Okay, more as promised

So, here's the promised update about my jaerb. I'm going to try to make both this post and the blog fairly anonymous from here on out, for obvious reasons. Just a little heads-up.

For those of you who don't know, at the end of August I got a new job working for a county public library system in my area. The position for which I applied was listed as "Reference Librarian," but when I came in for the interview, my interviewers indicated that they were instead interviewing me for a different position, one that would involve working for a new library branch (not yet completed) that would open sometime in the near future. This new library would combine an existing county government library with a small popular collection. I would split my time between this library and the county government's Information Desk, located in an office across the hall from the new library. The pay for this position was markedly less than the pay for the reference librarian job, and less per hour than my previous part-time position (and this position required a MLS degree, whereas my old one did not). But since I had sent my resume to about 15 places and this was only my second callback, I decided to proceed. The next day one of the interviewers (the Division Chief) offered me the job, and I accepted.

A few days before my first day on the new job, that same interviewer called to inform me of "a little change in plans." Gulp. Apparently, the new library wasn't close to being finished (and, as of this writing, still isn't), so now my time would be split between the info desk and a branch library located in the far fringes of the county. The info desk and the future library are/will be located steps from a train station, but in order to get from the info desk to the new library (which I had to do in the middle of the day three days a week) I had to take the train five stops, and either get out and walk uphill 20 minutes or try to catch the bus that passed every half hour. Keep in mind that I didn't know this at the time of the phone call. I reluctantly agreed, since no leads on any other job opportunity had presented themselves in the intervening weeks.

On my first day, I met my new boss. I really don't know how to describe her. In the initial meeting, she told me no less than three times that she'd be "the easiest boss I'd ever work for," and she's spent the last few weeks trying hard to discredit that statement. She's one of the most negative people I've ever met. Nearly every word she says is either hateful gossip about a coworker/superior, some other person in another office, or the people she helps at the Info desk (Can you imagine spending the forty hours a week making nasty comments to coworkers about every single person asking where the elevator is? I sure as hell can't). Of course, these types of statements really jive well with the Jesus/Scripture/positive thinking crap posted all over her cubicle walls. She complains constantly about her superiors, and on several occasions has refused to do the work they assign her because "it's stupid" or she "doesn't feel like it." More on that later.

So, after my first week, which was spending farting around doing nothing in the Info office, I shuttled between the Info office and the branch, cursing, wondering if I'd done a stupid thing by accepting a job that required so much, paid so little, and had caused me so many headaches. Work at the branch was fine, even though the building is old and too small for the collection. My boss at the branch informed me of my schedule for the next few weeks. I wrote down my hours and reported them to Info Boss to see if there were any conflicts. Then the shitstorm erupted.

Info Boss informed me that she was under the impression that I was to spend only one week working at the branch. I have no idea where she got this impression other than a bout of wishful thinking, since it was clearly stated to both me and her by the Division Chief. The thing about working at info is that there's ABSOLUTELY NOTHING TO DO THERE for 40 hours a week. I spent my first week doing just that, sitting in the back, reading, browsing the Internet, and hearing one my coworkers curse out 80% of the people he had just spoken to on the phone. (Have you ever heard a man with inch-long hair sticking out of his ear canal make fun of a woman behind her back because she had a hint of a mustache? I have.) At least at the library branch, there was always shelving or other such busywork.

So, anyway, Info Boss refuses to accept her immediate boss's judgment that the branch is short on staff and really needs another warm body to help it operate. She crafts a nasty email to her boss, the Library Boss, a library administrator, the Division Chief, and in a kind gesture, blind cc's the note to me, I suppose to show some sort of "solidarity," that she's a-fightin' for me and my right to be at Info 40 grueling hours per week. Some very curt and vitriolic emails are exchanged over the next few days, and eventually the matter reaches the attention of the Library Director (!), who reinforces the earlier statement that I have to split my hours between Branch and Info. By this point I'm glad to hear that, since work at Info is boring and full of negativity, and Library work is familiar and fulfilling despite the commute.

Library Boss informs me later that week that the heads of all the branch libraries, plus members of library administration, Info Boss, and a few others were getting together to discuss my fate. I felt like a child in the center of a custody battle. The afternoon of the meeting, I get a call informing me that I am no longer working at the branch to which I have been assigned, but that I'm being moved to a different, albeit more transit-accessible, branch. And instead of splitting hours evenly between Info and New Branch, I will now work 32 hours at New Branch and only 8 a week at Info. At that moment, I wanted to shout for joy and kiss the Division Chief's bald little pate.

So how did it come to pass that I only get 8 hours of Info per week after Info Boss insisted I get 40 there? Simple. Like a scorned child, she decided not to participate in the big meeting. The heads of every branch in the library system (8 in all) came to try to pick me up for their shorthanded staffs, and she, the boss I report to, the one who was a-fightin' for me, the one who signs my timesheets, did not show up to claim me. Did she feel that her lack of participation would make everyone feel sorry for her? I don't know. She didn't go to bat for me, so she lost out. And guess what? She's not happy about it. Big surprise, eh? Info Boss even told me that when the Division Chief called her to inform her of the decision, she hung up on him mid-call. Professional, no? Sadly, one of my Info coworkers who was also splitting time between Info and a library branch had her branch assignment switched as a result of Info Boss's refusal to participate. In the words of Julia Roberts in that prostitute movie, "Big mistake. BIG."

After that weekend Info Boss and I discussed the new plan, and I made very clear that I was happy with it, without trying let on that Info work was both hellish and boring. Info Boss of course told me that my new Library Boss was a miserable person, impossible to work for. She said that Library Boss "doesn't trust her employees" and even goes so far as to (horror of horrors!) schedule when employees should take their LUNCH BREAKS. Yeah, sounds like a real tyrant, huh? A regular Genghis Khan. My guess that Info Boss simply can't stand authority, because nearly instance of talking to her involves some invocation of "they can't tell me/you what to do!," etc.

As it turns out, New Branch is even better than Old Branch, and the commute is a thousand times easier. The work is fulfilling and straightforward, and I'm even getting the opportunity to work on the Reference Desk like a person with a MLS should. The new boss is a little reserved and brooding at times, but she's very organized and hands-off, which I appreciate. It's so incredibly drama-free compared to the complaint-fest that is/was Info. Those eight hours a week I spend there seem nearly endless compared to the 32 easy hours doing working in the field in which I got this spanking-new graduate degree. So, overall, things are better.

I'm sure this blog will be peppered with all sorts of wonderful stories from my crazy-ass job for years to come. Count yourself fortunate that you get to read it. :-)