Digby, you stink!
I have started a new job, almost a month ago, but all this pope stuff was interfering with my blogging schedule. As if there was such a thing. I have moved from retail to non-profit and it was a very good choice. I'm working part-time for the Danbury library and it is a relief to say the least to not have to deal with corporate crap. It helps to be a part-time employee to avoid any possible management pain but still, non-profit is nice! The previous job started to increase pressure on employees not only to sell but also identify with corporate ideas about customers. All actual truth aside I'm always baffled how employees are instructed on how to "show" interest for the customer or how to "convey" knowledge instead of actually being asked to be interested and to know. The same goes for managers. There are a million books on how to basically fake enthusiasm for your employees so that they would believe you and be enthusiastic themselves. Yeah, because employees never catch on that you are faking it. Let's ignite the world with dishonesty and pretend-play! It always works. (Alright, so I'm bitter.)
I am working in circulation at the library, I check books in and out and give out new library cards and occasionally speak Spanish (yes!), try to decipher Portuguese and at the end rake in the millions and millions of dollars from late fees. Ahem. The other fun part of the job is dealing with all the different people. Many of them getting angry for having to pay late fees or having to have IDs to prove they are really the parents of their children (hello?). The best are the charming old ladies with latent rage issues ("... well that bank teller had her pants so low, when she turned around you could see she had a tatoo right above her butt crack! People tell me she might not realize you can see it. Well, she'll know when she gets raped in the parking lot!") - there they are in the cute hats and gloves spewing venom with a smile.
It's not a terribly exciting job per se, but it is right for me. I am allowed to chat with my coworkers if things are going slow, my boss is nice (and not faking it) and I'm surrounded by books and books and books. Seriously, I hope they let me stick around there for a long time, because this job seems to fit me very well right now. I have had so many jobs in the last 2-3 years that it almost makes me feel like a flake. I mean I had good reasons to change jobs and I'm grateful that in the US it is so extremely easy to do that (I know there is a dark side to this, I will be blogging about that... later.), but still. I can tell my patience for learning new things is decreasing. The first few weeks of a job feel so familiar now, the confusion, the boring starting up, the getting to know everybody. I feel like that's all I do every few months, start a new job. Hopefully this cycle is over for now. Don't get me wrong , I am not expecting any predictability any time soon though. Not until the child is 20 or something.
Posted at 12:36 PM on April 25, 2005
Congratulations! I have always wanted to work at a library but never could get a job at one (?!) ahhhhh, to be surrounded by books.
When I was in college, I worked at the undergraduate library in the circulation area too. It was a great job for me! I loved being surrounded by all of those books, plus we always seemed to have a bit of downtime to chat with fellow coworkers too.
Sounds like a great job :) My mom had a similar job after my sister & I reached high school... except she worked at the school library and she was full time. It was great because she was so used to yelling at us all the time and when she got the job she was getting paid to yell at other people's kids all day ;) I like to think we got in less trouble that way.