A former vice president at my current university had a wise and insightful analogy that she used when referring to leaders in management positions: she said that such roles can be characterized as “meniscus positions” because, like the meniscus in the knee, they are subject to both downward pressure from above and upward pressure from below – and, as with the physical meniscus, the key to avoiding pain and maintaining integrity is to stay aligned.

What are these pressures, and what does “alignment” mean in this context? Let’s look at the first question first.

Every library leader has probably experienced the frustration that can come from feeling whipsawed between an administration that wants one thing (and believes it’s the leader’s job to represent the administration’s position to staff) and a staff that wants something different (and believes it’s the leader’s job to advocate on behalf of staff to the administration). This dynamic can arise both within the library organization and between the library and the university leadership. When the administration’s position and the staff’s position are in conflict, what is the leader’s obligation? 

In Part 1 of this multi-part discussion, I put forward a hypothetical situation: a library department wants to start offering remote work options to its staff, and the library administration invests significant time and energy in discussing the possibility – but then realizes that remote work isn’t allowed as a matter of institutional policy, and therefore isn’t an option for library employees. 

 Now let’s imagine what happens next.