There's good reason why no one wants to be the PIC. Who wants to do want they do for the pay they get?? The only way I would consider a managerial position in the public library system would be if it was any above branch manager.
Personally, there have only been a handful of decent managers out of the 20+ I have worked with/for. My current circ managers are fun-suckers. They have pointless monthly meetings in which they huddle together in a closed office and discuss ways to make work less fun and more boring.
Case in point, the page manager is a control freak who wants every single cart to be organized HER way. Anything less and you find her stalking you in your cubicle asking if you saw her umpteenth revision of her sign on cart order. Really?? Eff that, our pages aren't that dumb and can figure this out on their own. It's not the end of the world if the Nancy Drew series was sorted before the American Girl series, they can both suck it.
Their latest concoction was the banning of putting empty book carts in peoples cubicles. Really?? This was what you took 2 hours out of the day to do? How about if the four of you actually DID WORK instead of sitting around pooping out this? There are only four sub-30 year old's in the branch and we enjoy annoying each other. I actually started this trend of jamming carts into each others cubicles. The best method is "ghost-carting" or "stealth-carting" which is to place carts in someone's cubicle while they're in them without them knowing. This is usually feasible while said person is preoccupied with G-chat or online shopping, then you call them over to look at something you found on ICanHasCheezburger (they're suckers for LOLcats) and they swivel in their chair and get startled by the mass of carts which have snuck up on them. Juvenile - yes, trivial - yes, amusing - yes, worthy of branch banning - HELL NO!
Oh yeah, try to use the carts with brakes. They add to the amusement of when your coworker with the upper body strength of a kitten, can't for the life of them push the carts out of their way.
Definitely concur. Most of the managers I have worked with fit the description of "he more lazier and incompetent you are, the higher they move you up on the already short library totem pole." It's a big reason I have little to no respect for managers and even less so for managers who whine they get no respect (that line only works for Rodney Dangerfield, and he was funny); way I see it, you took the management position, you get the heat that goes with it. Don't like it? Either show yourself to be competent, capable, and empathetic of your subordinates or quit and go back to the trenches. Otherwise, shut the eff up about the "woe is me, why do non-managers hate me?"
ReplyDeleteLove the cart thing. Too bad we do not have cubicles here. I would have loved to try it.
I'm totally putting carts in the cubicles on the third floor before the month is over.
ReplyDeleteDANCES,
ReplyDeletesounds like there should be a systematic purge of these retched library managers across the country. Maybe an elimination level could consist of a book cart demolition round.
MISFIT,
if you want to step it up, you can lay carts one on top of another to see people really struggle.