Lessons should be learned from library’s January firings
Correction: the story originally read ‘…Jan. 7, the first day of the Spring Semester.’ Jan 7 was not the first day of the semester
Syracuse University is not immune from the effects of the poor economy, and one of the first visible consequences happened at Bird Library, with 48 total university employees laid off, 23 from the library. All were laid off on Jan. 7.
The library was overstaffed (before the layoffs, it employed 190 people), and cuts were necessary, but the way in which staff was laid off was poor and should have been more sensitively handled by the administration.
The union system used to determine who was laid off is flawed. Each library technician is placed in one of four tiers; the lower you are in each tier, the more likely you are to loose a job or be demoted a tier. Supposedly, the tier system is to protect long-term employees, but that wasn’t the case at SU. Longtime employees who are working their way up the tiered system got caught in the lower rung of a high tier and were forced to leave or take a demotion, with employees of over 20 years getting demoted to entry-level positions.
Rather than protecting employees that have put in a lot of time at their job, it seems this tier system put in place by the union is just an arbitrary way of ranking people and does little to ensure that employees are being recognized for their years of service. The library staff and university should work with the union to create a more fair tiered system to make sure longtime staffers aren’t bumped off in the future.
Not only is the union system flawed, but it also appears that the university’s handling of the firings was partially insensitive. The employees showed up on Jan 7 to find out they no longer had a job and were told to pack up their things and leave the building immediately. Within minutes of being told they were jobless, their e-mail accounts were shut down and essentially all ties to the university were severed.
Being let go from your job usually can’t go well. The parting is never sweet, and in the end the employee is still without a job, without a paycheck. But Syracuse should have told the library staff that firings were coming, so staff could prepare themselves and be prepared for the sudden news.
If there are going to be more layoffs because of the economy, then this should be a lesson for the future. Sure, these are tough times, but how the message of a firing is delivered can sometimes make the difference between the perception of the university as a kind learning institution or a cutthroat corporate business.
The way the staff was fired doesn’t just affect those let go. It affects the opinion of the remaining staff of how the university views its employees.
