Part-time Scheduling Win...

Being an underemployed part-time library worker has some benefits, especially for my co-workers.  Anytime one of my them needs to swap a shift, they know that if they ask me, 9 times out of 10, I will say "sure."  I don't mind the scheduling changes, there's rarely any conflicts with my tutoring.

So when my branch manager asked if I could switch Saturdays with her, I told her go for it.  Later on in the week, the Board of Supervisors decided to make Friday, July 5th, a paid holiday which means that I get an extra long weekend, can't argue with that!

What a Difference a Branch can make...

My branch had our dreaded monthly staff meeting this week. Our new branch manager stopped by to sit in and meet every one before she officially starts which I thought was really nice. She's been with the library for awhile so I was bound to know someone who has worked with her. I got all the "dirt" on her before when I just found out she was a candidate. Good thing is, is that there is not "dirt," she's good peoples. She's coming from a bigger branch to our smaller one, a move I also made. After the general staff meeting, we broke up into departments and one of her first questions was, "Any problem patrons?" I couldn't hold back a laugh, I've seen the incident reports from her branch, it is in a sketchy area of the county. As a general comparison the median income difference is about $40,000: the median income for her branch's zip code is $25,000; our branch's is at $65,000. Our childrens librarian answered her question by going on about how some of the little children can be loud and tend to run around, but hey, there little kids. My supervisor chimed in and mentioned that it isn't the children but the parents and nannies faults. My laugh made my info coworkers look at me, and I told them upfront, "This is a nice easy branch, this is a great place to start out in or to retire from." It is a library branch with training wheels. You will get those atypical disgruntled patrons, but you will not get the extreme crazies. If the biggest patron issue of the branch is noisy little kids, you've got it pretty easy. That's my new nickname for the branch, "The Big Easy"!

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.

Management's Attempt at "Workplace Fun"

Two weeks back, 'The Office' had an episode about creating captions for Pam's drawings.  Well, the following day my branch manager sent out an email saying, "Hey, check out the picture of the baby cheetah on the break room door and write a funny caption!"  Are the two instances related --- highly.  Did the whole branch participate in the library version --- nope.

It was pretty depressing, the branch manager ended up writing her own caption a week later after no one else stepped up.  My coworker was going to write down, "Derp!"  but she never did.  My idea was to go down the LolCats route (if all else fails, resort to cat humor) and write down, "Wutz Cheez?"

In fact, if this stupid picture is still up tomorrow, I am definitely writing down my caption and I am going to make my coworker write down hers as well.

Micromanaging One Bookdrop at a Time...

First off I apologize for the crappiness of the picture, it was taken using my old Blackberry.

I used to work a holiday book drop here and there back in the day when you would get paid extra, but not anymore.  I worked this particular book drop with my then partner-in-crime.

Before this took place, all of the managers discussed the fact that two of the youngest circ staff would be working that drop. Which is pretty much the equivalent of your parents talking about if it's okay to leave you and your teenage sibling home alone for the weekend.  And then your parents finally decide that you are old enough to handle that responsibility but they ask your next door neighbors to keep an eye on you.  The library equivalent for this was that one of the librarians stopped by to finish her work.  Really??  A public librarian coming in on her paid day off to "finish work."  Yeah, I really believe that.

Reverse age discrimination is what I call it.  Who is to say that if two of the older coworkers worked it, they wouldn't have held cock fights in the middle of the info desk?  What would we have done in an empty library sans managers?  Hold a library rave?  Looking back we should have and I would have made bank on cover charges.

We never were able to get the book stack to reach the ceiling.

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!

A Children's Librarian's Word of Warning about [Public] Librarianship.

I can honestly say that at my branch, I only have one friend on the Info side.  The rest I would define as "friendly coworkers."  That's 1 out of 13.  When they found out I was going for my MLIS, they would talk about the profession with all too rosy glasses, without one negative thing to say about librarianship, particularly public librarianship.  That kind of alacrity about working the info desk at a public library makes me question their honesty.  It was like hearing someone reading the ALA website out-loud, all the so-called good and none of bad aka reality.

Luckily, there's my one info friend.  Ironically, she sits on the polar opposite on the opinion scale from her colleagues.  She has flat out told me she regrets getting her MLIS and she always ends every sentence with, "Can't say I didn't warn you," even if we weren't talking about anything library related, I guess it's just her knee-jerk reaction to constantly remind me that I am heading to library hell.  Even when I try to suggest that academic or special libraries ought to be different, she shakes her head disappointingly "no."  I guess, I'm too hard headed, but I really see myself any where BUT a public library.  *SPOILER ALERT* 10 years from now I will be chained to the Info Desk which I stared at during my time working the Circ Desk.

Like any real friend, we have decided that I should take swift action if she ever joins the Management Darkside.  She gave me these warning signs to watch out for:

1). Barking at innocent subordinates.
2). Wearing SOCKS with SANDALS -- all year round.
3). Wearing loose, baggy, ill-fitting clothing, all year round.
4). Drinking the cool aid which [library management darkside] provides on a regular basis, so to speak.
5). Being overweight, yet always being on Weight Watchers.
6). Wearing Christmas sweaters -- not Christmas-inspired sweaters, but sweaters with, say, Santa on them.
7). Having a lot of stuff with cats on it.
8). Defining a Good Day as one in which your colleagues brought in doughnuts.
9). Believing that wearing Chapstick counts as wearing makeup.
10). Working at [our branch] full time.

This was posted strictly verbatim and I think that they do serve as the perfect check list to make sure one isn't becoming a library zombie.

"You've Been Warned...."

Holiday Office Parties....

This is my Holiday office decoration.  My friend named him, "Code-E" because he likes reading barcodes--harharhar.  I ended up cannibalizing a Mr. Potato Head I found in one of my cubicle drawers, I have no idea how it ever got there.  I also found the Christmas ornament in my cubicle when I first moved in, its dated from 1998.

This past weekend I attended my girlfriend's Holiday office party, screw being P.C., let's keep it real - it was a Christmas party, with Christmas trees and Christmas songs.  It had an open bar, need I say more?

For some reason this year's party is being held at the Assistant Branch Manager's house.  Egads man, are you serious!??!  You're supposed to keep the worlds in your life separated for your personal well-being.  Work stuff stays at work, and home stuff stays at home.  The only reasons why I have had co-workers come over to mine, is because we're friends.  I don't want to "hang out" at my manager's house.  I have no idea why the big meeting room isn't good enough.

There's around 40 of us in the branch, so I'm not quite sure how we are going to fit together in any room at one given time.  I'm contemplating calling out, or I should say I have violent allergic reactions to felines, OF COURSE SHE HAS A CAT.  I would be more surprised if she didn't have one.

It's a potluck and I opted to bring in some sort of baked goods, I haven't had a chance to visit the bakery at the grocery yet.  I can't cook and I won't subject anyone to it.  I'm the dependable drinks / chips / cups / utensils / plates / napkins kind of guy, but of course the sign up sheet explicitly said that those will supplied.... Cup-Blockers!

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.

Riddle Me This...

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

You Don't Trade Your Best Player

Yesterday before I started my shift, I stood in the doorway of my Circ manager to let him know that I needed to talk to him sometime about him messing up my schedule.... Again.
And then he stood up and told me that HE needed to talk to ME about MY scheduling.  He told me to take a seat and I was completely taken aback by this because "fixing my schedule" just involved me standing next to him while he moved my hours around on the spreadsheet. 
I seriously thought he was going to fire me by the way he was speaking.  He then told me that a decision was made and that I would be transferred to another branch to help cover under-staffing.
I was relieved I still had a job, and it's only 6 weeks.  The County is going to hire a handful of the 2000+ applicants who applied for the 14 positions open.  This branch I am transferring to isn't all too far from where I live and I haven't worked there before so I'm open to the experience.
Some things I don't understand about this decision, is that my current branch is much more busier and we are already understaffed.  So my departure will be rough on my coworkers.  I also found out that someone from my first branch is also going to be transferred with me, so why me as well?
I think my P.I.C.A.W. (Partner In Crime At Work) is more affected by this decision than I am.  She looked at the daily schedules to see if we were working the desk together and if we weren't, who either one of us could switch with.  For some reason, management hasn't rarely been scheduling us to work the desk together.  I don't know why, nothing bad has happened, we do our work, we don't mess around---ageism I tell ya.
One of my coworkers compared this situation to when she was in school and a student was being sent to a different class.  The teacher would pick the brightest, smartest, best dressed student on their way, telling them to, "make a good impression."  Well, hell yea I'm the brightest and smartest.  But I think it's mostly because I am not taking any classes this semester and my availability is wide open, whatever, I'm still the best dressed.  I know I will be sorely missed not just because of my greatness but because I actually work hard and pull my own weight.
Apparently the Assistant Circ Manager felt the need to email the WHOLE branch about it, so several Info staff have talked to me about it.  Miss L first found out about it when Miss S told me that she'd miss me and Miss L turned to me and said, "You're leaving??"  Miss S pointed out that there was an email from the Assistant Circ Manager, to which Miss L replied, "Oh, I saw it was from him SO I didn't read it."  Her first question for me was if they asked me, no, they didn't ask they just did.  This instantly sent her on a rant about the mismanagement of our branch.  Too bad they didn't ask because one of my coworkers has been itching to transfer to that branch PERMANENTLY.  And I am sure she would have jumped at the chance to work there even if its for 6 weeks.  The branch manager came up to me TWICE during my shift to talk about it.  She kept going on and on about how much I will enjoy it there and they are a bunch of great people, and that the branch manager there is her friend, and that I am a great worker and I am going to make a great impression on them.  I felt like she was being facetious and in reality I am going to hate it and she knows it.  She also kept thanking me and in my head I was thinking that I didn't really have a choice in the matter.
I will be missing Halloween and the bi-annual booksale which is always fun to work, but it'll be a good distraction.  More importantly, I'll be back, they can't get rid of me that easily

Daily Scheduling 101

How in the hell did my manager become a "manager" in the first place?!?
There are 7 people working in the Circ side when we opened up this Monday morning. It was just myself and one coworker on the circ desk the first hour. Why in the world did we also have the phones out there as well when there were 5, FIVE, people in the backroom??? Not only did my coworker and I have to deal with overnight bookdrop, and assisting people at the Circ desk, but to also handle the phone calls coming into the branch was too much.

Manager Meetings...

are a great time to kick your feet up, relax, and enjoy the time you don't have to deal with them.

Got Jokes...

Question: What do you get when you have two managers working the circ desk?

Answer: Absolutely nothing done.

I don't know if the ineptitude is just centrally located at this branch alone or what. Granted that at the first library I worked at a certain manager would be talking to a friend on the phone while checking out patrons. I call that multitasking, you can call it what you what but she was still working at the desk!

Pages make the books go round

My desk is situated right in the middle of the backroom. As far as privacy goes when it comes to conversations, these cubicle walls suck. Over the past week I have heard several arguments between various pages and the 2 page managers. It all stems from the recent county wide page layoff and rehire event. The county wanted the library to cut its costs so they decided to fire all the pages at once, hold mass interviews, and only rehire half of them back at the starting wages. I'll be the first to admit that the starting page wage is very decent compared to the amount of work required, but some of these pages have worked for years and have accumulated yearly raises that rival my hourly wage. There is one page here who has been here for 17 years, 17 freaking years of sorting and shelving.

Anyways, so the rehired pages had to go through a whole interview process that tested their sorting prowess and tested their commitment to the straight shelves and spines out. They had to sign a clause saying that they will be entirely flexible to the scheduling needs of each branch that hires them. In short, they had to join the Dark Side and pledge their utter and complete allegience to the library system.

I have heard at least 2 different pages argue with the page managers over how they do not like the new scheduling procedures and another one cried because this branch was not her first choice to work at. I have overheard the page managers use the argument that, "this isn't the same job as before." The pages are still shelving and sorting the same old books like before so there's a discrepency there. Oh wait, this isn't the same job, it pays less and sucks even more now.

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