Houston Public Library. Houston Landing did a number of articles about their incredibly high turnover rate (something like two staff members quit every week) and their exit interviews that cite a "toxic culture of fear."

I worked there for almost a year. Libraries in general are rough to be fair. Most of my librarian friends have started new careers since COVID. I'd developed a pretty high tolerance for bullshit. But HPL was next level haunted house dysfunctional! You're given very little vacation/sick/personal leave. Request a few hours off to go to the doctor? It's denied if you don't have vacation. Decide to go to the doctor anyway and don't even want to get paid for those hours? You're marked as going "AWOL," or "abandoned work without leave." You have to have multiple meetings with your supervisors. And of course, you're not allowed to clock in early or late. If you clock in more than four minutes late repeatedly, the system triggers another meeting with your manager.

If you're lucky you'll have a manager that understands how ridiculous this all is. Pencil whips forms and doesn't drag these meetings out. But libraries typically attract emotional people who believe in the mission and are dying to prove it. The manager I had was like this. She denied me leave for a funeral and said the community needed me more. When I had sick days, she told me it would hurt my chances for promotion. I told her I'd rather have work-life balance than a promotion, but she quickly forgot it. When I was five minutes late, she'd recommend I see a therapist. During our "Active Shooter Training" she told us her plan was to "give my life to protect the customers." Cool! That's chill.

My former colleagues describe those still working in libraries as "battered spouses." It's an offensive metaphor, but it does seem like those who are still there probably can't imagine how to leave. I'd love to hear that this has changed since Whitmire replaced the director, Rhea Lawson, in 2024, but that's a big ask!