Pros
Unionized; Comfortable indoor work; Good combo of sedentary and active work; Access to latest books & media; Vibrant community; Management gives each employee front desk and back room work so there's a balance between the more social front desk and the quiet calm back room
Kontras
It can be a lot if you aren't very extroverted; It's a bit of an old-school work environment in regards to respectability politics; Some of the other employees are closeted bigots; The management has a union just like the lower-tier workers and they seem to choose people to employ who might not be so inclined to participate in the Union because they are at odds--they keep bonuses among themselves in management; They seem to be turning the first floor of the downtown branch into a processing hub for the whole system and it impacts customer service (because of the previously mentioned bigotry about our most frequent members, residents of the Downtown Lansing community); There's a 6 month review period where the Union can't protect the new employee and Management uses that window to sort people out who might be quality Union members and/or who they don't personally like. They're low-key transphobic (I'm trans and I waited a month or so to come out to a few people who work there--which I only did because they were talking about a trans person who works on 2nd floor--and I'm pretty sure they told other people because another long-time worker at this branch started to treat me with hostility around this time)--I think they decided the transphobic current employees transphobia is more worth protecting than improving.