{"id":70483,"date":"2014-05-02T11:30:29","date_gmt":"2014-05-02T16:30:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=70483"},"modified":"2014-05-02T15:19:31","modified_gmt":"2014-05-02T20:19:31","slug":"confessional-professional","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/?p=70483","title":{"rendered":"Confessional Professional"},"content":{"rendered":"

by Alphild Dick, Head Editor,\u00a0INALJ Washington<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

Confessional Professional<\/span><\/h3>\n

\"alphild-dick\"<\/a>I admit it. This post is entirely inspired by the flame war on ALATT<\/a> that started on Sunday. If you\u00a0don\u2019t follow that group, you should<\/span>. Well, maybe. It\u2019s half professional inquiry, half goofing off.\u00a0Most days you can find something useful or entertaining. But I digress.<\/p>\n

This post on Sunday was a question from a librarian who wanted to know whether or not\u00a0drinking a protein shake out of a mason jar at a library service desk would make her seem less\u00a0approachable. What followed was a 200+ response thread<\/strong> that covered the spectrum from \u201cI\u00a0brew my own kombucha at the desk\u201d to \u201cHeaven forbid a drop of fluid pass your lips while on\u00a0duty!\u201d Even more pronounced was the heat that the discussion produced–names were called,\u00a0accusations were flung, and I think someone might have even laid a curse on someone else’s\u00a0descendents.<\/p>\n

Mild hyperbole aside, the topic of professionalism is an important one.<\/strong> For job-seekers,\u00a0professional behavior is a real concern. During the job search, not only is our past work\u00a0behavior up for dissection, but we are also required to explain our philosophy of professional\u00a0behavior to prospective employers. The ultimate goal for all of us is to build a solid, if not stellar,\u00a0professional reputation. So let\u2019s talk about what makes us, and our behavior, either professional\u00a0or unprofessional.<\/p>\n

Attitude.<\/strong> There is a whole spectrum of personality types and ways of interacting with others.\u00a0We can reject the idea that we all need to be chirpy with enthusiasm every day, but there is a\u00a0difference between being reserved and being difficult. We owe it to others to be polite. Even\u00a0(especially) when we don\u2019t like them. Day in and day out, this is easier said than done, but being\u00a0aware your own disposition is enormously helpful. Does working the desk for more an hour\u00a0make you intolerably grouchy? Do you get territorial over your projects? If you are job hunting,\u00a0knowing what your attitude trigger points are is helpful in helping you determine whether an\u00a0environment is the right fit for you.<\/p>\n

Respect.<\/strong> Other people have opinions and most of the time, to paraphrase David Sedaris,\u00a0they don\u2019t think they are second to your opinions. So unless your library or business has a\u00a0mediator on staff (pretty unlikely), knowing how to respond to and use feedback, criticism, and\u00a0disagreements will help you maintain mutually respectful relationships with your colleagues.\u00a0Of course, this doesn\u2019t mean blindly embracing harmful ideas, misguided initiatives, and bad\u00a0leadership. It does mean that you should give other approaches a fair shake before rejecting\u00a0them, though. Bonus points: being able to speak honestly about your willingness to do these\u00a0things is a great asset on the job market, too.<\/p>\n

Integrity.<\/strong> In short, do the right thing. I\u2019m not just talking about following the ALA Code of\u00a0Ethics. That\u2019s probably a good idea in most cases, but I\u2019m also thinking about basic day-to-day\u00a0integrity, too. Follow your library\u2019s policies. Do the things you say you will do. Be serious (at\u00a0least most of the time) in your commitments and honest in your efforts.<\/p>\n

Be considerate.<\/strong> This is a subset of the three above, perhaps. Being considerate means having\u00a0a positive attitude, respecting others opinions and ideas, and being diligent in follow through.\u00a0Being professionally considerate also means helping people when both when they seem like\u00a0they could just use a little assistance and when they ask for it, not balking when extra projects\u00a0appear, and being willing to embrace change.<\/p>\n

Context.<\/strong> This is a biggie, as all of the aforementioned factors are influenced by context. Every\u00a0library, whether it is public, academic, school, or special, has its own unique cultural norms.\u00a0The last library I worked at was a small, two-room library with no private cubicles or offices.\u00a0There was no real \u201coff duty\u201d–many a patron could spy the director eating salad at her desk.\u00a0Did this make her less professional? No, of course not. My current coworkers, in a much larger\u00a0library setting, regularly snack on small treats at the desk when no one is around. A good rule\u00a0of thumb? Is the behavior harmful or disruptive? Does it prevent you from performing your job to\u00a0your fullest ability? Does it actively conflict with behaviors expected from patrons? If the answer\u00a0is not, then you are probably in the clear.<\/p>\n

These are obviously generalizations, sketches of what professional behavior should consist of.\u00a0These ideas can only go so far. But maybe that is what we need to remember\u2014specific advice\u00a0often backfires in these situations. We should strive to define professionalism for ourselves, for\u00a0the vision that we have for our own careers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Alphild Dick, Head Editor,\u00a0INALJ Washington Confessional Professional I admit it. This post is entirely inspired by the flame war on ALATT that started on Sunday. If you\u00a0don\u2019t follow that group, you should. Well, maybe. It\u2019s half professional inquiry, half goofing off.\u00a0Most days you can find something useful or entertaining. But I digress. This post…<\/p>\n

Read more \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":67680,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[145],"tags":[6192,6194,69,6193,3592,5379,3656],"class_list":["post-70483","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-articles","tag-alphild-dick","tag-appropriate-behavior","tag-article","tag-behavior","tag-blog","tag-etiquette","tag-inalj-washington"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/04\/aphid.dick2_.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1WoMK-ikP","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70483","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=70483"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/70483\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/67680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=70483"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=70483"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inalj.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=70483"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}