Book Companion:

Library and Information Center Management,
Seventh Edition

Differential Treatment?

As Robert walked into the library for the evening shift, he had a feeling that this was going to be another one of those evenings. Robert worked as a paraprofessional at the Information Desk at Fairmead Library, a medium-sized public library. Recently, his manager had left for a better job out west and Ms. Regina Price had replaced him. Ever since, Robert had gotten the feeling that his job was in danger.

Robert did not think that he was the best library employee Fairmead had ever seen. After all, this was his second job and he often came in tired after spending all day working in the accounting office at the hospital - but despite this, he enjoyed his library job and especially getting to interact with people after a long day shut up in his office alone. He had even suggested some changes to the way the library handled their cash transactions, giving the library the benefit of his long years of accounting experience and volunteering to train staff in the new methods.

But even that had caused the latest in a string of conflicts with Ms. Price. On a fairly slow Saturday, Robert had attempted to teach one of the newer staff members the new cash procedure and Ms. Price had sent word - through another employee - that he was to stop immediately, that he was distracting patrons. This had made Robert's blood boil: How dare she interfere with training that had to be done? And to humiliate him by sending an order through another employee?

She had been practicing this guerrilla warfare nearly since she had started her job three months prior. She would sit nearby while he worked at the desk, but never talk to him the way she did with the other employees. She would send email messages reminding him to do routine tasks that he had never failed to do, but not to the other employees she supervised - he had checked. Today she had taped a large message written in bold red ink to his computer monitor: "Robert - You MUST ask permission before submitting a request for vacation. See me. RP". Robert sighed as he put down his belongings. Since when did employees have to ask permission to ask permission to take off? Just last week Margaret had given 24 hours oral notice before taking off for the beach. It was really starting to seem as though Robert had become Ms. Price's scapegoat. He could do nothing right while the women he worked with could do nothing wrong.

At first, the idea that Ms. Price might have a problem with his gender had been the furthest from his mind. Robert had gotten used to the idea that he was one of the only men working at the library, and so had gotten out of the habit of thinking of himself as different. However, Robert had noticed that Ms. Price acted very differently to male patrons at the Reference Desk than to females. With women, she was very welcoming and accommodating, even anticipating requests and fulfilling them. But with men, her demeanor became cold and she seemed to answer the questions asked with as little elaboration as possible. After noticing this, Robert started to wonder whether her behavior to him was an extension of this apparent antipathy.

As he emailed a reply to Ms. Price, Robert reflected she might fault him because he had not seen her in person, although she had not waited for him to arrive. He worried that she was building a case for his termination and wondered what he should do about the situation.

Is Robert the victim of sexual harassment? What can be done to lessen the possibility of such conduct?

Case written by Sarah Hays, UNC Chapel Hill SILS graduate