For almost four years, Macy Davis worked as a children’s librarian at the Brookline library’s main branch in Brookline Village. When she resigned in late August to take another position, she became one of the 21 full-time and 28 part-time employees who have left the Public Library of Brookline since 2022. The library employed 65 workers in 2023, according to town data.
Davis, who was also union steward for the library’s full-time employees, did not go quietly. Upon leaving, she wrote a letter to the Library Board of Trustees expressing concern about “staff dissatisfaction and low morale due to a toxic work environment” and noting the board’s interest in turnover and staff retention.
“Changes are made simply for the sake of change, staff are treated as budget lines to be optimized, and the relationship with Library administration is expected to be one of deference rather than collaboration,” Davis wrote. “Staff are worn down, not listened to when genuine concerns arise, and feel like their quality of life is constantly being threatened.”
In interviews with Brookline.News, other library employees echoed her frustrations, saying that working in the system has become difficult and stressful under the current administration as a result of frequent staff turnover, unfilled job openings and proposed policy changes.
In just a short period between the end of August and mid-September, three of the six full-time youth services staff members at the Brookline Village branch left their positions.
Sean O’Donnell, a librarian who took on the role of union steward for full-time library employees after Davis left, said her letter has had a ripple effect throughout the library system.
“She was speaking for more than just herself,” O’Donnell said. “A lot of these issues are things that staff have been talking about widely for some time. When this many voices are speaking out about it, it’s something that should be paid attention to by the people that are helping to run the library.”
With more than 800,000 materials in circulation across its three branches in Brookline Village, Coolidge Corner and South Brookline, the Massachusetts Library System lists the Public Library of Brookline as the third busiest library in the state after Cambridge and Newton.
Following Davis’s letter, the 12-person elected board of trustees and Library Director Amanda Hirst met on Oct. 8 to discuss some of the issues she raised. Hirst shared her goals and presented data rationalizing some of the decisions made surrounding pain points voiced by Davis, including the proposed removal of overtime pay on Sundays.
Most trustees voiced their support of Hirst.
“I have a lot of confidence in her ability as a leader to be very transparent, approachable, and be compassionately responsive to what we hope will be constructive feedback from staff and from us regarding issues of staff, morale, workplace, satisfaction, and beyond,” Kristin Hung, who chairs the board of trustees, said at the meeting.
In an interview, Hirst, who was named director in August 2022, said she is open to finding ways to engage with staff on a more productive level.
“There is always an opportunity for me to do better. There is always an opportunity for staff to have a venue where they feel comfortable asking questions and getting feedback,” she said.
Sunday overtime pay
One of the more controversial issues is Hirst’s proposal to eliminate overtime pay on Sundays.
While the library has been paying employees overtime for Sunday work since before Hirst became director, weekends are contractually part of library employees’ regular work week, and overtime pay is not guaranteed.
Hirst proposed removing Sunday overtime pay, which comprises the majority of overtime pay made to employees, as one of many attempts to address a budget crisis accumulated during previous library administrations, she said.
“The fact that all Sundays are scheduled as overtime for a day that is part of our normal operations is a misuse of budget,” she said.
In a list attached to her letter, Davis compiled pay policies from 11 Massachusetts public libraries and found that those libraries pay their staff overtime or compensation time off for working Sundays.
In 2023, Brookline library employees supplemented their annual salaries with overtime pay ranging from $181 to $6,015, according to data on town employees’ salaries for that year.
Davis and multiple current library employees said the removal of Sunday overtime pay would effectively be a pay cut.
“If staff quality of life is not consistent with what’s offered at other libraries, staff are not going to be able to stay. We’re not going to be able to attract diverse applicants,” Davis said in an interview. “That all just leaves people feeling really unstable.”
Library assistants make $20 to $27 an hour, and librarians between $30 and $47 per hour, according to a town document.
Hirst said that Sunday overtime pay is still available to library employees and no changes have been made pending negotiating a new library contract with the union.
“My goal was to come up with a collaborative solution that we could both agree to. It got to the point where there was no solution in us trying to work it out ourselves,” Hirst said. “Because our bargaining hasn’t commenced, we will continue in the mode we’re in right now, which is it’s still overtime, it’s on rotation, and people can choose to sell their Sundays.”
New automated sorting system
Another issue came with the new automated materials sorting system installed at the Brookline Village branch in August.
Employees hoped it would make their lives easier, but less than two months later, the sorting system has become another source of frustration. Library employees said training was inadequate and the machine has sped up the pace of materials circulation while staffing remains short.
“Since we got this sorter, I don’t sit down on the job anymore, ever. Maybe 10 minutes. Because we constantly have to keep up with the machine,” said one full-time employee, who asked to remain anonymous in order to speak candidly. “I spend a lot of the day physically in pain and mentally beaten up.”
Another employee — a part-time worker also granted anonymity to speak about a sensitive issue — said several workers sought out the library director after the sorting machine was introduced, but their conversations were sparse and unproductive.
“It left a lot of people feeling very deflated,” the employee said. “We had a sense that it fell on deaf ears.”
Hirst said the goal of the sorter is to have staff handle materials less, reducing physical strain and freeing them up to work with patrons. “The sorter is already giving us a major return on investment. Circulation staff are completing the daily work in far less time and it helps them stay caught up,” she said in an email to Brookline.News.
Communication concerns
Another full-time employee, who asked for anonymity to protect their job status, said they empathize with the difficulty of managing the library but wish communication from administrators came more often and less harshly.
For example, the employee said library leaders barely acknowledged the stress created by the departure of half of the full-time employees in the Brookline Village branch in a several week period this summer.
“My expectation would be that our administration would reach out to that department to check in and see if there’s any kind of support that department needs, make a plan for meeting the needs of that department, and reiterate that the door is open,” the employee said. “There have been crickets. That’s really disappointing to me.”
Several employees said they voiced their concerns to library leadership, but felt unheard.
Hirst said her office has an open door policy, but she has not heard much feedback from employees.
“I think that I mistook silence for agreement, and I think that’s probably where the breakdown came,” Hirst said.
“There has been an uproar. It’s been the opposite of silence,” said one of the full-time employees. “We have all been complaining to our supervisors.”
Creating opportunities for feedback
At a monthly Library Board of Trustees meeting on Oct. 29, trustees discussed their methods of evaluating Hirst and shared ideas for improving relationships between the director and the trustees as well as between the director and library employees.
Hirst wants to create a mechanism for communication to help ease tensions between administrators and employees, she said in an interview.
Town officials said they are aware of the complaints made in Davis’s letter and are working with library staff, the library director, the board of trustees and town administrators to create ways for employees to share feedback.
“We value our town library employees and are dedicated to ensuring their well-being and satisfaction,” said Town Administrator Charles Carey in a written statement. “Our goal is to create a workplace where everyone feels valued, respected, and empowered to contribute to the success of our library.”
The town will implement a new process for library employees to provide anonymous feedback to administrators and the board of trustees, town spokesperson Christina Metcalf said.
“Together, we will take the necessary steps to ensure that our library is a welcoming place for all staff,” said trustees board chair Hung in a statement. “We will continue to work collaboratively and take appropriate action to address any concerns.”
The town is currently in contract negotiations with its AFSCME union, which includes librarians, custodians, public works employees and dozens of other positions. Once AFSCME contract negotiations end, Hirst and O’Donnell, the new library union steward, will begin bargaining for the library contract.
O’Donnell said he plans to focus on retaining Sunday overtime pay and improving communication in contract negotiations, adding that creating a “new norm for feedback” would help boost morale and trust amongst employees.
“I haven’t been in the role of union steward for very long, but I think what people on staff are saying, I think they have valid concerns,” O’Donnell said. “I’m glad that it seems like those concerns are being addressed and I’m hoping that this all resolves where they feel comfortable in their workplace.”
In the meantime, several employees shared that they have been looking for other jobs.
“At this point, I don’t see Brookline as a place where I can see myself long term or where I will grow,” one said.
Hirst said she worries about the library’s reputation and the well-being of the staff.
“I’m concerned for the library community, but I don’t know what I can say at this moment to help with that,” she said.