Library Antics.
Wednesday was the worst day I ever had at work. The general business I didn't mind, nor did I mind helping an old guy with one of them new-fangled photocopiers, or fixin' a paper jam in one of the microfilm machines. It was around four o'clock when I had to deal with a stolen bicycle and cut library-issue bike lock. The kid whose bike was stolen didn't want to call the police, which some people thought was fishy. But anyway, so I spoke to the director about it, and it was agreed that I should call non-emergency anyway to report the theft and the damage to library property (the lock), and how..well...we've been having bike issues recently as it is.
But before I could start on my incident report or even call the police, there was a mix-up with some library cards which took the better part of the hour to straighten out. By the time I finished calling the police there was only one minute left before my end of shift, but I still needed to file my inicident report, so I was stayed after a few minutes. I was very glad to go home and have a couple awesome days to spend with cruelest_month.
But tonight I got hear about Wednesday evening at the library. First, there were at least two other bikes stolen and our locks cut-through. Then one of the persons involved in the card mix-up was quite upset about having to come back to leave the card he was given by mistake and to pick up his own. See, he lives out of town. And since the person he talked to on the phone demanded that he reutrn the card immediately and within the hour, he felt we ought to pay for his gas, and something about having been promised a free pair of headphones. Oh, and he was also angry that "no one even apologized."
Let's get something straight here. The person he talked to on the phone? That was me. At no point did I "demand" that he return it immediately or within the hour. In fact, I remember quite clearly asking "How soon do you think you'll be able to return it?" To which he said, "I can come back this evening." with no mention as to where he lived or that it would be an inconvenience. I had thanked him for his cooperation and apologized for the mix-up. Given how upset he was and his demand for some kind of compensation, it was offered that someone call our boss, but he declined, and left leaving his library card. What an ass. He's a liar and full of bull shit. Am glad he was inconvenienced and hope he decides to never visit our library again.
Oh! And the woman on the computer! I can't remember the time when her daughter first came over and said her mom needed help on the computer. But i had gone over. She was upset because "the stupid thing" kept doing something wrong. She was trying to set up an e-mail account on yahoo or something. Now here's the thing. It really isn't any of our jobs to stand around and hold a person's hand as they try to figure out basic internet use. But I wasn't busy. And it seemed even after two hours (oh so she claimed) of filling out the registration page it wasn't doing it right. But like magic as long as I was standing there to guide her through the process that was spelled out on the screen, she made her account. At that point I said "There you go, all set." and made to move away. "Just stay for a couple seconds more" she said. *sigh* She had a URL written down she needed to get to in order to fill out an application (I learned tonight it was an application for substitute teaching for the school district). Except every time she tried to type in the URL she got a 404 message. "Why is this happening?!" She kept asking me. I asked her if she was sure she had the address written down properly, and that maybe she should contact the school district just to double check. Well, she didn't know the phone number. Thankfully, with something like that I went to the reference ladies. One of which said to me, "We'll just deal with this now, you've been over there too long." Well, despite our limited internet time allowance, reference kept renewing her minutes so that she could get what she wanted taken care of. She was still there by the time I left, and I was told she did not leave until after 6:00p.m.
and her poor little daughter, probably 8 or 9 years old stayed right there, bored out of her mind. And the mother kept getting on her case for being fidgety. "We suggested that she could go play in the children's room, but the mother didn't want that," head of Youth Services told me.
So yeah, really sucks that pretty much everything that made my Wednesday a nightmare carried over into the next shift, with a drunk fella thrown-in for extra spice. Poor ladies.
THEN TONIGHT! A cut cable was discovered on one of our security cameras (a non-functioning one at the mo, but still). And I had to escort from the premises a teenager dressed in a chicken suit.
Yes. A chicken suit.
At least as a collaberated with one of the laides in youth services about this, she wanted to be more lenient, I was irritated and wanted to nip it in the bud before he caused the scene he and his little posse were obviously angling for, she said to me "I can be good cop, you can be bad cop." And that made me happy. I WILL GENE HUNT YOUR PANSEY, FANCY-DRESSED, TEENAGE ARSE!
Thank God it's a holiday weekend.
But before I could start on my incident report or even call the police, there was a mix-up with some library cards which took the better part of the hour to straighten out. By the time I finished calling the police there was only one minute left before my end of shift, but I still needed to file my inicident report, so I was stayed after a few minutes. I was very glad to go home and have a couple awesome days to spend with cruelest_month.
But tonight I got hear about Wednesday evening at the library. First, there were at least two other bikes stolen and our locks cut-through. Then one of the persons involved in the card mix-up was quite upset about having to come back to leave the card he was given by mistake and to pick up his own. See, he lives out of town. And since the person he talked to on the phone demanded that he reutrn the card immediately and within the hour, he felt we ought to pay for his gas, and something about having been promised a free pair of headphones. Oh, and he was also angry that "no one even apologized."
Let's get something straight here. The person he talked to on the phone? That was me. At no point did I "demand" that he return it immediately or within the hour. In fact, I remember quite clearly asking "How soon do you think you'll be able to return it?" To which he said, "I can come back this evening." with no mention as to where he lived or that it would be an inconvenience. I had thanked him for his cooperation and apologized for the mix-up. Given how upset he was and his demand for some kind of compensation, it was offered that someone call our boss, but he declined, and left leaving his library card. What an ass. He's a liar and full of bull shit. Am glad he was inconvenienced and hope he decides to never visit our library again.
Oh! And the woman on the computer! I can't remember the time when her daughter first came over and said her mom needed help on the computer. But i had gone over. She was upset because "the stupid thing" kept doing something wrong. She was trying to set up an e-mail account on yahoo or something. Now here's the thing. It really isn't any of our jobs to stand around and hold a person's hand as they try to figure out basic internet use. But I wasn't busy. And it seemed even after two hours (oh so she claimed) of filling out the registration page it wasn't doing it right. But like magic as long as I was standing there to guide her through the process that was spelled out on the screen, she made her account. At that point I said "There you go, all set." and made to move away. "Just stay for a couple seconds more" she said. *sigh* She had a URL written down she needed to get to in order to fill out an application (I learned tonight it was an application for substitute teaching for the school district). Except every time she tried to type in the URL she got a 404 message. "Why is this happening?!" She kept asking me. I asked her if she was sure she had the address written down properly, and that maybe she should contact the school district just to double check. Well, she didn't know the phone number. Thankfully, with something like that I went to the reference ladies. One of which said to me, "We'll just deal with this now, you've been over there too long." Well, despite our limited internet time allowance, reference kept renewing her minutes so that she could get what she wanted taken care of. She was still there by the time I left, and I was told she did not leave until after 6:00p.m.
and her poor little daughter, probably 8 or 9 years old stayed right there, bored out of her mind. And the mother kept getting on her case for being fidgety. "We suggested that she could go play in the children's room, but the mother didn't want that," head of Youth Services told me.
So yeah, really sucks that pretty much everything that made my Wednesday a nightmare carried over into the next shift, with a drunk fella thrown-in for extra spice. Poor ladies.
THEN TONIGHT! A cut cable was discovered on one of our security cameras (a non-functioning one at the mo, but still). And I had to escort from the premises a teenager dressed in a chicken suit.
Yes. A chicken suit.
At least as a collaberated with one of the laides in youth services about this, she wanted to be more lenient, I was irritated and wanted to nip it in the bud before he caused the scene he and his little posse were obviously angling for, she said to me "I can be good cop, you can be bad cop." And that made me happy. I WILL GENE HUNT YOUR PANSEY, FANCY-DRESSED, TEENAGE ARSE!
Thank God it's a holiday weekend.