In the current environment of law firm downsizing, many talented and experienced law librarians are feeling threatened as their increasing salaries and "middle management" positioning on firms' staff hierarchical graphs render them extremely desirable targets for elimination In the heat of the moment, it could become difficult to decipher even the library staff's motives, since the top position's demise appears to be the only way for them to receive the increases they perceive as necessary to achieve their own economic goals. (These are, of course, the same people the director so carefully selected, recruited and trained to ensure that the firm's research capacities would not come to a standstill while he was attending mandatory seminars to continue to hone his skills.)
And, it becomes difficult to measure the position's ongoing stability by reflecting on the actions of management peers, since the position's survival is not always in their best interests either.