Eira Tansey @TeamMidwest@glammr.us

thinking also here about how people who choose not to join administrative leadership ranks are in a much more precarious situation if they are out of work at certain life stages. You can hire a provost in their 50s, but other jobs in the academic hierarchy? Not as likely.

it is such a head trip to go from getting tenure to being existentially worried about my long-term financial security. I increasingly understand why they're called the golden handcuffs. The story about the woman who was laid off 2 years before her pension vested is way more of a common story than many people realize. Speaking as someone who does a lot of eldercare - aging is incredibly expensive, y'all. If you don't know what assisted living costs.....

This is such a devastating collective portrait of the folks who have lost their jobs in higher ed over the last year - from housekeepers to tenured profs to secretaries. I'm increasingly trying to plan for retirement in my 50s - partly bc I don't want to work for 30+ more years but partly bc I worry so much about the future of higher ed that I feel like I need multiple exit strategies/backup plans in place to mitigate against workplace ageism https://www.chronicle.com/article/forced-out

missed the first half of an awesome webinar about the costs of librarian professional development bc we are making a list of the 60+ tasks my 3-person unit does that might be seriously impacted if our retiring head does not get replaced and we become a 2-person unit. this is beyond demoralizing and it's happening everywhere at my library and has been for years.

my workplace is such an ongoing disaster but at least fully disengaging from work after clocking out is a little easier now that we've filled our cat vacancy and I have a sweet cat to distract me from ruminating about the slow motion collapse of our library workforce

Just wrote this at the beginning of an email and I think I'm going to put this into regular rotation. Feel free to borrow it if it speaks to your condition: "I’m sorry for the delayed response on my end. My inbox quickly fills up and it is difficult to keep up with everything given the library’s ongoing staffing and resource limitation issues."

Love to read about MPOW involved in a potential lawsuit that if anyone had bothered to ask me, the lowly university records manager for their 2 cents, could have *potentially* avoided some real risk. Oh well, what would an archivist know about compliance issues.

i am transitioning my RM workshops to an online format and someone just emailed me to say not only has she taken it before (meaning she is a repeat attendee) but that she actually enjoys taking it for a refresher because it's so well taught. The exact validation I needed to hear during a stretch fraught with exhausting palace intrigue about the future of our institution.

campaign to get LIS professors to cite the work of LIS practitioners as much as they cite each other

this is truly shocking stuff even given the low expectations I have of higher ed admin and boards https://twitter.com/pollackpelzner/status/1376565017336635394

(i think I am extremely online and then I look at what people are mad about online this minute and realize I'm no longer extremely online)

do Extremely Online people ever get any actual work done or am I just turning into a cranky boomer

post-negotiation workshop bonus update: a friend who attended said the negotiation trainer recommended having a dog because it "makes you likeable in all respects." I am meeting a possible cat for adoption on Saturday named Hawk, I remain committed to being unlikeable, I guess.

my truth is that I do not like April Fool's Day because I am an extremely earnest person who often misses jokes

update: i gave up on the workshop after it turned out to be a recording that the host could not get to start playing again after 10 minutes of playback

Apparently LIS studies was the discipline losing the largest % of faculty over the last year. Since most of these programs are small to begin with, idk how the actual numbers shake out. https://www.chronicle.com/blogs/live-coronavirus-updates/job-cuts-and-stagnant-salaries-a-new-report-details-the-pandemics-toll-on-the-faculty

Keep tearing up every time I think I'm just a few weeks away from being able to hug my best friend/parents/comrades again after more than a year

This workshop has such a cringe title but I need to learn better negotiation tactics, especially as men in positions of power keep creating messes that inevitably impact my life. Will share anything useful I learn...

We got there a few minutes early, immediately escorted to a nurse, and were seated in the recovery area by the actual time of our appointment. Loved the nurses who walked around chatting with us, making us wave our arms in the air like a janky seated chicken dance, and handed out stickers. THIS COULD BE US HEALTHCARE ALL THE TIME IF WE STOPPED CODDLING RICH PEOPLE.

It was extremely cool to get vaccinated at the Board of Elections in what was probably the most socialized healthcare experience I've ever had in the United States. This could be our reality all the time if we limited rich people to like 2 yachts, not just during a pandemic!