Lower East Side librarian

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I'm just throwing this up here since I'm leaving Barnard and wanted to have a public export. 

• bcrw
• digital humanities

This and the following two blog posts are for a 40-minute presentation at the "Vulnerability at Work and Beyond: How are We Managing?" themed 2026 LACUNY Institute. 

In the next two posts, I'll share two of my interventions, and then we'll add yours to this post!

But first...here are some of the reasons I began regular downloads of my Google account and took medical leave:

• I was called into the provost's office without an explanation, with my boss clearly on the provost's side, not mine
• 77 of my coworkers were laid off on last day of the month and were immediately cut off from their health insurance. If they signed a promise not to sue, they were given two months free COBRA. Meanwhile, how many executive positions have been added since then?
• I got a call from HR saying that my part-time coworker was fired. That ended up not being true, but COME ON. 
• One of my student zine librarians was suspended from school for a year for having participated in what was meant to be a no-risk protest that was escalated by campus security and the NYPD surrounded and trapping the protestors  
• A coworker of mine was fired for participating in the same protest
• Constant campus surveillance via swipe access and having attendance taken at our staff holiday party
• The violence of the Hinds Hall raid in 2024
• Being forced to remove all DEI references from our website because discrimination against white people? What even is higher ed???
• Approval being required for all purchases, web, and social media posts
• Non-librarian hired as interim dean
• Librarians banned from faculty meetings
• The most beloved member of HR being manipulated and fired
• A hit piece about my special collection in the Washington Free Beacon, a deeply unserious web news outlet that lead to judgment against the zine library and me. Could maybe anyone have thought to offer me a delete.me account or ask how I was doing???
• My department getting defunded/told to rely on endowments, rather than operational money
• Staff across the college being treated with fear and loathing, like the time right after the layoffs when a senior staffer told us she was sorry we were all suffering from group think

All of that took a toll on my mental health ¯\_(ツ)_/¯.

Suggestions:

• download your last paystub and anything else you might need from HR
• print your files
• download to USB/external drive
• flash drives in a fireproof box
• document any uncomfortable/weird interactions
• describe what you experienced if you are in a disciplinary meeting / have potentially problematic interactions with managers
• analyze a problematic job offer and ask detailed questions (as a stalling tactic)
• find your allies--is there anyone in HR you can trust?
• don't email HR. talk to them in person/on the phone

• lacuny

nb: my knowledge is limited to New York State and my employer. 

NYS Workers Comp (pdf) - the upshot is that you can get a minimum of 50% of your salary while you are on short-term disability (up to $170/week), but I got my whole salary from my employer! My observations:

• The leave is between you and the insurer, not you and your employer. They have nothing to do with it, decision-making wise
• You can take up to six months, but you are only protected by FMLA for three months--meaning they can't fire you for taking leave until after three months
• Your provider must attest that you cannot perform your job due
• My psych provider was horrible and caused me tremendous stress, so make sure your doctor/nurse/therapist will fill out the form properly and in a timely manner, and check if there's a fee for filling out the form because if they're like my provider, they won't tell you that; they just won't act until you ask what the holdup is

• lacuny

How to download your work email, files, contacts, etc. if your employer uses the Goog. 

1. Empty your downloads folder
2. Empty your trash / recycling bin
3. Google Takeout link - I have mine set to download every two months
4. You will be asked to login - no idea if that triggers something with IT 
5. Select data to include - note that items in shared drives are not included. You'll need to download those materials manually
6. Close extraneous applications (this process is finicky--at least it has been for me, so give your computer less to do while it downloads)
7. Tell your computer not to go to sleep: under battery on a Mac laptop
8. Download your files one at a time. Some of them will take a WHILE
9. Some of the files need to be downloaded into the same file (before you transfer from downloads to wherever you have room for giant files). If there are two downloaded at once, e.g., one small file with the ending mbox.part and a giant file that takes a lot of time (for me half an hour, but I've been at my job for >20 years) to download ending .mbox. (btw I get it--must be mailbox. This post is for GUI people). You can move the file once it's turned into one folder. any .part file needs to be with its parent file
10. Moving your files will take a long time, too. Mine take even longer because of how my home network is configured
11. Delete files from your download folder as you go
12. Keep your machine awake (I'm not sure if that's why my mbox download failed. I hope it wasn't that the file was too big!)
13. Refresh the google page if you don't remember which file you just downloaded (please tell me it's not just me)
14. The whole thing takes me about five hours

• google
• work
• lacuny