Thursday, June 19, 2008

Another Strange Human Resources Case

I don't know why human resources issues fascinate me so much, but they do. Especially library cases, of course. Modern society builds our lives around work. We choose to move away and live thousands of miles from family because of our job, often in geographic areas we wouldn't normally chose to live in. If we get married, then things become even more complicated as you balance each spouse's job and career with what the other one can do in that area. There is so much sacrifice involved, yet we could lose those jobs for any number of reasons. And losing a job is very, very difficult. A friend of mine lost her job recently, followed by two serious personal crises. So employees rights and what people do that deserves getting them fired fascinates me.

So here is an interesting story of a Michigan library director who allegedly uses a puppet in staff meetings, moves furniture wearing nothing on top but a bra, treating her employees atrociously, not following the city's budget rules, and otherwise acting "irrationally." This stuff seems too strange to make up, and her hr file seems to have been building up over time, not just when she got fired. She claims in her lawsuit that she was wrongly fired for questioning the city's authority over the library.

I keep mentioning these stories as I find them on LISNews, but haven't followed up on them. I don't know if it is just because law suits take so darn long (I'm still waiting for the J.K. Rowling verdict), or because newspapers cover stories when they first break and not when they are resolved... I suppose I need to look at all of the stories I have tagged with "worker's rights" and see if I can find any more information on the older stories I discussed. Of course, I will keep you updated on anything I dig up.

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