On Library Work and Library Workers

At the library we did very little work. There were some fifty of us doing what fifteen could have easily done. My particular job, shared with fifteen or twenty colleagues, was classifying and cataloging the library's holdings, which until that time were uncatalogued. The collection, however, was so small that we knew where to find the books without the system, so the system, though laboriously carried out, was never needed or used. The first day, I worked honestly. On the next, some of my fellows took me aside to say that I couldn't do this sort of thing because it showed them up. "Besides," they argued, "as the cataloguing has been planned to give us some semblance of work, you'll put us out of our jobs." I told them I had classified four hundred titles instead of their one hundred. "Well, if you keep it up," they said, "the boss will be angry and won't know what to do with us." For the sake of realism, I was told that from then on I should do eighty-three books one day, ninety another, and one hundred and four the third.

Jorge Luis Borges, "An Autobiographial Essay," in The Aleph and other Stories, together with Commentaries and an Autobiographical Essay (New York: Bantam, 1971), p. 169.

A Question of Morality

A Question of Morality; or,

Why I Have Decided Not to Vote for Trey Greyson for

Senator, 2010—He's Out of Touch

When I voted for Trey Greyson for Secretary of State I knew very little about him; I met

him at a campaign rally for Governor Ernie Fletcher. He seemed very distant—standoffish,

I should say—but considering it was towards the end of a tough campaign I didn't

think much about it. After the election I was glad to have at least one person I

considered Republican in a state office.

That was then. In the meantime I have had some experience with the kind of people the

Greysons really are and have concluded they are out-of-touch “yuppies” who don't have

much experience with the real world. Trey Greyson may not now be a Clinton

Democrat politically, though I cannot help being suspicious for anyone who ever voted

for Clinton; but I have concluded he is at least very like Bill Clinton in a more

unsatisfactory way: he is a Clinton-style liar—and he follows Clinton's “pragmatic”

morality. Trey, like Bill, apparently thinks that if he tells lies about his opponent often

enough the rest of us are stupid enough to believe them. Many voters and editorials

have noted that Greyson is not serious, and does not have a platform. He is out of touch

with reality; in the current economic climate real people are serious about the issues.

Liars look down on other people—that explains the stand-offishness—and I believe that

Trey Greyson is out of touch with real people. But this is only an aspect of a more

troubling characteristic of Mr. Greyson: He is out of touch with morality. He has

continually lied about his opponent, Dr. Rand Paul. But he seems to regard it as justified

to get what he wants, and I regard that as a major character defect.

This lack of moral perspective and taking the easy way out appears to run in the Greyson

family. I had an unsatisfactory encounter with his wife, Nancy Greyson, that leads me to

believe they are both interested, not in truth, right, or justice, but in taking the easy way

out, and doing all they can for themselves, and for Trey's political career.

In September 2009 I lost my job as Local History Researcher for the Boone County

Public Library, after seven years of employment. This was due to the collusion of two

evil people, also without moral perspective: my former supervisor, Bridget Striker, and

the H. R. Person, Sherri Slavey, who blindsided me with a pre-termination document

presented immediately after the retirement of our longtime Director, when no one was

there to stop them. This they did in the week between Directors.

Instead of questioning why there was no documentation to support the disciplinary

action, Ms. Southard,the new Director, fired me on her third day, refusing even to listen

to what was actually happening. According to library policy and state law, she was

supposed to try to resolve any problems, then write a report and submit it to the Board of

Trustees for a hearing. I never got that hearing.

Nancy Greyson, Trey's wife, is the Secretary of the Library Board of Trustees. Mrs.

Greyson has a law degree, which should indicate some knowledge of policy, procedure,

and the evaluation of evidence. I hoped that of all the members, she at least would ask

the right questions—and only a few questions would have made obvious what had really

happened.

I was finally allowed to speak to the Board for ten minutes—not a hearing, and not

because they had wanted to know the truth, but so they could claim they gave me a

hearing to preempt legal action. None of the members of the Board cared that they

violated their own policy, and the statutes under which public libraries are to be

governed. Mrs. Greyson was not hostile like some other members of the Board. She sat

in stony silence, never taking her eyes off me while I spoke. However, she went along

with the administration “switching procedures” on me (a common tactic), and there is

good reason to believe that she had attended the pre-meeting that involved at least half

of the Trustees before the Board meeting started. Such meetings are illegal by State law.

The Board, including Mrs. Greyson, decided to do nothing rather than undo what the

new Director, who has never worked professionally in a public library before, had done

in haste. How could anyone think she knew enough about the situation on her third busy

day of work to make such a decision. I suppose the Board wanted to back her up

because they are paying her close to $120,000 a year in salary, plus a vehicle and other

benefits. Such an investment was more important to them than my run-of-the -mill

salary, though their letter of determination acknowledged the quality and importance of

my work. At any rate, I was deprived of my right to due process, to have a lawyer

present, and to be allowed to give my testimony in a public venue. Mrs. Greyson and the

Board attorney at least should have been aware of these rights, if they had cared.

I did not change my mind about Trey Greyson because the Board would not reinstate me

— in fact I still haven't gotten around to tearing his bumper sticker off my truck. It has

been there since he ran for Secretary of State. I assumed, even after this, that I would

still be able to vote for him, despite my disappointment in the lack of initiative his wife

showed for seeing justice was done.

As this campaign has proceeded I have gotten a chance to observe Trey Greyson in

action, to read obviously false claims he has made about his opponent. To see how

insincere and immature his thinking is. Over a period of time is has become clear to me

that the evidence I now have concerning Trey and his wife, proves that the real problem

is a moral defect in the Greyson family. They aren't going to buck the status quo for

anyone, even if it is obvious that person is being wronged. (My wife says this is a

carryover from their college days in the fraternity and sorority.) They will always play

the game for their own advantage. It doesn't really matter what happens to other

people, even when they have specific legal and moral responsibilities, because they look

down on other people.

We need Senators in Washington to stem the tide, to choke off the funds poured out for

the Money Monster that lives in Tax Payer's Lagoon. We need people to stand up to the

crooked tax-swilling Obama administration, not people who play the money game for

their own advantage. We need people who will support the ideals of the Tea Party, and

fight against invasive government, while furthering the cause of justice and truth.

We need legislators with backbone; not more liars. We should be represented by hardhitting

speakers of truth. Our people in public office should fight for what is right, not

condone injustice, without even making an inquiry into the facts of a case.

So why do I think the Greysons are out of touch? Nancy apparently doesn't realize how

important a job can be to a man with a wife and seven children. (Talk about being out of

touch with reality!) She cannot conceive that a hearing is not an effort to burden the

Trustees with extra work, but a chance to clear one's name from false charges and

innuendo.

I began this election campaign assuming I could not vote for Rand Paul, as I could not

vote for his father in the past election. But I found that Rand Paul is not a carbon copy

of his father, and that he takes the issues seriously, being both pro-life and a supporter of

traditional marriage. I have felt great sympathy for Rand Paul after hearing Mr. Greyson

lie about him and run a totally negative campaign, while skirting the issues himself.

When I thought about what had happened to me at the hands of Nancy Greyson and

others like her, I saw that this indicates a whole host of moral and character issues, and

came to the conclusion that I could not vote for her husband as a U.S. Senator.

I know how Rand Paul must feel hearing Trey Greyson lie about him. I too have felt the

frustration of trying to speak truth to the bland, “generic” people like Mrs. Greyson, and

the others, who get appointed to our public boards, and who infest modern public life. I

could only sit and wonder as the Board easily disposed of my case, and then proceeded

to pass around plans for a new library facility at Hebron where the Greysons live. This

building is projected to cost the taxpayers over $10 million, and will surely raise taxes in

Boone County to pay the long term cost of the approximately fifty additional employees

need to staff such a large facility. Mrs. Greyson said she thinks it should feature both

classical and contemporary architectural styles—talk about generic!

Moral disease has reached epidemic proportions, and those who have contracted it

should never be rewarded with public office. Trey and Nancy are, in my opinion, in the

last stages, and completely out of touch with reality. For that reason, among others, I

will be voting for Rand Paul for U.S. Senate in 2010.

James Duvall, M.A.

Big Bone University

Big Bone, Kentucky

Nec ossa solum, sed etiam sanguinem.

Responsible Workers Demand — Responsible Management!

Peter Drucker says in Management:

"Nothing quenches motivation as quickly as a slovenly boss."

A responsible work force does indeed make very high demands on managers.  It demands that they be truly competent—and competent as managers rather than as psychologists or psychotherapists.  It demands that they take their own work seriously.  It demands that they themselves take responsibility for their jobs and their performances.

Responsibility is a harsh taskmaster.  To demand it of others without demanding it of oneself is futile and irresponsible.  The worker cannot assume the  burden of responsibility for his own job, work group, and work-community affairs unless he can be confident of the seriousness, responsibility, and competence of his company.  He must be able to have confidence that the boss knows his own job and work.  He must take it for granted that the boss provides the tools the worker himself needs to be able to do productive work and the information the worker needs to direct and control himself.

Nothing quenches motivation as quickly as a slovenly boss. People expect and demand that managers enable them to do a good job and work productively and intelligently.  People have indeed a right to expect a serious and competent superior.

(Management (2007), p. 302-303.)
And this is why Drucker says that Knowledge Workers must supervise themselves:  No one else understands what they are doing.  Drucker states:  "Managing means making the strengths of people effective.  Neither the welfare approach, nor the personnel management approach, nor the control and fire-fighting approach address themselves to strength, however.  People are weak; and most of us are pitifully weak.  People cause problems, require procedures, create chores.  And people are a cost and a potential 'threat.'  But these are not the reason why people are employed.  The reason is their strength and their capacity to perform.  And, to say what will be said many times in this book, the purpose of an organization is to make the strengths of people productive and their weaknesses irrelevant." (Ibid., p. 307.)  He adds, " . . . unlike a union, an achieving work force does not exert its pressure as an adversary.  It exerts it in cooperation.  It 'plays on the same team.'  But for this reason it expects team captains and team leaders, that is, managers, to hold themselves to high standards and to take their own jobs seriously." (p. 303.)

Take Time to make Decisions: Cultivate Negative Feedback

"People inevitably start out with an opinion; to ask them to search for the facts first is even undesirable. The will simply do what everyone is far too prone to do anyhow: look for the facts that fit the conclusion they have already reached. And no one has ever failed to find the facts he is looking for."

Peter Drucker, Management (1974), p. 471.

Alfred P. Sloan, Jr., is reported to have said at a meeting of one of the GM top committees, "Gentlemen, I take it we are all in complete agreement on the decision here." Eeryone around the table nodded assent. "Then," continued Mr. Sloan, "I propose we postpone further discussion of this matter until our next meeting to give ourselves time to develop disagreement and perhaps gain some understanding of what the decision is all about."

(Ibid., p. 472.)

Commitment to Excellence an Antidote

Peter F. Drucker writes in Management: Tasks, Responsibilities, Practices (1974):

We hear a great deal today about the organization man and about alienation of people in organizations. I doubt whether there is more conformity in today's organization than there was in yesterday's small village with its tremendous pressures of class and kin, of caste and custom. I doubt seriously whether there is more alienation today than in earlier societies. . . . But whether conformity and spiritual despair are greater or less today than they used to be, the one effective counterforce to both is the individual's commitment to self-development, the individual's commitment to excellence.

Books in Heaven? — A Speculation

AQQ

"Yes," my friend said. "I don't see why there shouldn't be books in Heaven. But you will find that your library in Heaven contains only some of the books you had on earth."

"Which," I asked.

"The ones you gave away or lent."

"I hope the lent ones won't still have all the borrowers' dirty thumb marks," said I.

"Oh yes they will," said he. "But just as the wounds of the martyrs will have turned into beauties, so you will find that the thumb-marks have turned into beautiful illuminated capitals or exquisite marginal woodcuts."

C. S. Lewis, "Scraps" God in the Dock, p. 216.

Books in Heaven?