Gender, Generation, and Toxicity: The Implications for Academic Libraries of Gender and Generational Attitudes toward Competition and Workplace Behavior

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Gender, Generation, and Toxicity The
Implications for Academic Libraries of Gender and
Generational Attitudes toward Competition and
Workplace Behavior

• Terrence Bennett, The College of New Jersey
• Mollie Freier, Northern Michigan University
• Ann Riley, University of Missouri

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Introduction How We Started Thinking about
Gender, Generations, and Toxicity in Libraries

• Ann Riley

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Toxicity Defined

• More than just difficult people and management
  situations
• First used in late 1980s in business literature
  (Peter Frost)
• An ongoing work situation that is painful,
  personally difficult and uncomfortable through a
  special combination of factors

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Toxicity Defined

• Hostile, unreasonable or emotionally distressing
  behavior with many causes
• Temporary toxicity things happen, like illness
  and death, to upset situations
• Inevitable toxicity Structures and people

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Hypotheses and Results

• Hypotheses
• A serious problem in libraries
• Seven main reasons
• Worse in some functional
• Test
• A 2007 online survey yielded nearly 3,000
  responses

• Findings
• Widespread interest confirmed our first
  hypothesis
• Results confirmed our second (the reasons)
• Results did not confirm our third (differences)

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How serious were/are the problems in the
workplace caused by this behavior?
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People are leaving
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Some startling revelations

• I have found that working in a place with a
  majority of women can really result in picky,
  nasty behavior.
• Problems experienced by older female librarians
  seem to stem from the hiring of younger, more
  'aggressive' females who bring to the workplace a
  sense of entitlement .

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Comments about competition

• A library staffed entirely with women can be
  very toxic infighting, back biting and lack of a
  sense of humor were issues that I experienced.
• Women should unite instead of taking every
  chance to bring each other down.

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Comments Women and power

• Women with power issues (due to insecurity)
  cause 90 of the problem.

• The library atmosphere can be pretty
  passive-aggressive maybe because of so many women
  and so few men!

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More startling revelations

• Library schools may attract people, mostly
  women, with personality problems and low levels
  of confidence and professionalism that lead to
  bad behavior
• Women tend to target other women

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And the comments that haunted us

• I have, with great reluctance, come to the
  conclusion that people are right when they say,
  'This is what happens when a lot of women work
  together.
• Women shouldn't work with other women

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A new set of questions arose

• How do gender issues affect workplace toxicity?
• What is the impact on toxicity of
  intergenerational issues in the workplace?
• How do gender issues interplay with generation
  issues in promoting (or preventing) workplace
  toxicity?

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And then something changed

• The new economic order made us shift our entire
  outlook
• And we reconsidered our questions
• Does the impact of economic distress on workplace
  toxicity override all other issues?

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Revised questions

• Are women disproportionately affected by library
  budget woes?
• Do women managers have additional
  (gender-related) difficulties in handling budget
  issues? Is this because of different expectations
  from supervisees?

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Revised questions (continued)

• Do generational conflicts exacerbate the effects
  of a budget crisis?
• Do economic issues re-define our consideration of
  the interplay between gender and generational
  issues?

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The perils of old responses to new budget crises

• The Who Moved My Cheese? approach is moldy!
• Work leaner and smarter belittle me harder

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How do budget pressures create toxicity?

• Hiring freezes yield larger workloads
• Atmosphere of competition for resources may
  dominate

• Flexibility to address problems may decrease
• All fear layoffs, furloughs, no raises, benefits
  cuts

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What managers are saying

• Were training new librarians on dealing with
  budget cuts.
• I know I have to lay off people, but I cant
  tell them.
• Its my chance to clear out deadwood.
• Everyones gone berserk. We have to calm down.

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The Pig Farmers Story

• Told by a former university board member
• Addresses the paradox Can we keep doing more
  with less? When do we stop?
• People know, and get toxic

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New pitfalls / new solutions?

• Are rivalries / relationships shifting in a new
  game of Library Survivor?
• Do former gender conflicts and generational
  misunderstandings diminish when we all jump into
  the same foxhole?
• Are there new opportunities for creative leaders?

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How Do Gender Issues Affect Workplace Toxicity?

• Mary P. (Mollie) Freier

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Librarians still tend to be women

• 64 of librarians in ARL libraries in 2000 were
  women
• The Bureau of Labor Statistics found that 83.2
  of librarians were women in 2007 (that includes
  school and public librarians)

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How well do women work together?

• Some scholarly titles
• Catfight Women and Competition
• Tripping the Prom Queen The Truth about Women
  and Rivalry
• The Queen Bee Syndrome

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Nature vs. Nurture

• The Nurture Argument
• Historically, women have not been socialized to
  compete effectively
• Not comfortable competing they have been taught
  that being competitive is unladylike
• In some situations, feminist women are
  uncomfortable competing against each other for
  philosophical reasons
• Fear of becoming a Queen Bee

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Nurture (continued)

• Women supporting women
• Women do not always have a great deal in common
• In a sexist culture, it can be easy for women to
  become alienated from other women
• Women have stereotypical expectations of other
  women
• Competition can become personal

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Nurture (continued)

• Have Title IX and the resulting increase of women
  and girls competing in sports changed this
  situation?
• Some studies say yes
• Others dont see a difference

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Nature results from selected studies

• Stress reactions are different for women
• Tend and befriend, not fight or flight
• Social rejection rather than achievement
  rejection
• Communication styles are different
• Womens reaction to e-mail messages is very
  different to mens, depending on face-to-face
  interactions

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Nature (continued)

• Are men from Mars and women from Venus?

• Or is that just a galactic myth?

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Avoiding gender related toxicity

• Recognize familiar patterns
• Identify chronic, temporary, or inevitable toxic
  situations
• Overcome stereotypes and patterned responses
• Understand your role as colleague or manager

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How Do Generational Issues Affect Workplace
Toxicity?

• Terrence Bennett

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Some more demographics

• Librarians are aging rapidly from 1990 to 2000,
  the percentage of all librarians in the 45 age
  group increased from 46 to 63.
• New librarians arent all young librarians while
  the number of MLS students nearly tripled from
  1983 to 2001, the number of students who were
  under age 30 decreased by 24.

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The conventional wisdom

• Baby boomers are
• Trustworthy, Loyal
• Helpful, Friendly
• Courteous, Kind
• Obedient, Cheerful
• Thrifty, Brave
• Clean and Reverent

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More accepted truths

• Gen-Xers are independent, computer savvy, and
  mistrustful of large bureaucracies

• Gen-Xers are perceived as slackers not loyal
  likely to move from job to job

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And we all know about

• Generation Y Insert your favorite stereotype
  here
• The Millennials (eeek!)
• This years kindergarten class (theyre already
  plotting to take over your workplace)

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A closer look at the conventional wisdom

• A very influential source for our perceptions of
  Gen-X is the work of fiction titled Generation X
• Many studies of generational characteristics are
  based on observations of children and teenagers
  who have been known to grow up and change
• An analysis that attempts to tag an entire
  generation cant be flawless

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Myth-busting results from selected studies

• Several studies have tested the hypothesis that
  there is an observable difference between Boomers
  and Gen-X in their commitment to the workplace

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More myth-busting studies

• Other studies have tested commitment to teamwork

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What are the implications for workplace toxicity?

• There are creative and valid ways to handle
  intergenerational issues in the workplace
• Embracing misleading stereotypes may impede real
  progress

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Generations, gender and economic hard times

• The gender issues in libraries create interesting
  approaches to the consideration of
  intergenerational issues
• Economic concerns may provoke new types of
  workplace toxicities and new solutions

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Case Studies How to Identify and Handle Toxic
Situations

• Case I Pain with Payne
• Case II Losses and Layoffs
• Case III Food Fight in the Info Commons
• Case IV Tyler Cuts Travel

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Gender, Generation, and Toxicity The
Implications for Academic Libraries of Gender and
Generational Attitudes toward Competition and
Workplace Behavior

• Terrence Bennett, The College of New Jersey
• Mollie Freier, Northern Michigan University
• Ann Riley, University of Missouri