[Publib] retiring librarians

[Louise Alcorn]

Our City government is reviewing every open position to see if they can
leave it unfilled or even remove it alltogether.  This is NOT unusual in
these times.  We're already dangerously understaffed, so at this point
I'd rather folks didn't retire, even if I want to apply for their jobs
(assuming I can).  Because we might be left with one less professional
position - and we have noticably few to begin with.  We're unlikely to
get these back before 2013 or so.  

And I know of at least 2 instances - one professional, one support staff
- in a library of my acquaintance who can afford to retire in terms of
mortgage, etc., except that health care would take every dime of their
retirement within 3 years.  They have to wait until both spouses are
eligible for Medicare in a couple of years, plus buy some supplemental
to deal with special Rx's one spouse needs.  This is not a small issue.


Louise E. Alcorn
Reference Technology Librarian
West Des Moines Public Library
4000 Mills Civic Pkwy
West Des Moines IA 50265
(515) 222-3573      louise.alcorn at wdm-ia.com
http://www.wdmlibrary.org   



-----Original Message-----
From: publib-bounces at webjunction.org
[mailto:publib-bounces at webjunction.org] On Behalf Of Sharon Foster
Sent: Wednesday, November 11, 2009 1:32 PM
To: Sally Decker Smith
Cc: publib at webjunction.org
Subject: Re: [Publib] retiring librarians

That's assuming the positions will be (1) filled, and (2) filled with
another degree'd librarian, two very big assumptions.