Dear KPL Staff
This morning our Governor directed that everyone should stay at home with few exceptions until April 24th. I know that for the vast majority of you, this message evokes mixed emotions. On the one hand, we know that it is our civic duty to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus and closing the library wasn’t just the right thing to do, it was the only thing to do. On the other hand, we know how important we are to our community and how much they miss us right now. And face it. You miss them, too. For some of us, we feel the impact of our work so deeply that disconnecting our services from the community feels shameful. It’s not like we’ve taken a vacation and someone else is carrying on in our place. We’re all gone.
Heather sent out an article earlier today that talked about grief in the time of the Coronavirus. It’s only one week since we shut our doors to the public. It’s only one day since we stopped seeing them at our curbside pickup. Already we’re grieving. Think what we’ll be feeling in a month.
Our friends in city emergency services and at hospitals and clinics in our county are grieving for a different reason. They are witnessing the fear and sickness brought on by this terrible pathogen at a caseload barely manageable. The 2-1-1 call center is currently handling 700-1000 calls per day according to the Kenosha County Health Department. If you’ve ever worked a crisis hotline, you can imagine the stress of answering that many calls from anxious people looking for help.
Our friends in the City Clerk’s office are scrambling to keep up with an election that has suddenly become vote-by-mail. With only 2 weeks to go, and very few staff, they have no answers from the state about in-person elections. Will they be postponed? If they are held, will their poll workers, mostly elderly, be willing to work? Should they risk their health to do so?
In the days and weeks ahead, we may be called on as city employees to help other departments that had no choice to close. I hope you’ll answer that call if called upon. In the meantime, as you wait at home, I hope you think of all the people who continue to work hard. Their wages are the same. Their workload is overwhelming. They deserve our admiration and appreciation and help if they make the call.
We Midwesterners pride ourselves on our work ethic. We don’t believe in taking something for nothing. We shouldn’t sit at home in good health and expect a paycheck for nothing. Now is the time to demonstrate our pride and appreciation for our good work and the wages that come with it. The Governor has ordered us to be home, but he didn’t order us to abandon our responsibilities. It is our responsibility to be well trained and to provide outstanding library services to our community. When we return to our library buildings, we should be closer than ever to those goals.
If you are a part time employee, and you are feeling well, connect every day you would normally work. Take online training, contribute to a project, clean out your work email, or ask your supervisor how else you can help. It doesn’t matter what position you hold, there are ways for you to contribute to our work from where you are.
If you are a full time employee and you are feeling well, you should connect five times a week with your supervisor to keep on track with assignments. They have pulled together an impressive list of opportunities with choices for how to contribute.
Let’s show the Library Board and the City Administration that KPL staff are worth the safety net that’s been provided to us. If you’re well, do the work. Show your pride and live your values.
I wish you and your family continued good health.
Barb
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