The Safe Library - Service, Safety, & Security with Dr. Steve Albrecht

By Dr. Steve Albrecht

Certain employees at the library, who are ever-vigilant for all things behaviorally-oriented, can become the self-appointed “champions” of the facility. They monitor every conversation they can hear (or sometimes only what they can see and not actually hear) between employees or between employees and patrons. They are keen to determine that bullying, sexual or racial harassment, sexism or racism, homophobia or transphobia, inappropriate jokes, non-consensual flirting between adults, or other forms of a “hostile work environment” are taking place and therefore, they must tell management immediately.

They wear out a path to the supervisor’s office or they skip the boss and go right to the Personnel or Human Resources office, (where they often have an engraved chair). They corner every supervisor, manager, and director and rant about unfair treatment by or to their co-workers and how management at every level is “allowing” this to take place without caring.

This sounds like noble work but here’s the problem: what they hear or see is not any of those things; it’s just employees talking with each other or with patrons and being in complete control of the content, impact, and tone of their conversations. They know not to cross boundary lines with each other and violate our basic workplace treatment policies. But the “champions” don’t see this; they see injustice everywhere at work and it’s their job to report it. 

Here’s the ironic part: while the “champions” are great observers of others, they are not good employees. They don’t work hard and are careless with their attendance, productivity, and efforts. They aren’t reliable on projects and when they get reminded of missing deadlines or turning in poor quality work, they howl that they are being “harassed” because they have been a whistleblower on all the foul deeds that are going on in the library environment.

Supervisors of the “champions” have to walk a delicate balance when confronting their poor performance and lackluster work efforts. Any counseling memo or performance improvement plan is met with protests, not acceptance of the undeniable fact that they need to work harder and better. In their minds, because they believe they have blown the whistle on the multitude of workplace communication sins, their supervisors must be retaliating against them. The “champion” loves to start every coaching meeting with, “Do I need to call my union rep?”

So what’s the solution? How do you manage entitled and poor-performing “champions”? How do you get past the distraction techniques they use to deny their ineptitude in the office or on the library floor? How do you talk to them about their attitudes, without thinking you’re going to get sued after every conversation?

Managing the “champion” requires management courage. We define this skill as both the ability and recognized urgency to have the necessary crucial conversations about work performance and/or their work behavior with the “champions.”

Courageous library supervisors will say: “I’m sorry what you heard or saw seemed offensive to you. I disagree that it violates our harassment or hostile workplace policies. I am careful, as is this agency, to evaluate the behavior and performance of every employee and look at the interactions with our patrons. I pay attention to our interactions here. Know that when I say I will step in and set boundaries, make changes, or enforce consequences, I will, with employees and patrons. Not everything that goes on here is related or aimed directly or indirectly at you. I want you to focus on your assignments and stop worrying about everyone else. As your boss, I have the right to evaluate your work performance. It’s not personal; it’s coaching. We are going to have work performance conversations when I believe it’s necessary. Please go back to work.”

The tool of choice for the courageous manager is coaching. We define coaching as a non-disciplinary, performance, or behavior-changing conversation. Courageous library supervisors will initiate as many coaching conversations as necessary, until they don’t see any changes, which is when they know to switch to progressive discipline.   

Dealing with the “champion” using coaching can be paradoxical. Courageous supervisors know they will have to spend more time with the “champion,” not less. “Champions” will require more goal-setting and more interactions with supervisors, not less, even though there is a tendency for most bosses to want to avoid them.

The library supervisor who stands his or her ground can fight the “champion’s” poor performance, disruptive behavior, and entitled attitude with consequences, coaching, and courage.