NC LIVE 2024 Annual Conference

Capitalism’s pursuit of profits demands much of us all, shaping employee identity and expectations in the workplace across many sectors including higher education. The impact of fervent capitalism contributes to a toxic workplace culture within academic institutions rendering sustainable work/life balance practices inaccessible.

From the outside looking in, academic institutions and corporations are very different. A business removes barriers to profits while educators attempt to remove barriers of learning for students. However, in terms of workplace practices around employee wellness, the differences begin to diminish.

As a society, and profession, we need to move beyond the idea that taking on more responsibilities, beyond the 40-hour work week, is a reasonable litmus test of workplace competency and commitment. We propose to host a presentation discussing sustainable solutions for library worker wellness where radical self-care begins by addressing the very systems that make it a necessity.