Movin’ on Up

Like George Jefferson, if you put your time in and work hard in this profession, you will move up. In many cases, this means that you’ll move from contract status to permanent status, often with the same institution. While obtaining permanent status is often the biggest achievement in a junior librarian’s career, there can be some challenges to doing so in the same institution you grew up in. Some tips:

• Know your collective agreement. Benefits such as sabbatical and other leaves, and even holidays can differ for permanent staff - be sure you know what you’re entitled to. In addition, be prepared to negotiate to have your contract time count towards any future tenure, promotion and/or sabbatical timelines. If you don’t do it at the point of hire, you can lose all the time you put in on contract. Administrators might assume that you’re familiar with the rules because you’ve worked at the institution – make sure you are!
  
• Set new, clear goals for yourself with your supervisors/administrators. Though often abused (another post altogether), contract positions are designed to fill temporary needs of an organization, or to bring temporarily needed skill sets. As such, the work you do on contract is narrow in focus and usually project based. Your work needs to expand in a permanent position; letting your superiors know that you understand and welcome this will help you get the support you need to take on new and different work.
  
• Shed the guilt. Most university libraries have a tendency to treat contract staff a little like pack mules – someone can’t work a desk shift? The contract can do it! Eight first year courses need a library tour? The contract can do it! And most of the time, on contract, you’re happy to do it. This can leave you a little guilty about cutting back on your volunteering once in a permanent position, but it’s crucial to remember that if you try to keep up the same day-to-day pace you kept as a contract in a permanent position, burn out will occur. After all, your fellow librarians likely started the same way and should support your need to change your workload.
• Speak your mind. Another occasional rule of contract life is that you are to be seen and not heard. Because your position is temporary your views can be seen as less important. This has to change. It takes some time and a lot of effort for this to happen – make sure that you do speak up at meetings on matters you know something about, and be active on the library/division listserv. But rather than confronting your colleagues who don’t take you seriously right away (a tempting proposition for some of us), realize that it does take time for that mind shift to occur - speaking consistently and articulately about a few subjects is the best way to get your piece of the pie.
  

I must admit, it’s been some time since I made the leap from contract to permanent, but I do remember it being a challenging, but ultimately rewarding experience. Anyone less in their dotage have other tips? What’s the contract environment like where you work?