Stephen Abrams' November 28th, 2012 Personal Editorial entitled
"Managing High Potential Employees in Libraries: The Rock Star Dilemma" REALLY raised a deep seated concern with me.
Ohh, I could go on and on about this topic and am sad to report that if one has supervisors with fragile egos, a "super-star" employee is difficult to suffer on staff~Unfortunately, I've experienced this situation first-hand. I've also experienced what's it like when an employee has an employer who understands, encourages and supports staff members who are ambitious and eager to infiltrate the library profession on as many levels as they can handle. Super-star employees can also be hard on fellow colleagues, but if the super-stars are genuinely concerned about the areas of the discipline they're involved in and are willing to aid, assist, train, and otherwise develop and encourage others, feelings of jealousy and resentment can be minimized. However, I am firmly convinced that supervisors with very little interest in contributing to the profession, combined with severe knowledge gaps that are more than apparent in their staff, an employee in this situation may be going through
"Hell Right Here On Earth", as staff and upper management will undoubtedly find every way possible to make employment within that library/system VERY UNBEARABLE. Can you IMAGINE that a former supervisor of mine who works in a MEDIUM SIZED LIBRARY SYSTEM in an economically diverse multicultural city, mentioned to me when I was the Organizer of my IFLA Section's August 2012 Pre-Conference on "The Homeless and Libraries" that, and I quote, "what's libraries got to do with the homeless?" My fellow library land colleagues, with supervisors with this mentality at the helm, there's no way a more gregarious employee will be supported and encouraged.
Stephen's entire Blog Post can be found here:
