Friday, September 23, 2005

On my mind....

I'll just get right to it...

1) I don't know how I can describe how mad I was yesterday at work. When I have an opinion on policies and procedures at the library, I usually voice them to my supervisor. He doesn't mind me ranting when I'm upset with patrons, other workers, and the management of the library. I don't normally voice my opinion to others. Why? Most of the people at work (upper management) already have their minds made up. Voicing your opinion does not matter. Whatever you say is going into one ear and other the other. No matter if they request an opinion. No matter the tone in their voice seems genuine. It's a bunch of shit they present. Do they think I'm stupid? Do they really think I don't know how their sugar coated words really are? I don't give my opinion for that reason.

Then what was I thinking when I voiced a concern at lunch. The head director of the library and the library's public realtions personel started making comments about the previous meeting they were in. The meeting consisted of upper management, and head library supervisors. I'm just a lowly reference librarian who obviously knows squat about working in the library. (I really don't, but from how upper management acts towards us lowly people, you'd think we were stupid.)

So the director and P.R. person (which if you met her you would wonder why she's in P.R. she seems mean to me) start loudly complaining about the meeting. In particular, they talked about good customer service. I take great fucking offense to what people say about customer service in a library when those preaching about customer service NEVER interact with the people who come to the library. NEVER. I would really like for those two individuals to work the reference desk for a day. In particular, the after school crowd. I've mentioned before the library where I work is a loud library (I think I've mentioned it). We try to keep the noise level down. Our library is very busy, and many of our patrons have a loud talking voice.

We have grumpy patrons that will never be satisfied. They complain about everything. To us. As if we are suppose to do something about it.

"I'm sorry sir, I can't change the color of the sky." Fucking deal with it.

No one has ever asked for that, but librarians cannot bend over backwards to do everything. As the director and P.R. person where talking, I kept getting the vivid image of librarians turning into doormat.

"Yes, I don't get walked over enough. Please stomp next time, to get your load of shit on me. Yes, that's more like it."

We have a regular patron who I refer to as "Grumpy old man." He thinks he knows it all. When he asks for help, he tells us how to look up information. Which websites to look up.

"Listen grumpy asshole, don't ask me for help if you can do it yourself."

(Shame on me, but just yesterday, I walked all around the library to the back entrance just to not come in contact with this individual.)

Then we have our "Foreign exchange student." I have no idea which country she is from. Russia maybe, or one of the neighboring countries. She likes to be demanding as expect us to get everything for her. She will bring a seat over, drop her butt down and get comfy. Normally I don't mind finding things for people. That's my job, and I like having the satisfaction of finding hard to find books and other items for people. But her demanding attitude, and prolonged attitude, really iritates me. While I'm working with her (and any other librarian working with her) there are people lined up behind her to receive help. And I do it all with a smile.

And we have a new grumpy old man, which the library supervisor says, "if you squint really hard he looks like Harrison Ford." My reply, "your squinting very hard if you see that." Just what we need, another grump.

I just wish, upper management would work a day or two at the reference desk. And don't tell me about customer service. I especially don't want to hear it from someone who has done P.R. for businesses. I've worked on a public service basis for many years to know how to act and how to treat the public.

(But I am sounding like a meanie here. But what are blogs for?)

2) Why do guys automatically think females are attracted to guys such as... Tom Cruise, Brad Pitt, Ben Affleck, Sean Connery, and Harrison Ford?

I once went to see Mission Impossible with a male friend of mine. After the movie he said to me, "oh don't tell me you weren't drooling over Tom Cruise."

Why in God's name would I want to "drool" over Tome Cruise. That guy has no sense. None. But then, I think scientology is a bunch of crap. Let me get this out of the way: I'm a librarian people, I don't believe in paying money for information. I think it should be free. Go ask a scientologist for free information on their religion (is it even considered a religion?). They may give you the basics, but for a fee you can become enlightened with knowledge that only comes from studying scientology. Crap, crap crap and more crap. Thank you for letting me get that off my chest.

Brad Pitt is no hunk. Neither is Ben Affleck. How much money do you think they spent, and keep spending, on their looks? Something a little more natural please. I don't mind seeing the wrinkles or laugh lines on a guy's face. That means they know how to laugh. Shows they've lived.

The cute guys aren't always the best guys anyways. A cute guy I see every Thursday night at the bar wholeheartedly admits he's a womanizer (and he has a girlfriend, how does she stand it?) I told him last night he looked as if he just got out of bed. His response, "What? Did you just talk to Jasmine?" What do you think Jasmine would have told me?

3) I'm done. I'm taking a nap. Have a good day everyone. And please over looking my writing errors. I don't feel like proofreading.

1 comment:

Aimless Chatter said...

You are hysterical festi.

With your vivid description, I imagined myself drooling over the incompetent ass, TC. (Obviously I'm not a fan of his.)

Literally speaking, I haven't had to bend over backwards in many years. I'm not going to attempt it now. But, if I happen to come across librarians bending over backwards, you will be the first to see a picture.