HCPL: a fledgling retail corporation built atop the smoldering husk of a long-neglected library system
Pros
Fertile ground for career climbers, sycophants, and sidekick toadies. Decent insurance. But is that really a pro if they are lawfully required to provide it? Decent retirement. But can you stay with HCPL long enough to retire?
Cons
HCPL is an unprofessional place to work, managed by unscrupulous c-suite executives who spread deliberate misery upon their staff and too often seem self-assured and empowered by the iniquity they wrought. Before taking a position here, please consider the following: HCPL pay badly. A master-degreed librarian will earn $45,000 a year, paid hourly via a weekly timesheet. That’s $45,000 a year if you have zero years experience and it is $45,000 a year if you have fifty. HCPL pay high-school graduates with IT experience more than their ALA accredited, master-degreed librarians. HCPL executives make up to four times the yearly salary of their librarians. All division directors earn six-figure salaries. HCPL administrators and managers enjoy the privilege of working from home. Branch staff do not. HCPL construct a specious, faux-military ranking system composed of a tiny number of lead-from-behind generals ruling over a horde of expendable privates in branch library foxholes. Working from the comfort of their homes, HCPL generals gleefully order their privates to charge into battles they themselves would not deign to supervise, let alone participate. HCPL make all decisions. Approval must be granted for even the most miniscule of endeavors. Nothing is too micro for HCPL to manage. Turnover is high at HCPL because HCPL never stops purging employees who do not meet their standard of “compliance.” HCPL enjoy a seemingly unlimited pool of potential applicants. As a result, HCPL lean into the tactical advantage they have over employees and replace them when they inevitably quit or are forced out. HCPL value compliance more than anything and they fire and hire until they achieve their exacted unprincipled equilibrium. HCPL do not care for the physical and mental health of their employees. And they especially do not care when they themselves are the source of employees’ illness. HCPL enforce their own policies inconsistently in service of their self-interests. HCPL reprimand staff for both following written rules and policies and for not following them. HCPL use inconsistent policy enforcement as a bludgeon to push out and/or fire staff who openly criticize or protest their management. HCPL devalue, underuse, and misuse their librarians. Many of the administrators vocally heap seething contempt upon working librarians despite the fact that nearly all of them used to be working librarians themselves. HCPL hold in contempt librarians and librarianship. HCPL disrespect the very profession they purport to safeguard. HCPL reward and promote sycophants and toadies. HCPL blackball critics and the outspoken. HCPL pushes out and fires critics and the outspoken. Sycophants and toadies are a useful barrier used by HCPL to shield themselves from their employees. Combined with the faux-military ranking mentioned above, HCPL rule with impunity and command their all-too-willing lickspittles to absorb and deflect any blowback. In the last few years, HCPL have created and added a number of administrative positions. Staffing at the 26 branches has remained flat. In the last year, HCPL added a new division director position, “Research and Development.” This person’s sole responsibility is to brainstorm, design and implement new “fundraising” programs for the libraries. HCPL strive to monetize their public libraries and generate revenue. In 2021, HCPL introduced passport services at eight of its library locations. Passport fees bring in approximately $500,000 per year. Initially, HCPL intended to keep all that money for themselves, but could not articulate on what nor under what oversight. Additionally, HCPL perfunctory refused to discuss paying staff more for processing passports or hiring additional staff to process them.