THE NEW REGIME

Worked as a sub on Fri for a small library that has a new manager.  She scheduled me on the reference desk for the full 4 hours.   Two things about this: this is the new regime as far as subs on the desk and we used to be used with more consideration.

I have heard the horror stories of subs working at libraries where they are working the desks, circulation and reference, for five or six hours at a stretch.  But this is the first time it's happened to me.

 It didn't used to be that way.

There are a couple of small, one-person libraries where you're stuck at the desk, but my experience there that they are not so continually busy that you can find time to eat lunch.  But, yes, technically you don't get a break.

With the cut in allowable sub hours a library can get, they are asking for six or five hour shifts instead of seven or eight.  Which means a sub works the shorter shift with just a fifteen-minute break instead of the longer shirt with an hour break.

Sitting on a library desk for many hours looks so easy but one sub. described it to me as sitting on a complaint desk for six hours.  Not fun.  Of course, that's an exaggeration  Sometimes it is fun, but mostly it's just routine.

And it's exhausting.  Or I think it is.  I have a hard time doing four hours now, not that is was ever easy-peasy.   But, I think everyone who does customer service knows how draining it is to deal with the public for any length of time.  Most of the time, they are fine but you also deal with abuse of one kind or another.  And library work is physically draining, going from one end of the building to another, hauling books or carts of books around.

I was sure the exhaustion was me.  I had major surgery this year and still find my energy levels erratic.  Yesterday, in my regular job, I was on the desk four hours over an eight-hour shift.   Means desk time every other hours - there were only two of us in the branch because one of the regular employees was on vacation and of course we couldn't have a sub for her full hours.

I felt so done in, that I could hardly concentrate on the computer and it took all my energy to focus on the patron's questions.  i work hard at times like that, pretending to be ok and sometimes the acting becomes the reality, especially if the transaction is a pleasant one.

But it is hard to deal with the public for hours at a time, make no mistake.

Well, this is the new regime which also includes the new managers of which there are many.  In the last couple of years, most of the old-school managers have retired.  In fact, now that I think of it, I don't think there's one left.

It seems now that subs are not just considered a substitute for an ill or vacationing staff member, not just covering the desk while someone is at a meeting or a school visit or to make sure there are enough staff to open a branch.  We used to be used humanely, on the desk for two hours, off for one and back on.  On and off all day with jobs like the holds or router to do in-between.

In the good old days, managers worked the desk - also Saturdays and evenings, the same as the rest of us.  The good ones now will take a shift on the desk when it's really, really necessary.

The jobs were saved for us, not given to volunteers or aides, which is what happens now.  Which adds to the impression we have now that subs are an opportunity for the regular staff to get work done off the desk.

You used to feel appreciated.  It's a cold, hard new age at the ole lib these days.  I guess it's time to put up or shut up as they say.