flea, there is such a huge disparity in how libraries are operating. It really comes down to effective leadership and respect for the employees. In a library the size of yours, in a city like that, I couldn't blame you at all for saying to hell with it. Your safety and the health and well being of your family comes first.

Sticking it out for your coworkers and immediate supervisor is the kind of snare I would fall into

This is how I stayed at the BBC three years longer than I should have. When one of my co-workers was the first to quit, it gave everyone else a much needed kick in the pants to start looking elsewhere, and within a year everyone in the department had moved on and left Toxic Asshole Manager on her own.

And if I didn't get a new job I would be better positioned to hard-carry my children through whatever the 2020-2021 school year ends up being.

This is pretty huge too - if I couldn't work from home, I'd be seriously considering if my household could get by on one income.

Oh god, the only job posted in the metro area right now is for a children's librarian, a position requiring a masters degree and 3-5 years of experience. Guess how much it pays? $17 an hour. Don't go into librarianship, people.

The library market, being primarily government funded, is going to seriously suck for the next few years. Is there something else you could do, at least part-time, to help cover bills and still be there for your kids?

Toddson, you're giving me flashbacks!

Just as I was moving six years ago this week about ten square feet of my oft-patched living room ceiling wound up on my living room floor. My Super was apologetically taking photos at the landlord's request and we joked about my long-game... how I'd managed to sneak upstairs for ten years and spill water on the floor

Hang in there - you're in the home stretch.

a position requiring a masters degree and 3-5 years of experience. Guess how much it pays? $17 an hour

That is appalling

That IS appalling.

Also it's admitting I've failed. I should be able to just not care about stupid decision making and disrespect.

And that is not failure!

flea, you're in a brutal situation because it doesn't sound like there is another job out there you just have to find. But it may still be worthwhile to quit this one.

flea, that sucks. Work is a huge chunk of most people's lives, so having it be unpleasant is definitely a burden.

When I was in non-profit work, we had a number of people with MLS degrees in Knowledge Management positions. If you'd be open to it, you could consider broadening your search for something like that.

Do you have any interest in contact tracing? Not that it would pay well either.

I'm inclined to side with the people who say start the job search now and hold up for a bit on the resigning (though just knowing you can when you finally decide to is a little freeing), because things are changing or going to change -- so much depends on the next couple months with Captain Trumps (you could get furloughed again!), they could lay off the library staff because of budget cuts and then you DO get Unemployment, and then after the election we could have a sane responsible President which will make many things seem less stressful.

OTOH, I'm not the one who is ready to cry after a day's work of getting disrespected and ordered into the epidemic equivalent of going over the top into a hail of machine gun fire.

You will have my respect no matter what choices you make.