It seems unlikely the new year will provide much relief from higher-than-usual staff absences.
Covid-19 has not gone away as many might like to pretend. Rather, it continues to strike down workers, some repeatedly.
There may be little respite from other illnesses too, with predictions the country can expect excessive winter illness as being experienced in the northern hemisphere now.
There is also the spectre of an imported measles outbreak now the borders are open, something we are ill-prepared for given the failure of the 2020 measles vaccination catch-up campaign.
There will be no easy answers for workplaces which may have to face these issues. Some might have to restrict what they can offer to the public, as Dunedin’s public buses did.
What will be important is that all in workplaces work together to find ways around issues that arise.
That is not what seems to have been happening at Dunedin Public Libraries where overworked staff have not felt anyone has been listening to concerns about dangerous understaffing.
It seems incongruous library staff, whose lifeblood is communicating on all manner of subjects, should feel they had to resort to a video to make themselves heard (and seen) by management.
Among their concerns was the lack of coverage at evenings and weekends which left staff feeling unsafe and potentially could put public safety at risk.
In common with some other places including supermarkets, library staff say they have been experiencing increasing abuse and threatening behaviour from members of the public in the last couple of years.
It is not good enough for this situation to remain unresolved months after it was first raised, and for a review looking at how to reduce pressure on staff and better set up the service in future to be dragging on, when it had been expected by Christmas.
It is concerning short-staffing has already resulted in some floor closures in the central library as well as community library closures.
A council spokesman has said it is not envisaged the review will lead to job cuts. We would hope not.
Our libraries are widely used and much loved. More than 100,000 of Dunedin’s 130,000 population are library members.
According to outgoing library services manager Bernie Hawke, about half of members have used their card to borrow in the past two years.
The importance of libraries to communities should not be underestimated.
As the Dunedin City Council’s corporate and quality general manager Robert West says, they play an important role in education, literacy, civic participation and building communities.
Those roles and the haven the libraries provide become even more important in hard times, and this year is shaping up to be a difficult one for many households as inflation and rising housing costs put pressure on budgets.
In such a climate, those reviewing the libraries’ operation and its funding need to remember what Allie Morgan said in her recent memoir The Librarian: "Ultimately, libraries require money from those who need them least, to help those who need them most".
While she was writing about her experience in the United Kingdom, what she says holds true here.
"The day when local libraries are no longer needed is the same day that every person can access every story, every reference and every form of education for free," she said.
"Until that far-off day, libraries exist to even the playing field. They are the repository and dispensary of a community’s knowledge."
She describes libraries as "the brain and beating heart of the community, as necessary as air".
Ensuring that brain and beating heart have a reliable oxygen supply in the form of adequate and safe staffing, and soon, is essential.
