On my job...
Jul. 29th, 2008 12:26 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
mis_creationI really love my job, you guys. Like, seriously. There are things about it that really annoy me sometimes, but that happens with even the best jobs.
But really, being at the library mostly feels like that first semester that Cait and I were in the apartment at NMU: like where I'm supposed to be, doing what I'm supposed to be doing. A couple of my co-workers I could do without, but the really annoying one is a work-study, so I was without him all summer. It's such a wonderfully different work environment than the Lincoln Center. ...if I get fired from this job I don't know what I'd do. Though In all honesty I doubt that would happen. But I didn't see it coming (at the time, in hindsight yes) at the Lincoln Center either...
Anyway, I just love my job. But there's lots of downsides to it. For one thing, I have a maximum of 16 (scheduled) hours a week. Frequently, I can do 20, especially with people going on summer vacations and family emergencies and the like. Several times I've done more than 20. And the pay is decent ($8/hr), but the lack of real hours makes it not enough. My supervisors barely work full time, I think. Though I haven't actually asked, yet.... I should do.
So the lack of hours is a problem. The heat sucks too, but that's a summer thing. And largely, our customers are nice people. I've found that I can deal well with the not-so-nice and/or self-centered customers*. Partly it is that I know that if they get too belligerant or demanding I won't actually have to deal with them. That was one of the first things I admitted to in the interview: that I had little customer service experience, and had never really had any true problem customers. The manager that interviewed me said, "We don't pay you enough to deal with those. Come get a manager if you have any problems." Which is just one of the truly awesome things about working there.
I like all but one of my supervisors, I like most of my co-workers, and I even can tolerate the customers. I could desperately wish we didn't have picture books, as they are a pain in the ass in every single step of the library. Which is why I see myself either working in archives or in an academic library. I would rather heft an armful of thick reference books than a cumbersome handful of oddly-shaped and surprisingly-heavy picture books.
Actually, mostly the downsides of the job are the lack of hours and the not-terribly-high pay. But at 16 scheduled hours a week, I will be making near $450/month (I figure about $7 actual gross income, so that's what I figure by, for those that look at that and think my math is off). If I can find a second job that will get me at least that many hours at equal or better pay, I can almost afford to move out. And then my job I love will probably turn into the job I prefer to be at, which would suck for my other job, but would probably make me like the library even more.
Oh, and I was asked by the teen librarian to assist with the teen summer reading program lock-in, which is thirteen extra hours on a paycheck. Of course, I work a shift from 2-6, then from 7pm-8am, then from 1-5, but I can totally do that. After the swing-shift bullshit at Kodak I can do anything short-term. It's long-term that I'd worry about, but it is a one-time thing...
So, in closing, a few book recs: (links provided for summary purposes, not for go-out-and-buy these purposes) (Also, these reflect my reading trends right now: ie weird/interesting non-fiction rather than fiction.)
For Bug specifically, A Companion to Wolves by Sarah monette and Elizabeth Bear. I can't vouch for the writing as I haven't gotten to read it yet, but it looks right up your alley. Big wolves, faux-Scandinavian fantasy, and good reviews (but how much do they know, really?) I read the summary and went, "Bug!" So, there's that rec for you.
Don't Panic. A biography of sorts of the Hitch(h)iker's Guide to the Galaxy, written partly in quotes from Douglas Adams himself, but also compiled and further added onto by Neil Gaiman. Yes, people, Neil Gaiman writing about Douglas Adams and Hitchiker's. It was fascinating and awesome.
Bodies We've Buried. Which is a look inside the National Forensics Academy, "the top CSI training school in the country". If some of the Amazon reviews are to be believed, there are several details very, very wrong, and some people won't like the humor. But I found if entertaining and fun, and I almost laughed out loud at some bits, so the humor hit right with me. So, take it with a grain of salt or just read it for semi-gory entertainment. Still fun.
Freakonomics. Again, some of the reviews at Amazon are unfavorable, but this is a great--and here's that word again: entertaining--book. It's an economist doing what an economist does: looking at numbers and statistics and extrapolating conclusions. But he's doing it because of questions like: If drug dealers make so much money, why do they still live with their mothers? Or: What's more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? It is, of course, more than that, because each question leads to more questions, and the answers are surprising. I actually heard the book, since the first copy without a hold on it to come through my hands was on CD. But that's good, too. And unabridged.
Okay, I'm done. I'm going to sleep now... And I totally need a librarian icon. To-do for tomorrow.
*Side story: yesterday I overheard a woman at the next station complaining about fingerprints and scratches on kids DVDs, and how we should clean all of them as they come in. I looked over at our juvenile movies shelves, which are right next to the desk, and see them crammed full, and then visualize the piles of movies still to be checked in, and shake my head. If we had the time and woman-power [there's only three guys in circulation department right now, and one of them's a manager, one of them's leaving soon, and the other one has been out of town for weeks] to clean all our DVDs as they came in, we totally would. But we just don't. It's not actually possible. That would probably at least double our check-in time, and delay getting the materials that you check out every day back on the shelves for you to get. So it takes you two extra seconds to either do it your own self so your kids don't put more scratches/fingerprints on the discs, or to clean the two discs you're bitching about yourself, which you claim your husband is an expert at. Bleh.
But really, being at the library mostly feels like that first semester that Cait and I were in the apartment at NMU: like where I'm supposed to be, doing what I'm supposed to be doing. A couple of my co-workers I could do without, but the really annoying one is a work-study, so I was without him all summer. It's such a wonderfully different work environment than the Lincoln Center. ...if I get fired from this job I don't know what I'd do. Though In all honesty I doubt that would happen. But I didn't see it coming (at the time, in hindsight yes) at the Lincoln Center either...
Anyway, I just love my job. But there's lots of downsides to it. For one thing, I have a maximum of 16 (scheduled) hours a week. Frequently, I can do 20, especially with people going on summer vacations and family emergencies and the like. Several times I've done more than 20. And the pay is decent ($8/hr), but the lack of real hours makes it not enough. My supervisors barely work full time, I think. Though I haven't actually asked, yet.... I should do.
So the lack of hours is a problem. The heat sucks too, but that's a summer thing. And largely, our customers are nice people. I've found that I can deal well with the not-so-nice and/or self-centered customers*. Partly it is that I know that if they get too belligerant or demanding I won't actually have to deal with them. That was one of the first things I admitted to in the interview: that I had little customer service experience, and had never really had any true problem customers. The manager that interviewed me said, "We don't pay you enough to deal with those. Come get a manager if you have any problems." Which is just one of the truly awesome things about working there.
I like all but one of my supervisors, I like most of my co-workers, and I even can tolerate the customers. I could desperately wish we didn't have picture books, as they are a pain in the ass in every single step of the library. Which is why I see myself either working in archives or in an academic library. I would rather heft an armful of thick reference books than a cumbersome handful of oddly-shaped and surprisingly-heavy picture books.
Actually, mostly the downsides of the job are the lack of hours and the not-terribly-high pay. But at 16 scheduled hours a week, I will be making near $450/month (I figure about $7 actual gross income, so that's what I figure by, for those that look at that and think my math is off). If I can find a second job that will get me at least that many hours at equal or better pay, I can almost afford to move out. And then my job I love will probably turn into the job I prefer to be at, which would suck for my other job, but would probably make me like the library even more.
Oh, and I was asked by the teen librarian to assist with the teen summer reading program lock-in, which is thirteen extra hours on a paycheck. Of course, I work a shift from 2-6, then from 7pm-8am, then from 1-5, but I can totally do that. After the swing-shift bullshit at Kodak I can do anything short-term. It's long-term that I'd worry about, but it is a one-time thing...
So, in closing, a few book recs: (links provided for summary purposes, not for go-out-and-buy these purposes) (Also, these reflect my reading trends right now: ie weird/interesting non-fiction rather than fiction.)
For Bug specifically, A Companion to Wolves by Sarah monette and Elizabeth Bear. I can't vouch for the writing as I haven't gotten to read it yet, but it looks right up your alley. Big wolves, faux-Scandinavian fantasy, and good reviews (but how much do they know, really?) I read the summary and went, "Bug!" So, there's that rec for you.
Don't Panic. A biography of sorts of the Hitch(h)iker's Guide to the Galaxy, written partly in quotes from Douglas Adams himself, but also compiled and further added onto by Neil Gaiman. Yes, people, Neil Gaiman writing about Douglas Adams and Hitchiker's. It was fascinating and awesome.
Bodies We've Buried. Which is a look inside the National Forensics Academy, "the top CSI training school in the country". If some of the Amazon reviews are to be believed, there are several details very, very wrong, and some people won't like the humor. But I found if entertaining and fun, and I almost laughed out loud at some bits, so the humor hit right with me. So, take it with a grain of salt or just read it for semi-gory entertainment. Still fun.
Freakonomics. Again, some of the reviews at Amazon are unfavorable, but this is a great--and here's that word again: entertaining--book. It's an economist doing what an economist does: looking at numbers and statistics and extrapolating conclusions. But he's doing it because of questions like: If drug dealers make so much money, why do they still live with their mothers? Or: What's more dangerous, a gun or a swimming pool? It is, of course, more than that, because each question leads to more questions, and the answers are surprising. I actually heard the book, since the first copy without a hold on it to come through my hands was on CD. But that's good, too. And unabridged.
Okay, I'm done. I'm going to sleep now... And I totally need a librarian icon. To-do for tomorrow.
*Side story: yesterday I overheard a woman at the next station complaining about fingerprints and scratches on kids DVDs, and how we should clean all of them as they come in. I looked over at our juvenile movies shelves, which are right next to the desk, and see them crammed full, and then visualize the piles of movies still to be checked in, and shake my head. If we had the time and woman-power [there's only three guys in circulation department right now, and one of them's a manager, one of them's leaving soon, and the other one has been out of town for weeks] to clean all our DVDs as they came in, we totally would. But we just don't. It's not actually possible. That would probably at least double our check-in time, and delay getting the materials that you check out every day back on the shelves for you to get. So it takes you two extra seconds to either do it your own self so your kids don't put more scratches/fingerprints on the discs, or to clean the two discs you're bitching about yourself, which you claim your husband is an expert at. Bleh.
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Date: 2008-07-29 08:19 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2008-07-29 06:22 pm (UTC)