Passive Aggressive Behavior
2007-04-08

I received an email from a friend of mine on the left coast asking how to deal with this type of behavior. It's an unfortunate fact that this type of passive-aggressive behavior still exists in today's libraries. It must be dealt with head-on. This is just the type of attitude that leads to the cultures of perfect and no, an issue I talk about with Michael Stephens in this month's Library Journal. Here's the email my friend sent to admin about a retention policy question: Dear Mr. Williams, How long do we retain back issues of the New York Times? Thanks. Mary at Smallville Branch And this is what she got in return: Dear Mary, You'll find the answer on page 21 of the Retention Policy Manual in the System Manual, volume 4. J. Williams. What could the letter writer have said that would still have been instructional but less passive- aggressive and more friendly? Dear Mary, We keep them for 3 weeks. If you ever need this info in the future you can find it in our Retention Policy Manual in volume 4 of the System Manual. Good luck, J. Williams.