I work one late night- Tuesday- and it's generally pretty calm. Last night, however, about 7pm, we had a run of wacky interactions that made the last two hours of work fly by: a customer insisted on filing an incident report (after a situation that she seemed to have engineered), another customer found something one of our staff had lost and was determined not to cough it up, another customer tied up one computer with an endless discussion of a fine that she wasn't contesting, necessarily, but refused to comprehend. Then one of our "slow" regulars came in, and...well, maybe you had to be there. (Poor lamb! While I don't particularly enjoy waiting on him, it's got to be better than BEING him.) The entire time, Toastmasters (who'd apparently left the door to Meeting Room B open) were whooping and applauding (after arriving way early and agitating to get into "their" room before the scheduled time. Yes, it did appear to be empty. No, that didn't guarantee that the Scouts weren't gone temporarily. Yes, we realized that they would need to set up. Yes. Yes. Yes! But no: no entry until closer to the time they'd reserved) and the phone was ringing with questions about voting. Someone came to pick up the overhead projector and wanted me to set it up first to determine that everything worked on it. I, only once, back when I paged, was a party to trying to figure out how that !@#$%^& thing functioned, and that time, I was bent over it with my boss and my co-worker Matthew, flipping switches and scratching our heads as the bulb refused to come on. When it did, it did so in a sort of Three Stooges manner, blinding us abruptly. I wasn't eager to repeat this maneuver at the front desk. There was a new bulb included with the projector and she kept saying she hoped she'd be able to figure out how to put it in if she had to. Further discussion had her asking if the machine needed to be plugged in to work. I was losing patience at this point- perhaps she wanted to check out a person to set up the projector as well?- but explained that there were directions printed on the machine itself and that if she really couldn't figure it out, she could call and we'd see if someone there could talk her through it. "I'm bringing this right back!" she insisted, repeatedly. "If it doesn't work, I'm bringing it right back!" Hmmm. You're able to check out- for free- an overhead projector.....free.....but.....oh, who cares. Overall it was a quiet night.
5 comments:
O-V-E-R-H-E-A-D...dreaded word! I can't STAND that piece of equipment and, by golly, during One Book week, didn't someone come in who wanted instruction in its use before the day he was to pick it up. So, because no one else was around (or everyone else ran and hid), they called me to help him. I went, good do-bee that I am, and he and I struggled with it until we could make some sense of the instructions. There really doesn't seem to be anything on it that says "Push here to turn on light." The gentleman was the model of graciousness, and we had a good laugh over our combined ineptitude.
Once upon a time, we used to tell people that if they didn't know how to run the equipment, they needed to make arrangements with the AV librarian for a training session. I don't think our current AV librarian feels responsible for the AV equipment, now that we have a meeting room Nazi (me) and technology guys. Had last night's customer had the foresight that Mr. Condo Association did, you wouldn't have had the episode at the desk. Perhaps from henceforth, when someone books the equipment, they should be told that they must either know how to use it or make arrangements for training prior to pick-up. You really shouldn't have to cope with this at the desk.
Dontcha just LOVE the Toastmasters?
I am STILL in a gut-wrenching state over the book sale. I am SO sick of the whining and complaint...and the fact that I'm really supposed to refrain from speaking my mind to this group who, with some exceptions, seem determined to beat on me at every opportunity.
I am taking a personal day today and going to the Diana exhibit with my mother. Now Diana...she had real problems. It is obviously true that money does not buy happiness. But, were I to win the lottery, I would promise to smile a WHOLE lot!
And in re-reading your post... She wanted to know if it needed to be PLUGGED IN to work???!!! Did she think the bulb would light up in response to her sparkling personality? This woman has a teacher card, for heaven's sake!
If it weren't 8:56 AM, I think I would have a drink...
Bloody Mary. Mimosa. Two drinks one can sort of get away with first thing in the morning...
Speaking of "teacher's cards:" last night a teacher who'd switched schools was telling Deb- in this oh-this-is-so-stupid-how-I-have-to-jump-through-these-hoops manner- how her principal had rolled his eyes and sighed and made a big deal out of signing her form to establish that she is indeed a teacher and at his school, complete with an imitation of him saying, "Here you go, little girl! Now you can have your own library card!" Deb was a master of retraint during this very offensive display, but when the woman came back up to check out, Deb did explain that the teacher's card is truly meant for teachers and only teachers, and that the perks it guarantees (30-day loan...all fines waived) makes it a temptation to attempt to scam the library and that knowing you are REALLY a teacher and a CURRENT teacher is necessary. Period.
So much for the "A+ Partnership" with the schools, though I guess I'm making an assumption that it was a Wadsworth teacher. Few entities outside the military have the rules that public schools have, but by God, just let the library attempt to maintain order and we're made to seem like a bunch of -- what was it we were called by some politician? -- a bunch of hysterical librarians?
I would LOVE to know whether it was a Wadsworth building principal...can you find out from Deb?
Hmmm....for some reason I don't think it was; Wadsworth teachers and principals seem to know and pretty much respect our rules. The "teacher card" really is a nice perk. Where we seem to run into trouble are the sort of "fringe" teachers: the home schoolers, the day cares....having to re-up every school year does tend to stick in some teachers' craws, though, but there you go: why should we take just anybody's word that they teach?
I sure hope it wasn't a Wadsworth principal! I have children in these schools!
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