Edmonton Public Library Employee Reviews

What is the best part of working at the company?The staff are wonderful and you are doing meaningful work for your community.What is the most stressful part about working at the company?Executive management does not care about the staff. What is the work environment and culture like at the company?Day to day operation with local branch staff is wonderful however, upper management is only focused about EPL reputation and lining their own pockets. Staff has not gotten raises for over 5 years while executives have been getting raises annually. What is a typical day like for you at the company?Customer service and community support work.

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Unpredictable schedule, low pay and demeaning management culture

Library Assistant (Former Employee) - Edmonton, AB - 2 November 2023

If you're looking for something to fill in the gap between a real career then this job might suffice for the short term as long as your cost of living is being subsidized by a parent or spouse. The attitude that this is "woman's work" and you'll be doing it for pin money lives on at EPL. You will be expected to be on your feet all day acting as a child childhood education expert, teacher, expert at every kind of tech gadget, book and movie reviewer, babysitter, crisis manager, entertainer, paramedic, bouncer, and occasionally even a literal punching bag. Unless you hold a Masters in Library Science degree you will not be treated as an adult deserving respect, and will have no opportunity for advancement past the minimal introductory wage increases and an unpredictable schedule that makes a work life balance impossible.

Pros

Often the public is very grateful for your help, student pages (high school) often have a positive experience

Cons

toxic management culture, no advancement, no cost of living pay increases, inconsistent schedule.

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This would be a great job if it were not for the disrespect

Library Assistant (Former Employee) - Edmonton, AB - 19 October 2023

The best part of working for EPL is the amazing staff, who are overworked, under appreciated, and often put in dangerous situations due to the ‘customer is always right’ attitude from upper management; even when that customer is spewing swear words or being physically aggressive (no signs about not condoning abusive behaviour here.) Be prepared to have no life outside of work, as even part time staff are expected to be available 7 days a week, 12 hours a day, with no ability to plan ahead. Don’t dare try to get another job to make up for the lack of full time positions, or try to advance your education or spend regular time with family and friends, because you won’t be available due to the horrible scheduling. Essentially staff are expected to be highly knowledgeable and skilled in an array of technology, to go above and beyond in every aspect of the job, but are treated like glorified fast food workers. I left because I’d rather be paid less and appreciated for my contributions, and have a weekend off more than once every six weeks.

Pros

Amazing coworkers

Cons

Incredibly unprofessional lack of respect from management

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Pretty good experience, some co workers weren't the greatest

Student Page (Former Employee) - Idylwylde, AB - 14 June 2023

It was pretty good overall, I just felt that I was never really very welcomed or accepted by the fellow student pages at my branch. This could differ depending on the branch though. Pay was decent, above teenager minimum wage but below adult minimum wage. Would have been nice to be paid at adult minimum wage but oh well.

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Could be a rewarding job but

Library Assistant (Former Employee) - Edmonton, AB - 10 January 2023

Will say if you can find a gokd branch, stay there. There a few good ma agers but they are few and far between. There's not a lot of job growth. You'll start in a temp position and find it hard to progress further. Work life balance isn't great. The schedule changes constantly and they'll rarely, if ever, give you a set schedule. They'll also only hire you if you have open availability but notnpay enough or give enough hours to survive. There's a lot of training but it's all from staff who've taken the training so it's mostly secondhand information. Management has a lot of buzzwords but there's no real change that gets done. Which is also jist on a corporate level. Not paid fairly for the work that is done. Some managers haven't done the work thay the library assistants do but expect us to do better or ask how we could fix situations that were out of our control. Some managers can undermine the rules to make the library assistants the bad guy and allow customers who are rude to get away with treating staff badly. Benefits only after a certain amount of hours but definitely relies on unbenefitted labour to cover staff shirtages. Management and corporate does a lot of gas lighting into making the employee think they're the problem and from a managers mouth, "EPL doesn't owe its workers anything," which goes to show what they think of their employees. I found it very had to work there as a neurodivergent person. Long story short, unless you have a library tech diploma or MLIS I'd stay away from epl.

Pros

Hour long lunches, good coworkers

Cons

Shift work, bad schedules, not benefitted, corporate mindset

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Insights into Edmonton Public Library

Based on 8 survey responses

What people like

Feeling of personal appreciation
Supportive environment
Clear sense of purpose

Great employees, disingenuous leadership.

Shared Service (Former Employee) - Edmonton, AB - 31 December 2022

I left a position I loved for a similar position at the Library. The salary benefits and the leadership promise attracted me to the Library. The staff at branches are amazing. There seems to be a disconnect between the leadership and the rest of the Library.I would describe the environment as very corporate and bureaucratic. There is more of a concern about how the public perceives the Library rather than the function of one’s actual position. The on-boarding training and the leadership promise lead you to believe it is an environment to approach leadership and that it is a flat structure. Unfortunately that is just talk.As a result, I found I couldn’t work in what I found to be an unhealthy workplace.

Pros

Salary and benefits

Cons

Not walking the talk

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Great colleagues

Library Assistant (Current Employee) - Edmonton, AB - 16 July 2022

People working at the branch level are great. The rate of pay and benefits are great, probably one of the better one I've seen.

Pros

Pay is great

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EPL Paradise

Student Page (Former Employee) - Edmonton, AB - 4 March 2021

I learned so much when I worked there. Before my days there, the Dewey Decimal System was a foreign subject to me. I picked up on it in no time. Once an elderly man asked me for help finding a book, and after getting the Dewey Decimal reference for the book, I found it in seconds. That man was so happy, he gleefully responded by saying, "Young eyes!"I met so many great people there, both customers and fellow colleagues. My supervisor was typically fair, and eventually came to realize that while I could not work at as fast a pace as my fellow Student Pages, I did my work with absolute precision. I never once got in trouble, and I really appreciated my superiors, including librarians, library technicians, management, and supervisors. There are numerous former colleagues of mine from there that I'm still friends with to this very day.

Pros

Union, Job Security, Little to no drama or workplace problems

Cons

The odd difficult customers and co-workers, smutty books and magazines

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Friendly and Fantastic

STUDENT PAGE (Former Employee) - Edmonton, AB - 27 May 2020

EPL treats their employees better than any other place I've worked at. The pay is substantial, the staff is incredibly friendly, and the work itself is rewarding and challenging. If you want a job that pushes you to do your best while giving you genuine community-driven motivation, the Edmonton Public Library is perfect for you.

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Fun workplace

Buyer (Former Employee) - Edmonton, AB - 21 February 2020

EPL doesn't pay you enough but you will learn interesting things here. You feel you are giving back to society here. that's one of the biggest positives.

Pros

work life balance

Cons

Politics

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Too hard management

Student Page (Former Employee) - Edmonton, AB - 22 January 2020

Employees who have been working for a long time treat new ones like babies. Faced a bit of racism and favouritism. Sometimes managers can be way too hard on their employees. They should also give benefits to their part time employees. People who have worked at the library before should be given preferences while hiring in the future.

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Excellent culture and co-workers

Library Assistant (Current Employee) - Edmonton, AB - 20 January 2020

It was a pleasure working at the Edmonton Public Library as it values the diversity and differences in the customers they serve; I loved getting to know and connect with the community. The people I worked with were always willing to support one another and I always felt I was accepted as part of the team very quickly.

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Fun Workplace

Volunteer (Former Employee) - 3808 139 Ave NW, Edmonton, AB T5Y 3E7 - 31 December 2019

It is not a hard job to work at, and the staff are all very good people, in the time I worked there I had no problems and everything always went smoothly.

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excellent first job

Student Page (Former Employee) - Edmonton, AB - 7 November 2019

it was a well paying job for a high schooler with four hour shifts twice a week so i could still focus on school and other activities, although you could choose to double hours in the summer which was great for some extra spending money. overall it was good, the people were nice and although the work could get boring, due to its repetitiveness, it wasn't particularly difficult and the environment made going to work enjoyable. it was also really easy to talk to the managers about any concerns i had about the job and they tried their best when scheduling to take into account personal schedules.

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Easygoing and fun time

Community Volunteer (Former Employee) - Edmonton, AB - 11 July 2019

I was not paided but the staff at the libray were super helpful and understanding. They had a very good system in place and I flet very welcomed and supported. The job was very easy and nothing about it put any pressure on the workers.

Pros

helping a kid read

Cons

volunnteer position

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Excellent place to Work

Inventory Control Te (Former Employee) - Edmonton, AB - 4 January 2019

Excellent Team Work Everybody that is involve in the process make they best to make the job go smood Excellent Management Style: You always has the opportunity to share with your direct Manager the best way the get the job done on time Life work balance: You always have the time to finish you job during the time they give you to finish it so you never have to take work at home

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Easily the best job I've had so far.

STUDENT PAGE (Former Employee) - Edmonton, AB - 7 May 2018

I worked as a Student Page in high school, and I was one of the first student pages that was trained for that branch. The staff is easygoing and friendly. Hours were pretty good, and the library was not open on holidays. There were times where customers of questionable character would come in and harass the female student pages, but they were dealt with swiftly and in some cases banned from the library. They take the security of the staff quite seriously.

Pros

Great hours and staff

Cons

Work can get pretty repetitive

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Nasty organization poor management

libraty worker (Former Employee) - Edmonton - 30 December 2017

I am a former employee who watched as the management said they valued opinions...they did not. Managers were encouraged to gossip about employees but not look at their performance reviews. Favoured got ahead others bullied till they were too stressed to stay working. Love what the library stands for though

Pros

great salary and benefits

Cons

bad managers

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Fun place to work

Customer service and teamwork (Former Employee) - Mill Woods Park, AB - 11 September 2017

EPL actually respects and loves their employees. They pay them well and get respect and hard work in return. Definitely would work here again! They also throw amazing Christmas parties!

Pros

fun positive environment

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Amazing Workplace with Awesome Coworkers

Student Page (Former Employee) - Edmonton, AB - 22 August 2017

- Really understanding supervisors who knows the stress of being a student, and works around your school schedule. -Relaxing place to work at with some interesting customers visiting all the time. -Sense of family within the workplace.

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Student Page

Student Page (Former Employee) - Edmonton, AB - 12 June 2017

It was a great job and unfortunately had to leave it for hockey. but they were very accommodating and it was a safe place to work. the supervisors were there if I needed and overall a great job.

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