Joy in the Library Workplace: A Literature Review and Related Activities

What does joy mean? Could it come from the workplace? Should it?

This session reviews current research surrounding joy and well-being in workplaces, inviting participants to consider their own organizational culture.

The literature on toxicity and low morale in library workplaces is extensive. Neoliberalism, trends towards a care economy, and ramifications of the COVID pandemic place considerable demands on library workers and exacerbate existing inequities. Top-down efforts to improve well-being can be ineffective or self-serving. Recent literature outside the library field describes the need to make work joyful, reflecting workplaces’ joylessness, barriers to changing the work itself, and our desire for transcendent delight. This session identifies exacerbating trends such as positive psychology’s false hope, the mythology of self-care, and management approaches that offer snacks instead of real change. Improving workers’ autonomy and interpersonal connections can impact well-being, but can such changes bring the alluring concept of joy within reach?

We have a public Zotero library collecting information we used in this workshop, and a few other suggested readings and relevant materials.

When we asked workshop participants what the word "joy" meant to them, the most frequent words in their responses (N=27) were (removing prepositions and other minor or connecting words): feeling (6); work (4); sense (4); happiness (4); and connection (4). We hadn't asked about joy as it connected to work, but some participants were clearly thinking about joy at work, while others focused on joy's spontaneity and transcendence.

N=37

For the second response prompt, we asked workshop participants: "Of all the places you’ve worked so far, name one or more aspects you’d like to see repeated everywhere."

Some themes: connection with other people, within and outside the workplace, including a sense of collective resistance; respect, trust, autonomy and boundaries; not being the only POC in the workplace;  having tools for work, such as adequate budgets, protection from "poop rolling down the hill, and interaction with colleagues. Action, humor, playfulness.

N=29

For the third response prompt, we asked workshop participants: "What is at least one specific element you would include in a handbook on creating authentic joy in the workplace?"

Themes: Connection; finding joy in action and resistance; strong connections with others for collaboration and resistance; understanding the role of white supremacy, and incorporating theory and lived experience of BIPOC in efforts to promote joy; boundaries in limiting work creep; anti-capitalism; valuing and expressing appreciation of workers; "breaking your job" so joy and creativity can exist; the role of management in protecting workers and advocating for, but not attempting to create, joy.