Work-Life Balance for Librarians: Avocations Informing the Vocation

Come prepared to move as three active librarians demonstrate how belly dancing, bicycling, and yoga inform their librarianship and illustrate the concept of work-life balance. As an antidote to our 24/7 plugged-in culture, these multi-generational librarians will discuss how their leisure pursuits (avocations), enhance their librarianship (vocation). Each librarian has their own interpretation of the work-life balance issue. Work-life balance involves paying attention to the mental, physical, and social aspects of life. In this session, attendees will learn how to encourage employer support for work-life balance by asking for flextime, integrating avocations into library programming, and adding off-duty activities into performance reviews. The librarians will also offer strategies in how to carve out time for non-work activities as well as how to discuss work-life balance issues with supervisors.