Taking Charge of Your Professional Life: A Special Librarians Guide to Greater Work Satisfaction
by LeAne Rutherford

To avoid being held captive by work lives which hold little satisfaction for them, professionals--particularly those in the burgeoning area of information technology and management--need to occasionally and purposefully reassess not only the work they do, but how they feel about it.

Most professionals have more choice about what they do and when than, in the frantic course of events, they remember. In their professional lives, many "field what is hit their way" instead of "going to bat" on things that are both productive and satisfying. When stressed by the increasing demands of their jobs, they need to ask if these demands are simply add-ons to an already full agenda, if they are gratifying, and if they are necessary for the successful execution of their work If so, are they best done by them and in the assumed fashion?
Assumptions can be the enemies of responsible professionals. Often they create self-imposed expectations about their work. It is possible that they have not been explicitly charged with many of the duties they perform. It is also possible that they have not looked closely at what their job really entails. Ralph Waldo Emerson was right when he questioned the value of the unexamined life. Furthermore, he would have been especially disapproving of the unexamined work life.
Focusing specifically on special librarians, this article looks first at the general, national employment environment, offers a self-assessment tool to help special librarians identify their preferences, and makes suggestions of ways to assess and adapt their professional lives.

Market
Briefly, the employment environment is very friendly for information managers and the information-fluent in this Information Age. If, for example, after examining their jobs, these professionals determine they are insupportable, they do have the option of changing employment. An aging population and the lowest unemployment in twenty years point to an employees' market. In addition, with new electronic communication on the web, a job search has become easier, faster, and broader. For instance, the Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration at www.doleta.gov provides vast quantities of information in its America's job bank, talent bank and labor market information system. Particularly considering the special skills of special librarians, predictive data on which fields are open and inviting are readily accessed as well as encouraging. Occupational Outlook Quarterly, for example, predicts that data base administrators, computer support specialists, and all other computer scientists are occupations that have fast growth, high earnings, and low unemployment. The projected employment growth between now and 2006 will be 249 thousand plus for these occupational categories. (There was no specific category for librarians.) These clues point to the fact that special librarians need not feel imprisoned by their current work affiliation. They are in better positions than most to leave a working situation which leaves them not wanting to go to work on Monday mornings.
Companies are changing in response to this scenario as well. According to Hall's and Mirvis' incisive article in the Journal of Vocational Behavior, "The New Career Contract: Developing the Whole Person at Midlife and Beyond," (1995, Volume 47) companies must be responsive to both the market and to their own organizational behaviors. While they are reengineering and responding to their universe, they will also invest in developing seasoned employees who with their clear sense of personal direction, are aware of the system as a whole. Robert Kegan, author of In Over Our Heads: The Mental Demands of Modern Life, asserts that corporate America backs the concept of "helping people be more effective at work," but lacks an understanding of the "hidden curriculum of working." What he calls for is a new "threshold of consciousness" (164).
These employees who "uncubby" and cross that "threshold of consciousness" are the ones who do not wear blinders to what's happening in all segments of their organizations. They also need a strong sense of self-identity and autonomy to meet the duo challenges of change and complexity. In a profession which is being dramatically altered by technology, it is crucial to be an architectural ally in the remodeling of a learning organization. Consequently, it is in the best interest of companies of the future to foster self-analysis vis-à-vis work satisfaction

Myth
To function professionally within this framework and to serve the needs of both institution and self, professionals have to fend for themselves by creating what has been called a "protean career." To understand the term "protean" necessitates recalling the myth of Proteus. The son of Poseidon, he was able to foresee the future and change his shape to avoid capture. A protean career is created by looking to the future, appraising the situation, and then reforming or recreating self.
The future holds further blurring and blending of personal and professional lives, changing rhythms of work caused by computers, and increasing need for adaptability. By reflecting on the following, professionals can keep life and work in better balance, dictate the tempo and beat of their jobs, and achieve the kind of metacognition that couples adaptability with satisfaction:

what they enjoy about their jobs
what they dislike
what needs to be built on or intensified
what can be passed along or discarded
what skills or capabilities need to be augmented.

In other words, they need some prompts to bring their unconscious to the forefront and start to consciously explore alternative ways of being while on the job.
The self-assessment tool (figure A) promotes such reflection. This tool was created for participants at a session on "Myth, Market, and Metamorphosis: Career Change" at the June 1999 SLA Annual Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota. It is based on "Competencies for Special Librarians of the 21st Century" and an article by Lucy Lettis in the January 1999 issue of Information Outlook, "Be Proactive: Communicate Your Worth to Management."
When you take this quiz, try not to be irritated by being asked to make forced choices. It should be understood that this is an arbitrary imposition to force you to respond to your work.
When you have finished making your choices, total the a's, b's, c's , and d's for the two categories: like and dislike. The twenty competencies enumerated by the quiz roughly fall into four categories: working with end-users, technology, methods or strategies, and organizational management. Although individuals may have widely distributed responses in which no category is dominant, they may also find a cluster providing them with information about their preferences.
The A responses all deal with working with patrons, clients, and end-users. The B responses correlate with management and organizational operations. C items are primarily concerned with strategies and methods for solving information problems and filling information needs. D responses lean toward technology itself.
If no trend in your responses appears, each of the twenty items, in and of itself, should trigger some visceral reaction which could provide clues to the quiz taker about what to approach and what to avoid at work when possible.

Metamorphosis
In addition to the "Rough and Ready Self-Assessment" tool, other paths can be taken toward self-awareness and metamorphosis.
Reframe and Reform: Imagine that you are hiring someone to take your position. Write a job description for yourself. Seen in this light, how would you mentally reframe (or reform) your work? Has the position changed from when you first took it? Is it time to refocus on the core elements of the job?
Reevaluate: Inspect each facet of this job description. Are there items that are truly not your responsibility? To whom do they belong? Where did the procedures originate? Everyone knows the story of the family who routinely cut the end off the Thanksgiving ham before baking it. Finally, a newcomer to the family asked why. No one seemed to know until the grandmother spoke up, "Because my mother didn't have a big enough pan." How much of what you do is "grandmothered in?" Reevaluation is particularly important today. For example, computers now allow us to do the work secretaries did. This is both a blessing and a bane. We gain control over the pace and production of our work, but that control creates a different deployment of our time.
When special librarians at the conference session on this topic were asked what they valued most and would aspire to in their work, "flexibility," "creativity," and "the opportunity to do a quality job" were three very prominent responses. But critical to reaching any of those valued goals which lead to job satisfaction is the careful reevaluation of each aspect of your position.
Recycle: Morphing is a gradual process. It moves step-by-step, gradually changing a picture. It recycles the old as it adds the new. Growth rarely starts with a blank slate--with, of course, such transformational exceptions as the butterfly. Each of us brings a whole set of previously learned skills to new settings and hopes for what educational psychologists call "positive transfer." To my work in teaching university faculty members to use a digital camera, open Photoshop, and then export the images into instructionally enhancing programs such as PowerPoint, I bring my own previous experience as a wildflower photographer using a single lens reflex camera with a macro lens. This is a recycling of skills. Indulging in another personal example, I have been working for more than twenty years, off and on, with job search strategies. But that interest was reignited recently when I began to work not on job attainment but on job enhancement. Both of these instances exemplify a positive sort of recycling--turning tin cans into treasure; junk to joy on the job
Renew: The refreshing perspective that new technology brings to old technology, and the reverse, proves the value of looking around for some precious and previous proficiency to renew. You may also ask yourself what talents you displayed in the past have grown dormant or whose place has been usurped by other work. Is it time to return them to their places?
Other means of renewal lie in revitalizing and reinvigorating with continuous learning. Be an autodidactic employee and feed the need to keep learning.

Realign: Work priorities may need to be examined. What do you tackle first when you start the day? The special librarians at the SLA conference session on this topic almost to a person said that they opened their e-mail first. When asked if this was the best use of their productive morning hours, they indicated it perhaps was not. In fact, it made them feel fragmented and hurried. Instead, they could have made an appointment with themselves to work first on something substantive and satisfying before being captured by the urgency of the day's e-mail.
Reflect: Interacting with people plays an important part in our work lives. How do you best operate with others? Are you most comfortable and effective as a singles or doubles player, a team member, a captain, a coach, a manager, a cheerleader, or a spectator? Are you playing the right "position" with people? Reflect on that question and act accordingly.
Review Yourself: Most career counselors recommend periodic self-review: occupational daydreams, preferred activities, competencies, and self-concept. We change, we grow, we mature, we experience and so imperceptibly. We are so close to ourselves that we are altered without much awareness of that alteration. The secret is in making self-appraisal regular--like an annual physical. Pick a date--your birthday or a holiday--and enter it as a commitment in your daily planner. Then keep the appointment and set some goals for yourself, remembering to focus on the positive rather than the prohibitive. For example, today I will list two projects which would make my work more creative. This week I will identify and telephone three of my "nutritious" colleagues for conversation that stimulates, refreshes, and "feeds" me. This month I will contact another special librarian in another organizational setting and compare working scenarios.
Resources: Fine resources exist to help us to learn more about who we are today in the work world. For example, the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator, the Strong-Campbell Interest Inventory, and the Kolb Learning Style Inventory are all useful in spotting preferences. Do you know, for instance, if you enter a new learning situation from the concretely experiential, hands-on point in the learning cycle or from the theoretical and abstract side? The Kolb Learning Style Inventory can quickly tell you that as well as other fascinating facts about you.
In addition to these resources, free services can be accessed on the web (e.g., careergate@MSN.com) As an example, typing in "career counseling" will yield a rich array of personality surveys and career talk sites.
Reframe, reform, reevaluate, recycle, reflect, renew, and realign are all parts of a reality check which will help you assess your professional life and in-load greater personal satisfaction. No one knows what you do as well as you do. And, no one knows how you feel about what you do except you. It is up to you, then, to look over your work life, make changes, and take charge. That way lies satisfaction.

By LeAne Rutherford. She may be reached at lrutherf@d.umn.edu.