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We just spent the last ~5 months having a new air system installed. Air filters, powerful air conditioner, the works. Day 1 of full reopening to patrons, and it doesn't work in half of the building.  JacquelineDempsey posted:I'm 47, my body's falling apart, and working 10 hour shifts with no breaks in a sweltering kitchen for $10/hr ain't cutting it. I could be making $13-$22 with such luxuries as air-conditioning, a 30 minute lunch, and holidays off! And this crazy thing called "paid sick time"? (this one's really killing me; I had to take four days off this week to go get my boob cut open, which means my next paycheck is gonna suuuuuck) drat, best of luck on a swift recovery
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Jun 11, 2021 19:42
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 23:00 |
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I'm not really in a position to fully understand our funding, but we're a city library system so a lot of it comes from city budget (I think), plus a millage that apparently does a lot for us as well. I asked about how much dropping late fees would screw with funding as was basically told it was a negligible amount of our income, like less than 1%. We were originally supposed to cut fines the week we shut for covid  Instead we did it two months later when we reopened which I think actually worked out better. It got people thinking about checking out books again, and got those patrons that couldn't due to fines interested in coming back. The downside to doing it then was that we had to simultaneously deal with the "why are the doors blocked, why can't I come in to browse" patrons and the "ugh how are those people going to teach their kids responsibility without late fees" assholes and yes this is a real question that I was asked.
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Dec 8, 2021 00:37
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Some time before covid hit, a woman came in asking where to look for a new phone, her old phone was bad and dying so she desperately needed a new one, but not new new. Fortunately I had just gotten a new phone myself and was like oh yeah, sure, here are all the places I looked when I was shopping around. Nearly two years later and now I'm the guy who told her she absolutely had to get a pixel phone, who now has to help her forward funny viral videos her brother sent her, after being forced to watch them and told why it's hilarious. No matter the fact we can't give more than very brief tech help at my branch due to staffing coverage, "but it's super slow right now so you can help me, right?" This is completely separate from the woman who intentionally purchased two phones and was nearly in tears because she couldn't figure out how to get to voice mail, after I spent two hours trying to explain that the manual had step by step directions. These aren't even particularly egregious situations but I think my job has killed my patience, and slowly my spirit. Next time, the creepy guy who thinks he's Mr. Rogers sorry about using your good thread to vent Wudz fucked around with this message at 15:45 on Dec 10, 2021 |
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Dec 10, 2021 15:25
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Well, in no particular order: - Creepy Mr. Rogers is a patron I first met like five years ago. He was nice enough, if kind of weirdly friendly, and talked about being part of some Mr. Rogers advocacy group (????????). Later I realized he was wearing a very Fred Rogers knit sweater and had his hair styled in a very Mr. Rogers way. A few years later some of our Youth Services staff told me he at least once tried to walk around the kids area and either present himself as or say he represented Mr. Rogers. Not sure what happened with him, but I'm pretty sure he got super pissed when he was told not to do that and never came back. - A lot of our regular patrons are homeless, since we're one of the only public places they can hang out in all day with air conditioning, heating, restrooms, and security. Generally there are no issues besides asking people to take their food to the designated eating area, or waking people up if they fall asleep. A guy recently started yelling at me when I asked him if he was ok because he was face down on the table, when he was apparently watching a video on his phone under the table. Apparently all we do is wake people up, and enforce our stupid rules, and sit on our computers not helping anybody. Ignoring the fact that we can't help people that don't ask for help, and the reason we ask people to not sleep is that we have had more than 1 person pass away due to overdose/undiagnosed medical issues. - One night when clearing the floor just before closing, walked in to check the men's restroom and immediately saw an elderly man's entire rear end and balls as he was trying to wash himself in the sink. - Once witnessed a patron have a conversation through our sound-proof front widow with someone she knew outside. - There's a guy that comes in nearly every day to use our internet computers. He used to browse amazon for old records, but I've been told he was banned for buying poo poo, then trying to get his money back and say they never arrived. He has since moved on to doing the same thing with commemorative coins on ebay. His favorite pastime is opening as many tabs as he possibly can ten minutes before his time runs out so that it crashes our lovely computers, slam on the mouse and keyboard, and ask for an extension because the computer stopped working. There's also the harassment the women on our staff get from patrons, and one of them approached our boss about being uncomfortable being at the desk because of it. She told me the advice she was given by our female boss was effectively "well this is a public library, unfortunately, toughen up or maybe it's not for you". Staff issues are a whole sperate nightmare right now. Wudz fucked around with this message at 08:10 on Dec 13, 2021 |
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Dec 13, 2021 05:53
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Any time people ask us to fill out their credit card or login information there's a real "I can't be assed, do this for me" energy. Semi-related, but it reminds me of a patron who absolutely refuses to use our very simple and efficient check out stations, arguing that he is very generously keeping us employed and busy by making us scan every single book individually. He was recently banned for racism towards one of our staff. Also I remembered the other day that people keep coming to the library to set up their phones because apparently, every single phone store in the city tells their customers "If you need help setting up your phone, take it to the library and they can help you out" instead of helping them there, at the place dedicated to phones. To be fair we used to do "Speak to a Geek" sessions if you needed general help navigating or understanding computers, but that was pre-covid, required an appointment, and I'm pretty sure we never did phone setup General question, do any of y'all's libraries have on-location security guards? We've gone through like ten guards for various reasons in the last two years, including pre-covid, and I'm wondering if that's normal.
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Dec 20, 2021 18:08
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Oh for sure, and we get a lot of that from our elderly patrons, and even then as long as we help then do it they begrudgingly go along with it. This dude is like 40, though, and doesn't even pretend he doesn't know to use them. Staff were at one point told to not check out to him unless there was nobody waiting on line, at which point he storms off in a huff to do it himself.
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Dec 21, 2021 16:10
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Wudz posted:Staff issues are a whole sperate nightmare right now. Also my boss quit. She's a great person but wasn't very good at managing our department so ultimately nothing has really changed yet, but now nobody internally really wants to fill that position, even only temporarily. They were hoping to have somebody in place last week, which then became the end of this week, which is now  It's very cool.Now i'm trapped in a computer lab that smells like old, lovely weed with a dude on hold on speakerphone who won't turn it down and people that need help getting into their gmail account without their password or phone. e- happy new year thread Wudz fucked around with this message at 20:22 on Feb 24, 2022 |
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Feb 24, 2022 20:06
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I would say I'm not qualified but who knows, stupider things have happened! e- in fact it will probably be taken by the guy who was hired as customer service and quit after less than a month because he decided he wanted to be a parks and rec guy instead, only to be hired again a year later for a full time position and quit before finishing training Wudz fucked around with this message at 23:42 on Feb 24, 2022 |
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Feb 24, 2022 23:38
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If I remember correctly somebody told me he went on to do Tree Planting And Maintenance, so I guess a little bit of both? Actually come to think of it I think he was telling me this himself while I was training him at our front desk for the second time, wow Wudz fucked around with this message at 07:27 on Feb 25, 2022 |
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Feb 25, 2022 07:22
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If you're referring to where I think you are, that's one of our neighboring districts and it's just as stupid as it sounds. Very much a brexit "this is what you are voting for, are youcertain" "WHY DID NOBODY TELL ME THIS WOULD HAPPEN" situation. Even after concessions were made to not have the books on main displays.
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Aug 13, 2022 01:45
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As soon as I started my shift today, had a guy (among other things) try to give me a full wind up punch to the head, made vague that's about seeing me outside, and said he wished he could enslave me (?). My offending action? I asked him to wear headphones to listen to music in the library. Maybe don't be that kind of weirdo if you can avoid it, thanks
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Mar 28, 2023 05:22
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| # ¿ May 21, 2024 23:00 |
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DicktheCat posted:Do people try to bring animals into the library a lot? We have some guy that would bring his unleashed pitbull, but apparently it's legal and fine because it's well trained. I think it growled at some kid that got too close and can't come back though. There's also a lady that would bring her weird little dog, which has since been banned for pissing and making GBS threads all over the floor while she talked to customer service on multiple occasions. She keeps trying to bring it in, and when she gets called out tries to pull a "oh, no, it's fine, I'm just here for a few minutes to use the bathroom" At some point somebody put a healthy kitten in the outdoor book return, which got taken by one of our staff that works at a rescue center.
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Jun 23, 2023 04:47
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