it is they do all day. Find out if they’re feeling fulfilled, career-wise. See what’s good and frustrating about their experiences. Talk not just to academic law librarians, but public and firm librarians. Honestly, all of the librarians I met with before I made the plunge were more than happy to talk with me. And it’s the start of networking to find a job, too.

Additionally, we would recommend joining a local association - either a local branch of AALL or SLA. If you have time, volunteer for a committee. Before I (Janelle) had even started library school officially, I joined my local AALL section and volunteered to be an editor of their newsletter (I still work on it!). Not only is it a great way to start meeting people in your hopefully-soon-to-be profession, but you can get the inside scoop on the local scene (especially by working on something like the group’s newsletter), which can be invaluable as you look for a job.

Mari Cheney is Digital Resources & Reference Librarian at Boley Law Library, Lewis & Clark Law School in Portland, Oregon. She tweets @maricheney.

Janelle Beitz is a Research and Instructional Librarian at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul, Minnesota. She tweets as herself @jkbeitz and as her library @BurgerLibrary, and blogs sporadically at http://jkbeitz.wordpress.com/.