Pros
Good benefits. A lot of people are proud and happy to work there, and won't leave. Some solid people that are there...keyword "some". Hard to get fired from NYPL.
Cons
Definitely some characters at this place - quirky, weird, "set in their ways", people that aren't good with people, one way or another. Also listed as a pro - but, hard to get fired from here. Great if you don't want to walk on eggshells. Bad if you see other people working here that don't deserve to be here. With that being said, the Director of my department is absolutely clueless, is not a leader of any sort, and has zero business being in the role he's been in for the last 6 or 7 years. Constantly forgets everything, has to be managed by the people under him to do his job, will not go to bat for his employees - even though he tells you that he did. More worried about maintaining his relationships with higher-level people and making himself visible than lifting up the entire department, and protecting our reputations. Comes off as an almost too nice guy to hide his faults. Hopes that people don't call him out on his mistakes and ineffectiveness - would rather crawl under a rock and hide from people. Goes out of his way to buy lunch (including buying people's friendships/approvals/praise) and take the team out for "team building", but cannot (and will not) do what he needs to do to fix internal issues to make work make sense, or build rapport with the group. Often looks to the team to make decisions, set meetings, and provide suggestions on things HE should be taking action on himself. Not even respected by anyone in his own department. Pretty sad and pathetic actually. Also a very weird dynamic between Procurement and Accounts Payable that was in place since before I got there. No one at the higher levels can explain to us how it started and why it's still the way it is. At the end of the day, this was not a place to establish a long career going forward...it's just a job. It was time to go, so I left when a better opportunity came. And the new opportunity is at a place where the Procurement department has its act together, run by a competent Director.