I'd make a horrible "Library Yes-Man"...

I am on the verge of declaring an all out war on the administration in my library system.  They are taking the library I love and running it into the ground.  The sad thing is, is that it seems that I am the only one against their plans.  Well, until recently.  I made two open comments posted on our internal blog directly questioning our library director's motives and reasoning.

After the second comment, my coworkers wanted me to check my voice messages because they wanted to see if I got a call from the director.  I learned after leaving my first comment, that trying to talk to the director would only end in a never-ending game of phone tag.  It seems that my second comment is actually getting a reaction from the rest of my coworkers at other branches.  They seem to be in agreement with my statements and I hope that this will lead to some changes.  No matter what I post on this blog, no matter what some readers may infer from my posts, I love the library and I will fight for the it and librarianship.

I posted the comment using my log in so my name was posted with it.  The first two responses that followed were made anonymously from others working at two different branches.  I can understand why people would be hesitate to post their opinions under their own names, they have become "institutionalized."  They've been working in the library system for too long and/or they're worried about retaliation from admin.  Quite frankly, I've had enough of it.  Libraries have been screwed over enough by outside powers, I'm not going to sit around complacently while library upper management does the same to us.

I'm fairly certain that I have been blacklisted by upper management and HR so I honestly do not care about burning bridges.  In fact, when my library friends warned me to "not burn bridges," I could only reply with, "What does it matter if that bridge doesn't lead anywhere?"

Tax Season @ The Library = HELL

Tax season is the worst, I consider it right up there with election season.  But I know who at the library does love it, library management.  They are not the ones on the front lines fielding nonstop questions, which some can be considered to be borderline aggressive interrogations: "Do you have any tax forms?" "Why don't you have any?" "What's taking so long?" "Well, do you know when they're coming in?" "Why not??"

Management gets to avoid all the annoying once a year patrons while watching their PRECIOUS door count statistics go up.  I'm okay with dealing with these patrons, most of the time.  It's the self-righteous ones who pull the, "I'm a tax-paying citizen" card and get all up-in-arms when they don't get what they want.  The minute I see them turn, I do an internal eye-roll and tell myself, "here we go again."

I can manage to deflect their misguided anger by either agreeing with them: "Yeah, tell me about it, it's ridiculous!"  Or I give them the option to actually bitch to/at the right person: "Would you like me to find you the contact information for the IRS?"  And that shuts down their attack because they never call my bluff to actually take the time to contact the right department.  It is just too easy for them to take it out on the lowly library worker who tells them there aren't any forms and quite honestly, they don't pay me enough for that.

The Library Job Market is Sh#t

First off can I just say that in general I do not swear, it's good practice when you work with the public.  But seriously, F*CK LIBRARY MANAGEMENT and all its political BULLSH$T.

I know of 4 different people who have recently applied and interviewed for 4 different positions at 3 different library systems.  Just to make it to the interview process is a ray of hope.  I know that the job market in general is "tough" but more so in the library world.  The positions are scant and becoming rarer, and the pool of candidates is overflowing.  Libraries looking to hire can post a position and be inundated with applications within a few days.  Not all of the applicants will be qualified but the libraries are in a position to say, "Jump" leaving applicants asking, "How high?"  Libraries are using and abusing this leverage to get applicants to jump through inane hoops in the mindset that by making interviewees go through the whole dog and pony show ("cat and pony" more appropriate for a library setting?), that the best qualified ones will rise to the top. 

Now, out of these four individuals that I personally know, not a one of them received word that they didn't get the position. Naturally as time wore on, their hope died a little bit each day.  This shouldn't have been the case, maybe those in the hiring decision process never had to personally go through the dread of waiting to hear back themselves.  So let me break it down to you, it's like ripping off a band-aid, do it quickly and the pain doesn't last as long compared to the slow deliberate method.

 Cut the BS, learn how to ask the right questions, contact references and learn to ask them the right questions, learn how to conduct better interviews and for crying out loud: let people know if they don't get the position.

It's the least you could do instead of dragging these people and their hopes along.  How hard is it to send a freaking email nowadays???  If people announce critical life moments in their Facebook statuses, and break-up through texts, you can take the time to send an email.  Hell, even a canned, "copypasta" one would do.  Here, I'll do it for you:

Hello [Insert Applicant's Name],

We at [Insert Library System Name] would like to thank you for taking the time and effort to apply and interview for the [Enter Position Name] position.  I am sending this email to inform you that we have chosen to select a candidate whom we feel is a better match for the position.

Thank you again for your time, good luck in your future endeavors.

Sincerely,

[Insert Name]

You're welcome.  

The Biddies: Library's Good Ol' Boys

Not to be confused with Bitties.

Every long standing organization has an exclusive network of members, better known as Good Ol' Boys.  The Library is a woman’s world, there is no denying it and it will stay this way to the end when these myopic librarians run the field into the ground.  Within the few levels of the public library hierarchy, there, not-surprisingly, exists a network of these women who have banded together and only look out for “their kind.”  

I always knew how clique-y my library coworkers were when I first started out as a page.  You can see them huddled together, whispering about coworkers at the desk and in the backroom.  I never had the proper word for them until my friend mentioned one of her older coworkers refer to them as “the biddies.”  Brilliant.

In order to "be down" with The Biddies you have to look like them, whether in physical appearance or dress.  You have to act like them, think like them, manage like them, and talk just like them.  Something I don't find easy to do when I see them mismanaging left and right.  You have to play by their rules even if they don't make any sense at all.  It's their way or the highway. 

Within the library system, there is not much room for any employee movement, vertical or horizontal.  If it isn't bad enough that one can't work their way into a management position, you could be stuck at one of these mismanaged branches with no choices but to suck it up and stay or leave the system in the hopes for greener pastures.  Nowadays, when a position opens up, there are a lot more applicants than ever before.  That is if your resume even gets any consideration in the first place.  Even when positions are only open to current library staff, you can still get screwed over by the biddies.  As the saying goes, it’s not about what you know, but who you know.

The Biddy Network has done nothing but erode staff moral throughout all the branches.  Two employees apply for the same promotion, both currently work the same position and have similar education and experience, but only one is forwarded to interview because the other is deemed, "unqualified."  An employee jumps from being a page to a circ manager when other better qualified circ people applied as well.  If this only occurred once or twice, I would chalk it up to a poor pool of candidates, but this happens every single damn time a position opens up, no matter what level it is.  I could go on and on with examples I've collected during my time at the library.

Even when your name gets forwarded for a position and you set up your interview you can't help but feel it's a waste of time.  Management already knows who they want for the position, but because of requirements/laws, they have to hold interviews all under the pretenses of "fairness."  Sitting at the end of the table as an interviewee it feels very patronizing.  I feel like cutting through all the BS and saying, "Let's keep it real, you already have someone in mind for this position and it isn't me.  So you go on and stamp your form, sonny, and stop wasting my time."  Sure, I could turn down the interview to begin with, but that would just give the biddies further reason to blacklist me from the beginning of the hiring process: "Bibliotecher - doesn't show any motivation."  I falsely tell coworkers who ask how the interview went that, "it was good for experience."

You don't have to be someone who doesn't follow rules or is a complete pain to work with in order to be blacklisted by the biddies.  One of my old coworkers would repeated get turned down for positions, while those around her would move up.  She's smart and a hard-worker, something that never gets any recognition.  She just isn't a carbon copy of what the biddies look for.  They are very judgmental and narrow-minded; you could describe them as xenophobic.

The way the biddies run everything it can be considered organizational inbreeding.  Hiring and promoting more "yes-people" to appease their group ego or whatever their delusional motive is.  Because libraries have been run like this for so long, they are constantly fighting for relevance, for the institution as a whole and the profession.  If libraries actually let in and promoted capable people who "think differently" they would realize how complementary it would be to their mission.

Diversity breeds stability...

Thank goodness the ALA president has no real power or authority...

Flawless Logic

In between the lulls from answering questions at the Info desk ("Where are the bathrooms?"), I spend a lot of time browsing the interwebz.  I try to keep it library related lest Johnny Taxpayer see me browsing electronic websites and complain about their tax dollars being wasted.  There really aren't a lot of interesting library related websites out there, at least not enough to quench my ennui, so I read even the "boring" stuff.  That is how I came across the Library Journal interview with the ALA presidential candidates.

What disturbed me the most was Gina Millsap's response to the question regarding paralibrarians damaging the elite and pristine status of the Almighty MLIS of which was blessed to be accredited by the infallible ALA.  Okay, so that's not completely verbatim but I could read the underlying tone the question was trying to evoke.

She says, "There are more MLIS graduates than there are entry-level positions, but we’re having trouble finding managers and library administrators who are really qualified." 

Okay, first thought, why is there such a dearth of qualified librarians if the supply is so high?  Would it be because current managers did not do a good job, or any for that matter, of training and nurturing their potential successors?

She ends her answer with:  "I think we are going to have MLS librarians moving right into management from their studies, especially as we boomers retire.

How do you prepare a librarian to be a manager if that is their first job? 

There are library schools working on this, but part of it can only come from experience, or from a practicum. 

LIS programs will have to provide more opportunities for MLIS students to work with administrators and managers."

WTF lady!?!?  Thanks for giving the middle finger to every librarian out there who "is stuck" at a Librarian I position or the countless other underemployed and unemployed MLIS holders.  Do you know what this is?  This is a clear symptom of Library Management Syndrome.  It is a sign of the complete and utter lack of touch management has with branch employees. 

If  my current supervisor was replaced with someone right out of library school I would go ape-ish.  Forget Going Postal, I'm "Going Biblio": I'm kicking over book carts, jamming all the public printers and copiers, I'm going to circulate the Reference collection, hell, I'm going to tear down every single one of those damn Kitten Calenders in the backroom!  

You have to be crazy to think that just because someone with no library work experience, who just "earned" an MLIS, must mean that they can go from the classroom to the Info Desk successfully, let alone one with a II or III at the end of their title.  You are just the visionary role-model the world's biggest library association needs!  If this position had any real authority what-so-ever, you would see me on the next episode of "Doomsday Preppers."

Yet another example of how current and past librarians are screwing over the profession and field in general.  YOU LIBRARIANS WILL BE THE REASON FOR LIBRARY EXTINCTION!  My friend is going through this right now.  She has been in the library system as a Librarian I for about 5 years now, she's put in her time and hard work.  She's joined numerous committees (not like there's any shortage of them to join but still), she has taken the training and shown the initiative to lead.  And it has all been for naught, she is now looking out of the system, out of the region for a chance to climb the library managerial ranks.  She isn't the power thirsty/power trip type either.  Do libraries not care about succession plans for employees and managers?  It will be the library's loss when she leaves and they'll end up hiring Jane Greenhorn as a branch manager.  You know they don't teach you how to handle "special patrons" in library school.

How about this, now this is just me spit-balling here, brainstorming, you know, using my BRAIN/COMMON SENSE, how about instead of having LIS schools attempting (wasting time) to train students for these managerial positions, the library, you know, take a serious look at the current supply of able-bodied MLIS holders who already have library experience.  Crazy sounding, I know, some might even call it revolutionary, put a pin in that.

Beware the Ides of March.

Last month my supervisor told me that she would be leaving the Library at the end of April. She had mentioned about wanting to leave before, but I never expected her departure to be this soon.  Honestly, I was hoping to have found a full time librarian job before she left.

There are 5 people who are interested in her position and through my meager inter-branch networking, I have 2 names.  I just hope that whomever replaces her is just as great a supervisor as she is.  She is the best supervisor I have had while in the library system.  She's young, she's into technology, she has excellent people skills, she's very intelligent and has a high emotional intelligence.  The Library is doing a horrible job of preparing/nurturing/encouraging current employees for succession into management positions. 

Libraries are HORRIBLE when it comes to planning for the future.  If public libraries ever go the way of the dinosaur, the giant asteroid would be the librarians at the helm.

Facebook is the Devil.

I would be the first to admit that I'm no marketing-guru, but when I saw that the library marketing department sent these out to all the branches I had a "WTH" look on my face.  I feel their efforts and resources would have been better spent on creating handouts for e-readers.  This happened after my supervisor tells me that my home-brewed, in-branch Kindle handouts are verboten because they did not go through the proper channels of upper management to get their golden seal of approval.  The library marketing department will FINALLY work on updating the e-book/e-reader handouts but only after the "handout committee" (yes, there's now a committee for that!) decides what they should say.

Thankfully, I've saved the handout on my computer and can print them whenever I feel like it.  Who knows how long it will take the committee to actually do something.  I'll just keep a couple under my sweater and whisper to patrons, "Pssst, hey, I heard you got a new Kindle.  I've got something for you."

Hate to sound like a hipster (which I am completely not), but I was the few who were on FB when they only allowed those with .EDU email addresses to sign up.  Remember those good old days??  Then they let the Myspace riff raff in and it all went to hell.  I deleted my real account awhile ago, I still have one because now it is the only way to get coupons for some deals. 

I have despised FB for quite some time now; I was always anti-social on it.  Now it's "Like Us" this and "Like Us" that.  I just do not trust them with any information.  Librarians get all up in arms about the OverDrive and Amazon connection, but who cares if Amazon knows what you're reading?  Undoubtedly, most Kindle readers already buy from Amazon so it isn't some big conspiracy about what they know about users.  What about all the information FB has on its users and sells on the regular?  But the library doesn't want to warn patrons about that because patrons wouldn't have any reason to come into the library and use the internet PC's, gotta keep those usage stats high!

I remember seeing a flow chart in regards to Web 2.0 commenting and library websites.  I wish I saved it because it was pretty amusing.  It seems that a lot of libraries jumped on the bandwagon just because it is the in thing.  Just having a Facebook account for the sake of having one is worse than not having one at all.  All I can say is, is that if you need an explanation of what a "troll" is then maybe you shouldn't be the one to run your library's blog or moderate the comment sections.  Personally, I think it is a waste of time and resources for the library to moderate it's own website, several blogs, Flickr account, YouTube account, Twitter account, and FB account.  Maybe I wouldn't have such a problem with the library's attempts at FB  if this was more of a secondary source of patron interaction.  The library has a website of it's own that most patrons visit regularly, what happened to using it fully?  The library needs to be more independent and not rely on a FOR-PROFIT(ahem, Evil OverDrive) for patron interactions.  If only the library would stop being such a needy stat-whore/online popularity contestant and stop worrying about the amount of "Likes" and "Followers" it has.

How to make Library Staff Meetings even more dreadful...

"How can staff meetings get any worse?" you ask, well I'll tell you how!   
TL;DR You spend the majority of meeting time on a complaint from an irrational patron who disrespects staff.

When our branch manager handed out the meeting's itinerary (exhibit 14.a example of Librarians hate trees), there was a collective sigh/grunt of disappointment by the circ staff.  The info side showed no response.  What was circ having a fit over, well it was over the printed email complaint from the devil spawn patron.  This guy is the epitome of an a-hole patron.

The gist of his email complains about how the circ staff comes over to help when he's FAILING at the self-checkout.  He finds it "discourteous and disrespectful," I've witnessed first-hand his blowing up when someone points out that he has miscanned an item and he didn't notice, patrons never notice, they just continue scanning and wonder why only 1 out of their 8 items checked out.  He goes on to mention having "a couple of very pointed exchanges with staff about it."  Pointed - yes.  Exchanges - not really when it's all one-way with him talking down to staff.  He suggests a "refresher in courtesy" for staff and he's upset that "some taxpayers (and their small children) are treated more courteously than others." One Rules of Circulation which I have not delved into --- When a patron refers to themselves or other patrons as "taxpayers" it is accompanied with a complaint.  He goes on to say that if staff was trained this way "I will just shut up and stop re-training them." 

He has blown up on 5 different circ staff, two of which are managers so it's not like he's always being "helped/disrespected" by a disgruntled staff member which do not exist at my branch.  There is nearly a total of 25 years of library experience among his victims so it is not as if they are still tyros of the circ desk.

The branch manager broke us up into 3 groups, I was with two of my info friends and unfortunately the assistant branch manager was also in our group which is like having a group project with the teacher's pet --- no fun to be had.  Although she has also witnessed one of his "retraining sessions" and acknowledges he is an ass.  We spent over a freaking hour on this douche patron.  We were asked to answer three questions: "What does this customer dislike?" --- LIFE  "What is he asking for?" --- A position as circ manager to train us  "Can we accommodate him?" --- Does restraining from punching him in the face whenever he disrespects my coworkers count?

It was a complete waste of time.  Of course management kept saying, "We're not saying that you aren't doing your jobs properly."  Really?  Well their assuming this is a rational patron who has a rational complaint is implying that we don't know how to do our jobs, a monkey could do circ work and monkeys are also known to throw feces... hold on, I think I'm on to something here.

Management Memo of the Week...

This week's management memo has to deal with our County issued ID badges.

Apparently, it is advised that we do not wear them while we aren't at work.  It goes on to state (indirectly) that the public is stupid, and that they might think we are on official county business while shopping.  You don't want to be stopped in the produce aisle and to be asked where the restrooms are, do you?

Once I walk out of the exit at work, the first thing I do is take off my ID badge.  I assume my coworkers do not do the same hence the reason for this e-nag.  Who wants to broadcast where they work anyways?  A workplace "name tag" is a 'Dealbreaker' anyways.  Until I can use my library ID badge to get a discount at the kabob place next door, you won't see me sporting it after my shifts.

Politics, Religion... and now Weather.

This week's recurring theme will be about library mismanagement, I can't help it that they're so incompetent.  The branch manager sent out an email yesterday stating that it is now verboten to speak of weather/weather reports/anything weather related with patrons.  Too bad that's all patrons ever talk about when I interact with them: "Be careful out there it's slippery!" "Make sure you have some sunblock, it's sunny!"

Their reasoning:
1. We are not meteorologists, for crying out loud, meteorologists aren't even meteorologists, they're always wrong and on the off chance they're correct, they become braggadocios (more like braggadouches) about, "We told you so!"  Okay, let me stop this off tangent and refocus my rant.
2. There are other "authorities" who are more accurate than us, again with the meteorologists, sheesh.
3. "We don't want to pass on opinions without documenting sources," seriously, do you want MLA or APA with your weather forecast?
4. We can always "thank customers for sharing what they've heard," but we should not "engage them in dueling reports."  --- Bibliotecher to Patron: I'll see your snow shower and raise you a THUNDERSNOW!

I'm not a dick who can't handle authority, but I'll buck the system if I, usually validated by my coworkers, deem any said rules to be outlandish and impractical.  Screw it, when I go in tonight, I'm talking non-stop weather.  I'm telling all the patrons that there's a 95% chance of Tropic Thunder and I would know because I'm a lead farmer MFer!

Library Mismanagment --- Starts at the Top!

Library management sucks, from the Page Manager all the way to the Director.  It is mismanaged to hell.  There is no better proof than the events of last Wednesday. 

Schools were closed, libraries were open.... shocker.  We had a circ meeting so EVERYONE was scheduled to work, only one person called out.  Some coworkers called her out during the meeting, saying that, "certain people call out, because they can."  Karma came back to them when it took them 6.5 hours to travel less than 10 miles home that evening, oh and the power was out too.

Library management decided to close early at 6 but then realized they effed up and changed it to 5.  They made their oh-so-benevolent decision at 4:53.  The following day, you would think that they would cut the library some slack, nope, not even a 2 hour delayed opening and of course schools were closed again.  If that wasn't a kick in the balls already, NONE of the parking lots or walkways were cleared.  So my county wide coworkers got stuck in the parking lot, ON THEIR WAY IN.

So what lesson did I learn from this ordeal, besides the fact that "Thunder Snow" is real --- that a Library Media Specialist position looks like a viable option.  I wrote this on a coworkers windshield on my way out, but I'm fairly certain that by the time they left it was already snowed over.

Library Backroom Duties: Lost and Never to Be Found...

Everyone that works circ or info has backroom duties, these are what you would call "off the desk busywork."  For info it usually involves weeding irrelevant books on cosmetology published in the 60's or reapplying Dewey spine labels that some brats have pulled off.  For circ it is usually related to charging patrons account for damaged books they claimed were like that when they borrowed them.

With budget cuts the saying is, "Doing More With Less," well, eff that.  It seems like it is, management does less by making the everyone else do more.  My backroom duty was running the lists for books that have gone MIA, whether they were lost due to patrons or the library's fault.  There are several lists each week and I am the only one who works on them so it keeps me busy when I'm not people watching at the circ desk.

Recently, I was given two more tasks: Lost and Found and ILL's.  Both of which were duties that managers held.  Of course, these managers did not get any new duties added to their plate.  Why a circ person would be placed in charge of ILL's I have no idea, I guess no one on info wanted that one.  I mean, who wants to be bothered by patrons wondering why their ILL: Fiddlercrabs of the World, has not yet come in after only one week of requesting it.  Never mind the fact that this book is available at a reciprocal library system and that the patron is too lazy to drive the extra 5 miles to register for a library card with that system and borrow it directly.

Items placed in the Lost and Found can be utterly disgusting sometimes.  You would think my coworkers would have better discretion on what to place in the box and what to throw away.  Then again, these are people who have more than a decade of experience, but turn to me the instant they run into the slightest issue with a patron.  That's a whole other rant on its own.

Some things are just never meant to be picked up.  A patron never picked up the bill from her OB GYN, it sat in the Lost and Found bin for 5 months before I ended up shredding it.  Yeah, that was fun trying to tactfully write an email to her, letting her know it was found.  Another patron never came by to pick up their bill for a lawyer to review their shoplifting case which involved viewing footage from a security camera from a department store.

After a month, items are up for grabs to staff.  There really has not been anything of interest or value.  My collection of flash drives is growing weekly.  I format each drive and clean them from whatever viruses/malware patrons end up collecting from the public PCs and I bring them back to work for my coworkers to use.

There is also a lot of clothes that are never picked up either.  I don't know how patrons forget their winter jackets when they walk out in near freezing weather.  Thankfully there is a clothing donation box at the end of the parking lot so I don't have to go too far to make my monthly drop off.

Library Management

From the people I know in the library system, the vast majority do not want to assume any managerial positions.  Unfortunately those that do, lack any of the necessary skills to be a successful one.  It seems as though the more lazier and incompetent you are, the higher they move you up on the already short library totem pole.

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.

For Shame... Damn You Stereotypical Librarians...

I received a link to this video today from management.  I really am unsure if I should even post it because it would only encourage more horribleness.  *sigh*  I really do not want to be an enabler of librarian lameness but this has got to stop.  Don't these people have books to weed or something?  These videos are so damn cheesy it makes my stomach turn.

You know what else makes my stomach turn --- bookcart drill teams.  The first one I only witnessed in person was at this summer's past ALA Convention and it made me want to run out and ask for the last 10 minutes of my life back.  I solely blame it on the generation gap between the soon-to-be outgoing librarians and all of the young-in's just getting their feet wet.

This leads me no choice but to lead a Librarian Revolution and bring drastic sweeping changes to the entire profession, and whack videos like this will be the first to go.

Don't get me wrong, I love (most of) my (older) coworkers, but I in no way approve of this hot mess.

By the way, what the hell is library management doing sharing YouTube videos during work, oh that's right, you only move up the more inept you are and bonus points for not actually doing any real work.

Bizzaro Patron

It happens every now and then. You encounter a patron who goes against the grain, someone who temporarily restores your faith that patrons, in general, are honest.
Hold on to that memory because it only lasts for a fleeting moment until you deal with a "regular" patron who claims that they returned all their materials on time and says that they will not pay any fees.
A young mother brought in a return she damaged and a new replacement book. She did this all on her own volition. When I looked at the damaged item I couldn't see anything that would warrant a replacement. She said that the bottom of the book got wet when she was at the beach, but all I could see was minor fading on the cover. I told her that it was still in good condition and that the replacement was unnecessary. She was very insistent and even asked if I should consult a manager. Now that was just insulting! She should know that library managers earned their position for being good at doing nothing.

Trick-ed and mis-Treated

I knew it was a bad sign 2 weeks ago when one of the circ managers pulled up a chair next to me while I was working the phones.  The first thing she said was, "Have you heard already?"  To be honest, I didn't really hear directly that my stay was being extended another pay period, but I already heard that they told the other circ aide about her extended stay.

Just as I was counting down the days to my return to my regular branch, they screw up my calender.  I can only suck it up, at least it's not as bad as what they did to a third circ aide they "borrowed."  Her two pay period stay turned into a THREE month stay.  Whenever I was working the circ desk with her, she would regularly vent to me about how they really did need to borrow staff from other branches.  I did agree with her to some extent, the managers could have better scheduled the staff they have, until the new hires come in.

Now, I have a new variation to the phrase "Same ish, different day,"

"Same ish, different branch"

Riddle Me This...

There are 4 Circ side managers scheduled today, but only 4 hours of circ desk scheduled between them all -- wth...

Joined the Darkside

Within a month of transferring to my current branch they hired a somewhat young person to join the ranks of management. I say "somewhat young" because after the 4 of us who are in our 20's, she's the median between "us" and the next closest staff member in age. She can relate to the younger crowd but she can also relate to the rest. It was cool to think that the younger ones had someone on the inside of management who could let's our woes be heard.
Well that plan didn't last long. She's fully developed what my coworker calls, "Management Syndrome." She was probably brainwashed during the monthly Circ manager meetings. While branch, circ, and info meetings have been cut to once every other month, circ management has deemed it necessary to continue to meet every month. No one has any idea what they actually do during them, but I believe they use those 2 hours to get away from annoying patrons and the stress they bring.