Doubling Down on Disaster: Resilience and the New Normal

Doubling Down on Disaster: Resilience and the New Normal Abstract K-State Libraries is no stranger to disaster or the need for resilience. In May of 2018, a fire severely damaged the main library on campus. While no one was injured and most of the physical collections were saved, it took years to restore the building and access to the collections. During this time, library faculty and staff were dispersed across campus and had to build new methods of working together and collaborating. The very day a main floor of the library was scheduled to open, the university shut down all physical operations for the pandemic. Instead of coming together again, they separated even farther by moving from temporary offices to working from home in even more isolation. By the time they emerged from both these disasters, it was noted they were suffering from significant burnout and employee disengagement. Many employees left during the years of upheaval, including newly hired employees who didn’t stay long. To help understand what people were experiencing and how they could help colleagues navigate these stressful situations, an Employee Engagement and Burnout project was launched. This project had three phases, including a survey, focus groups, and implementation of recommendations from the findings. Demographics collected included these three components. 1. Length of service—specifically, if an employee was hired before the fire, during the fire/pandemic, or after both disasters. 2. Employee designation—support staff, professional staff, or faculty (librarians). 3. Division—administrative services, public services, or technical services By studying survey answers based on each of these three aspects, trends and stressors for each group became apparent, including differences and commonalities. Focus groups were designed for these different areas to discuss further ideas for address employee stress and disengagement. The most telling results were from the length of service—not surprisingly, employees hired during the fire recovery and pandemic reported the highest instances of disengagement and employees hired before the fire reported the greatest burn out. Participation in both the survey and focus groups was unusually high and much valuable information was shared. With a theme of resilience for the 2024 KLA-CULS conference, sharing this project may be useful for others experiencing circumstances of employee turnover and concerns about recruitment and retention of librarians and staff.