Cupcakes in the break room won’t stop me from quitting – but collective care might
Event Type
Presentation
Start Date
25-7-2025 2:10 PM
End Date
25-7-2025 2:40 PM
Description
If you have ever experienced burnout or feelings of imposter syndrome in the workplace, these challenges are not personal failings, but rather reflections of inadequate support structures within libraries. Libraries attempt to embrace diversity by creating committees, programs, and hiring techniques to attract BIPOC and non-traditional employees; however, these efforts are often hindered by hostile work environments that place the onus on underrepresented workers to "self-care" their way through their careers. New and BIPOC librarians are especially vulnerable to burnout as they are socialized to play their role as a caretaker without support from their institution. This popularized individualistic approach to self-care dismisses the systemic inequities that impact underrepresented employees. Instead of providing collective support, solutions often include additional workloads that disregard the root of the problem.
In this presentation, we reject traditional wellness and self-care approaches to burnout by looking at collective care, an approach to well-being that distributes the responsibility among members rather than on the individual. We will examine interdisciplinary fields and activist practices centered on collective care, exploring their potential applications within the context of academic libraries.
Outcomes
This presentation advocates for a commitment to collective care, which is a practice that places everyone's mental well-being as a community responsibility and effort.
- Attendees will learn about the use of collective care from other fields and communities to brainstorm its application in the library.
- Attendees will be able to imagine a library workplace that uses collective care in practice and in support of their colleagues, to protect themselves from burnout.
Cupcakes in the break room won’t stop me from quitting – but collective care might
If you have ever experienced burnout or feelings of imposter syndrome in the workplace, these challenges are not personal failings, but rather reflections of inadequate support structures within libraries. Libraries attempt to embrace diversity by creating committees, programs, and hiring techniques to attract BIPOC and non-traditional employees; however, these efforts are often hindered by hostile work environments that place the onus on underrepresented workers to "self-care" their way through their careers. New and BIPOC librarians are especially vulnerable to burnout as they are socialized to play their role as a caretaker without support from their institution. This popularized individualistic approach to self-care dismisses the systemic inequities that impact underrepresented employees. Instead of providing collective support, solutions often include additional workloads that disregard the root of the problem.
In this presentation, we reject traditional wellness and self-care approaches to burnout by looking at collective care, an approach to well-being that distributes the responsibility among members rather than on the individual. We will examine interdisciplinary fields and activist practices centered on collective care, exploring their potential applications within the context of academic libraries.
Outcomes
This presentation advocates for a commitment to collective care, which is a practice that places everyone's mental well-being as a community responsibility and effort.
- Attendees will learn about the use of collective care from other fields and communities to brainstorm its application in the library.
- Attendees will be able to imagine a library workplace that uses collective care in practice and in support of their colleagues, to protect themselves from burnout.
