Sometimes, is best to go with your gut instinct, or just go to the Stick List?
Minerva [the library aide] has been away ill all week, and I was solo for most of it, then someone with the power decided they would arrange for an untrained casual to come in “to help me catch up”. Kind thought, poor execution.
I tried to circumvent, but the arrangements had been made, and unlike the real world, they wouldn’t renege on the deal. That’s what I get for working for a religious school – they have a Christian spirit. Who would have thought that, in the modern workplace? Sssshhhh.
I know that most people think that people who work in libraries sit around reading books and magazines all day, but in truth a lot of very detailed work goes on in the background, both physical and technical. Sending me a person who knows next to nothing in a moment of crisis is not a help. She is a lovely woman, and wants to be helpful, but there is no way I am going to allow her to mess with Minerva’s systems. You saw Minerva, she eats casual employees for morning tea, if they last that long (she is my kind of woman, but only if I am her boss).
The time to send a casual employee is when we are not pushed to the edge and have time to train people; otherwise it is a little like trying to teach someone to swim while you are all drowning.
The casual is a very pleasant woman, but she wants to work in the library on a permanent basis. She mentions this every two minutes. The pressure from her repeating her want is almost worse than the fact that she can do little to assist me without me showing her first. I have taken to hiding in my office, which is not easy as it has glass walls. At other times I have banished her to shelf reading, which is one of the most tedious jobs in the world, up there will counting the grains of sand into an hour glass.
The fact that there is no vacant position and no plans for another library aide in the near future is not deterring her. I told her to find out about studying a library technicians course, as that is who I would be looking to hire if I have any input, when the time comes. I would need someone who has some real IT skills, to maintain blogs and web pages, and of course catalogue books, websites and electronic resources. I hope she takes the hint, because she is starting to get under my skin. STICK LIST annoying.
Let’s be honest, the best way to get a job is to take every opportunity to impress while you are on the job. I have been quite happy with the work that she has completed, but there is just something that my instinct is trying to tell me – that she might be one to slacken the pace once through the door. I can’t cite evidence, but my Flamingo Dancer instincts just suspect something. High alert!
What makes it more difficult is the fact that she is also one of the parents. We have to remember that she is a customer as well as an employee and I do wish they wouldn’t employee parents in this manner. We need to be careful what we say, as they are in the parent cohort and of course the gossip spreads like a virus, so we say no evil, which in itself is an added stress. Worse still, it means I have to do extended periods of nice, and we know how I deal with that, don’t we dear reader? Not well.
So TGIF and a rejuvenated, hearty constitution to Minerva!
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