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Today I'm going to be ferrying Mason and one of his fellow debate judges over to a school in Minneapolis. That should be fun, she says with a bit of a sigh. I'm actually looking forward to meeting the other judge (these are high schoolers who are judging middle school debaters) as he's someone Mason talks about a lot. I hope he lives up to his nerd reputation. :-)
To be fair, I have otherwise shirked a lot of the driving duties that other friends of mine seem to have had with their kids. No endless soccer practices or any of that sort of stuff.
Yesterday, I stopped by the Roseville Library to return a few books and pick up the Princess Jellyfish volume that came in for me. I haven't had many calls about subbing and, as I know my boss is set to retire soon, i had a worried thought that maybe I'd missed a retirement party or an email about whoever is taking over. So I stuck my head into the branch manager's office and he waved me in. I didn't miss anything, apparently as part of training the new person in, my boss had been delayed getting hours out to other people. But, while I was there, the branch manager offered to pay me for an hour if I would sign off on my performance reviews.
Before working at Ramsey County Library, I used to DREAD performance reviews. Let's be honest, I was writing a novel while sitting at that receptionist desk. How stellar are my reviews going to be? I also never really cared all that much about where I was working, so long as it had the kind of office culture where I could get away with long lunches and working on my novel. I am normally NOT the employee you ever want to hire for anything.
Except, for some reason, my library work. I think it helps that I love libraries and always have.
I honestly think it also helps that I'm a sub, so the stakes are always kind of low (for me.) I mean, I do legitimately love the work, but if there's an annoying co-worker or restrictive policy, I just don't interact with either for very long, you know? The annoying co-worker? I see them once a month, tops. That policy? How often am I ever going to have to deal with it, compared to how often full-time people do, you know? Plus, people are happy to see me, too, because I'm often coming in with only an hour's notice because someone's car failed to start in the cold or their child fell ill or whatever, you know? So, I'm always appreciated, too.
The point is, I now get performance reviews that say things like, "Lyda is a joy to work with" and aren't sarcastic. It's really amazing.
Plus, the branch manager and I ended up just shooting the breeze about the writing life and such afterwards. I like the kinds of people who chose to work at libraries too. They're almost always nerdy and arty and liberal and cool.
To be fair, I have otherwise shirked a lot of the driving duties that other friends of mine seem to have had with their kids. No endless soccer practices or any of that sort of stuff.
Yesterday, I stopped by the Roseville Library to return a few books and pick up the Princess Jellyfish volume that came in for me. I haven't had many calls about subbing and, as I know my boss is set to retire soon, i had a worried thought that maybe I'd missed a retirement party or an email about whoever is taking over. So I stuck my head into the branch manager's office and he waved me in. I didn't miss anything, apparently as part of training the new person in, my boss had been delayed getting hours out to other people. But, while I was there, the branch manager offered to pay me for an hour if I would sign off on my performance reviews.
Before working at Ramsey County Library, I used to DREAD performance reviews. Let's be honest, I was writing a novel while sitting at that receptionist desk. How stellar are my reviews going to be? I also never really cared all that much about where I was working, so long as it had the kind of office culture where I could get away with long lunches and working on my novel. I am normally NOT the employee you ever want to hire for anything.
Except, for some reason, my library work. I think it helps that I love libraries and always have.
I honestly think it also helps that I'm a sub, so the stakes are always kind of low (for me.) I mean, I do legitimately love the work, but if there's an annoying co-worker or restrictive policy, I just don't interact with either for very long, you know? The annoying co-worker? I see them once a month, tops. That policy? How often am I ever going to have to deal with it, compared to how often full-time people do, you know? Plus, people are happy to see me, too, because I'm often coming in with only an hour's notice because someone's car failed to start in the cold or their child fell ill or whatever, you know? So, I'm always appreciated, too.
The point is, I now get performance reviews that say things like, "Lyda is a joy to work with" and aren't sarcastic. It's really amazing.
Plus, the branch manager and I ended up just shooting the breeze about the writing life and such afterwards. I like the kinds of people who chose to work at libraries too. They're almost always nerdy and arty and liberal and cool.
