Comments on: Shameless self-promoter

By: Darlene Fichter

Darlene Fichter — Wed, 03 May 2006 06:55:02 +0000

I want to pick up on two points in particular that Meredith made. First she wrote how she felt: “I just felt really weird about it — sad and embarrassed.” Meredith mentioned that feeling of being embarrassed other times – worried how people would perceive her. She also wrote that even discussions about “…people doing great things can turn into a discussion about self-promotion. But I think it’s really indicative of the general attitudes about self-promotion in our profession”

I think that Meredith is right that there’s a set of unstated “professional” norms at play but there’s also the workplace culture also at play. Its power should not be underestimated.

Some Library workplaces that I have known were not good at fostering a culture of recognition and a celebration of successes. Sometimes the “recognition” role or duty was left to the Library Director who briefly noted accomplishments at the end of monthly meetings or just sent an email to the individual stating that this had been added to their file. When some libraries reorganize and became less hierarchical, many of them did not address the recognition and reward structures and old fashioned or downright archaic systems remain in place. It could be that no one in the library feels particular recognized or valued.

Just consider for a moment, Jenica’s library where everyone cheers and they even do it collectively. Whew! You can tell that there’s a very different norm at work.

When I used to do consulting, I would get a bird’s eye view of dozens of workplaces. There were few workplaces that were gems — anyone would love to work there. The staff celebrated the successes and also supported each other when problems arose.

By the way, just in case someone thinks that I’m placing the lack of recognition in libraries on the shoulder of the Directors, I’m not. We all have a part to play in shaping our workplace culture.

By: Lisa Hinchliffe

Lisa Hinchliffe — Fri, 28 Apr 2006 04:11:25 +0000

Having negotiated with a number of speakers over time as part of conference planning committees as well as been negotiated with as a speaker/consultant, I would say that Walt’s numbers seem somewhat typical for most librarians (or, Walt – those we confuse as being librarians since we don’t always look for the MLS stamp first-off!) … But, like Walt mentioned as well, almost everyone also has some range and willingness to negotiate, as well as those personal things that might be motivators (e.g., proximity to family who one doesn’t see often otherwise, degree of preparation, any post-presentation follow-up/consultation, useful for promotion/tenure, number of days of travel, how much time away from work, etc.). I guess I see this almost more like a short term salary negotiation – the payment (money or otherwise) for doing xzy.

By: Richard Akerman

Richard Akerman — Tue, 25 Apr 2006 15:47:25 +0000

It all depends I think on the tone and audience of your blog. A lot of blogs evolved out of sort of “notes to myself”, so it’s kind of unreasonable to expect every post to be written as if it was a newspaper article for a general audience. In my blog, I write about things that I am doing, it seems to me it would be a rather odd form of self-abnegation to do otherwise. I often use a search on my blog to answer the question “where is that thing that someone wrote about topic X”, there’s no reason (and in fact a lot of use to me) if that result happens to include my own writings or presentations.

By: Kelly G

Kelly G — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 16:33:49 +0000

(Why is this blog only publishing a portion of my comment?!)

I too really liked Brenda’s Poppyseed comment above:
But, I’ve reposted it too many times already!

This is a sad state of affairs and I think that it does reflect Meredith’s work place experience. I keep going back to the all too familiar “librarian as martyr” idea that has been resurfacing.

There does seem to be a common tendency to think that in order to serve others, you must be willing to sacrifice and be self effacing. The problem is, that you cannot properly serve if your own needs are not met. In addition, you cannot always be self effacing if you need to advocate for others!

I also think that this culture of “martyrdom” has engendered a “fear of failure” in some of us. What do you think?

By: Kelly G

Kelly G — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 16:29:31 +0000

I too really liked the comment above:

“I’ve seen the same thing here when our Head of Department circulates an email message congratulating someone on an achievement (and I work in an academic department, not a library). What does this say about the organisational culture? Down here (New Zealand) people talk about “tall poppy” syndrone – the tendency to cut down people who stand out from the crowd. Is that what we’re suffering from?

By: Kelly G

Kelly G — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 16:26:22 +0000

Meredith,
You are one of my favorite writers! You and a few of the other prolific bloggers are my key sources of information and grist for thought.

I met you once at a conference (ASIS&T Mass.), and talked to you then (2 YEARS ago about blogging…sigh). I don’t have any choice but that people do tend to remember me from conferences since I’m there w/either an interpretor or colleague typing on a laptop for me!

I too really liked the comment above:
“I’ve seen the same thing here when our Head of Department circulates an email message congratulating someone on an achievement (and I work in an academic department, not a library). What does this say about the organisational culture? Down here (New Zealand) people talk about “tall poppy” syndrone – the tendency to cut down people who stand out from the crowd. Is that what we’re suffering from?

By: Jenica

Jenica — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 15:40:46 +0000

I winced when I read the bit about not getting acknowledged by colleagues. Yesterday morning, our director announced at our monthly staff meeting that she’d just been told that a member of our administrative staff was being honored with the Chancellor’s Award for Excellence. The room burst into spontaneous cheers and applause, and we made the recipient blush. The meeting closed with the surprise presentation of a framed award and a bunch of chocolate to our Student Worker of the Year, again with more applause and laughter and cheers.

That kind of environment can make all the difference, and I’m sorry that not everyone has it.

By: K. McCook

K. McCook — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 15:20:05 +0000

There is another reason to be known for expertise and that is to be promoted in an academic setting. When I first joined a faculty I was told that when it was time for tenure that letters would be sent out to people in my area of expertise and that part of my external evaluation would be based on their perception of my impact on my research area.
Today when faculty are standing for tenure the role of the “external letter” is very important at the next level. This is more rigorous in those universities that strive for higher status.
While I certainly don’t think this is the right way to go about things, the fact remains that being known to peers is a component of the promotion and tenure process. In pre-internet days this was a very slow process of submitting articles to refereed jorunals and eventually having a respectable citation rate. Today the ways of becoming known are more diverse. If a blog permits access to a broader readership then this aspect of being known frees up the individual from a rigid single structure for recognition.
I’m not tracking this literature but I have seen papers on the role of internet visibility on promotions in universities.
And just one word about not being recognized. Not one person at my work place noted the book I did on the Oral History of Women of Color–but now years later I had a nice note from a student who had used it for a paper….so the timeline of recognition can be years and years.

By: Meredith

Meredith — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 14:56:56 +0000

I think the decision to not acknowledge someone’s good news is born out insecurity. I can’t think of any other reason why someone wouldn’t be happy for someone else. If “A” got recognition for doing ___, it might make me look bad because I didn’t do ___ myself. While I think that’s totally lame, I guess I do understand where it comes from. But the grass is always greener on the other side. Sure, I got the Mover and Shaker thing, but I work on my book and other stuff every night and weekend and I really have no free time. It’s a trade-off.

Don’t ever be embarassed for doing good things. People only feel that way because they worry about the insecurities and jealousies of other people. Be proud of the things you’ve accomplished through hard work and never let people take that good feeling away. You deserve to have it!

By: dave free

dave free — Thu, 20 Apr 2006 13:48:27 +0000

Doh, first comment did manage to post despite what my computer told me. Sorry for the repeat.

One more thing about acknowledgements, I’ve noticed that some folks (nobody online) tend to downplay the thing they did good when complimented, like it wasn’t a big deal. And I’ve certainly been guilty of this myself. So I am definitely going to try to be “damn proud” of what I do in the future and not feel guilty if somebody notices and mentions it.