But all my problems are personal, and since I've been intensively trained to leave the personal at home, that doesn't really apply here.
Remember when I wrote all about the Publisher's Warehouse and all the friggin' boxes of books I have in my office? I'm down to 33! 33 boxes of books! Yay! I CAN SEE THE BOOKSHELVES IN MY OFFICE. Thanks to all and each one of the Gods that I happened upon the TWO vocational prison teaching programs dedicated to the Culinary Arts because half of the remaining books (yes, even AFTER I shipped off six boxes) are cook/diet books. (Honestly, these are mostly decent cookbooks...I've photocopied many a recipe out of these cook/diet books...except for the Dom Deluise books. I don't trust "Eat This, It's Healthy!" recipes from a guy that tubby.) (Side Note: The Hippy Gourmet Cookbook [possible sic] will be mine ASALP.)
Well, the boxes and boxes are a relatively small victory. Mostly, I'm worried about my Goals for this month. I was out most of last week (unexpected and lamented) and, hopefully, I'll be out most of next week (mostly planned).
Oh! And I just found out that I have to be in Jeff City for training on Wednesday. Did anybody even think to tell me this? Yes, surprisingly (and thankfully). Did they give me the news on the most stressful day of my life and in the worst possible month? A friggin' big YES. Is my life a total logistical mess? I don't have caps big enough.
Oh wait, some of that is personal.
Let me just say that when my Boss Boss says that I have no "support" at work, these are the times when I'm like "Support? What do you mean by this strange word?".
And now, once again, I have 40 hours of Work to do on the only day I'm going to be in the office next week. Well, I always have at least 40 hours of Work to do. This is just Things That Mostly Depend On Other People and/or Things That I Normally Do Later In The Week things that I want to get done.
/rant
P.S. The Maintenance guys were cleaning out my air ducts on Thursday (horrible burning smell). One Friday morning, one of my Offender Workers told Me that one of the Offender Maintenance Workers told my Offender Worker that they cleaned a nest of Brown Recluse Spiders out of the air ducts and to "be careful of the little ones". When I'm going through the Boxes of books, what do I find? A HYOOJ Fiddleback (colloquial term for a Brown Recluse....Fiddleback...sound out hyooj for yourself). I'm talking inch and a half with legs spread. Little ones? Please.
Showing posts with label workers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label workers. Show all posts
Saturday, August 24, 2013
Wednesday, June 6, 2012
Anniversary
Eine Jahre. Un Ano. Ena chronia. Um ano. Unus annus. One year.
I have been a Prison Librarian for one full year. Today. Holy balls, where does the time go?
I mean this day (I thought it was Friday until I realized it was Wednesday), this week, these past three months, have lasted for-ev-er. But a year? Damn! And I still feel like I'm just getting my feet wet while hitting the ground running every day. Hells Bells, I've been cleaning out my office for the past two days. As in getting rid of things my predecessor had stockpiled but never used. After a year.
Product of the Past Year: I'm a damned better librarian (not that my program actually teaches anybody about serious career-ship); I have gained a life-saving, yet limiting, understanding of stats; I have taught myself to repair any book given basic glue, book tape, scotch tape, a glue gun, and shirt cardboard; attempted to consistently reign in my temper when my workers are seriously annoying (losing battle, might have to fire some people); and learned the most basic of basic cataloging. And I have a Year of Experience. Oh, and collection development. Almost a full-time job on its own.
Goals for the Next Year: Learn how to do conduct violations/fire people (to save my already precarious sanity). Get better at conduct violations/firing people. Finally get a book order approved in time to get ALL the back-ordered books before the Business Manager tells me he won't pay for them anymore (99% not my fault...I mostly dislike Central Office on this). Try to get The Newsletter, which I've been hounded and badgered and other animal-ed about, up and running and not stupid AFTER my most annoying employee leaves.
Lots of goals. And I really don't want to do the newsletter. But hey, I've survived a year! And with only one Seriously Awkward Occurrence!
I have been a Prison Librarian for one full year. Today. Holy balls, where does the time go?
I mean this day (I thought it was Friday until I realized it was Wednesday), this week, these past three months, have lasted for-ev-er. But a year? Damn! And I still feel like I'm just getting my feet wet while hitting the ground running every day. Hells Bells, I've been cleaning out my office for the past two days. As in getting rid of things my predecessor had stockpiled but never used. After a year.
Product of the Past Year: I'm a damned better librarian (not that my program actually teaches anybody about serious career-ship); I have gained a life-saving, yet limiting, understanding of stats; I have taught myself to repair any book given basic glue, book tape, scotch tape, a glue gun, and shirt cardboard; attempted to consistently reign in my temper when my workers are seriously annoying (losing battle, might have to fire some people); and learned the most basic of basic cataloging. And I have a Year of Experience. Oh, and collection development. Almost a full-time job on its own.
Goals for the Next Year: Learn how to do conduct violations/fire people (to save my already precarious sanity). Get better at conduct violations/firing people. Finally get a book order approved in time to get ALL the back-ordered books before the Business Manager tells me he won't pay for them anymore (99% not my fault...I mostly dislike Central Office on this). Try to get The Newsletter, which I've been hounded and badgered and other animal-ed about, up and running and not stupid AFTER my most annoying employee leaves.
Lots of goals. And I really don't want to do the newsletter. But hey, I've survived a year! And with only one Seriously Awkward Occurrence!
Monday, December 12, 2011
O.M.G. Stuff!
I don't know whether to tell y'all all the things in Hyperbole And A Half-speak* (which I was addicted to a week ago) or Anthony Bourdain No Reservations-speak (which I'm addicted to now).
Honestly, the best I can do is cuss and say, On Man, all about puttin' out fires.
First of all, I really hate how blogsspot makes me search, sometimes in vain, for those enters I constantly enter. I mean, I hit "enter" twice to start a new paragraph...why do I have to involve arrow keys? Unfortunately, I'm not famous enough to branch out on my own, so I'll have to deal with it and love it.
(Two enters and some down keys later). This past week has been KA-RAZY (misspellings and hypens don't do it justice)! To begin, I received my first ever book order. That's right, my peeps, I received over 130 books. Magically. Possibly in the mail. It was unexpected and overwhelming and, above all, amazing. My guys haven't had any new books, other than half-read things donated by other institutions, for over 6 months now. My employees are totally stoked. I can't wait to see how my Patron react. Probably with complaints and requests, but whatever. My Guys come in, see the books, peruse for waaaay longer than my CO likes, get chased out, then start post-it-ing their names all over the books. HAPPY EMPLOYEES MAKE HAPPY PATRONS.
And the company that we deal with for book sent the cataloging software on Friday. Which means I'll be cataloging the other, say, 100 books on my own. Hope My Guys don't want their books anytime soon... (buggering third parties.)
Also, we, as a Department, have completely revamped the legal database. Basically, for those of my (very few) loyal readers that understand this semi-technical crap, we have switched from LexisNexis to WestLaw for (online-ish) legal research. To be honest, I loathe both. I would never use either ever (I have family for this kind of thing), but whatever. It the cheaper, and supposedly better, contract that we got.
In a nutshell, what it meant for me was a week and a half of scrambling around, receiving orders, trying to coordinate with the Idiot who A) wouldn't take my calls, and B) had an only slightly better idea of what was going on (we had a tech come out to test the brand new not-dial-up line...got about 4 hours notice - because the tech called ahead - the Idiot had no idea anything was happening). It all culminated in me being Ultimately and Awesomely Prepared on most levels, and being all Uhhh...What when my Boss-Boss asked me one simple question. Strange but Awesome! people in my library, me not eating for nearly 24 hours, LOTS of list-making-and-checking-and-double-checking-and-more-list-making, and talking Dr. Who and anime with "The Girls". Talk about Stressed Out Awesome Fun Time Leaving Me With Terrible, Terrible Bruises (the old server must have weighed a good 80 pounds and I had to tetris the guy's trunk for him...the other server weighed around 60). Worth it on a professional and personal level...except that I hate my law clerk and now have to "train" him on WestLaw and he knows we can print now. (I had continued the fiction that we couldn't only because I don't want to deal with it. Where is S.? Why doesn't he come back to me? He's so much better than O.)
Anyway, last week was crazy. This week I'm going to have to call a bunch of people, catalog way too many books, glue WAY to many books together, COVER ALL OF THE BOOKS (let me know if this link doesn't work correctly), put together a Book List, mentally restructure my library, fend my law clerk off with a stick, hire two more guys, somehow cultivate the level of service I'm used to (got two guys who are awesome, one guy who didn't realize he was getting paid, and, well, suck-tards) and, generally, just want to shut everything out and do USA Today crossword puzzles and Sudokus, and, oh, Thursday is the 15th, which means making a lot of lists and filling out forms and somehow finding volunteers to venture into The Hole (even though they're allowed to leave).
Gods, I love this job.
P.S. Oh, and CO Guy has finally stopped hitting on me. We're still "good friends" apparently...?
~~~
*Hyperbole and a Half is the best comic-blog evar that you could possibly read or find online. Click the link, any of then, and start from the beginning. If you start from the beginning, you will come to fully appreciate how awesome both Girl and Blog are. Trust me on this. I'm addicted on an Intervention-type level. ("Hi, I'm KP and I'm 29 and I've been reading Hyperbole and a Half for 3 years...")
Honestly, the best I can do is cuss and say, On Man, all about puttin' out fires.
First of all, I really hate how blogsspot makes me search, sometimes in vain, for those enters I constantly enter. I mean, I hit "enter" twice to start a new paragraph...why do I have to involve arrow keys? Unfortunately, I'm not famous enough to branch out on my own, so I'll have to deal with it and love it.
(Two enters and some down keys later). This past week has been KA-RAZY (misspellings and hypens don't do it justice)! To begin, I received my first ever book order. That's right, my peeps, I received over 130 books. Magically. Possibly in the mail. It was unexpected and overwhelming and, above all, amazing. My guys haven't had any new books, other than half-read things donated by other institutions, for over 6 months now. My employees are totally stoked. I can't wait to see how my Patron react. Probably with complaints and requests, but whatever. My Guys come in, see the books, peruse for waaaay longer than my CO likes, get chased out, then start post-it-ing their names all over the books. HAPPY EMPLOYEES MAKE HAPPY PATRONS.
And the company that we deal with for book sent the cataloging software on Friday. Which means I'll be cataloging the other, say, 100 books on my own. Hope My Guys don't want their books anytime soon... (buggering third parties.)
Also, we, as a Department, have completely revamped the legal database. Basically, for those of my (very few) loyal readers that understand this semi-technical crap, we have switched from LexisNexis to WestLaw for (online-ish) legal research. To be honest, I loathe both. I would never use either ever (I have family for this kind of thing), but whatever. It the cheaper, and supposedly better, contract that we got.
In a nutshell, what it meant for me was a week and a half of scrambling around, receiving orders, trying to coordinate with the Idiot who A) wouldn't take my calls, and B) had an only slightly better idea of what was going on (we had a tech come out to test the brand new not-dial-up line...got about 4 hours notice - because the tech called ahead - the Idiot had no idea anything was happening). It all culminated in me being Ultimately and Awesomely Prepared on most levels, and being all Uhhh...What when my Boss-Boss asked me one simple question. Strange but Awesome! people in my library, me not eating for nearly 24 hours, LOTS of list-making-and-checking-and-double-checking-and-more-list-making, and talking Dr. Who and anime with "The Girls". Talk about Stressed Out Awesome Fun Time Leaving Me With Terrible, Terrible Bruises (the old server must have weighed a good 80 pounds and I had to tetris the guy's trunk for him...the other server weighed around 60). Worth it on a professional and personal level...except that I hate my law clerk and now have to "train" him on WestLaw and he knows we can print now. (I had continued the fiction that we couldn't only because I don't want to deal with it. Where is S.? Why doesn't he come back to me? He's so much better than O.)
Anyway, last week was crazy. This week I'm going to have to call a bunch of people, catalog way too many books, glue WAY to many books together, COVER ALL OF THE BOOKS (let me know if this link doesn't work correctly), put together a Book List, mentally restructure my library, fend my law clerk off with a stick, hire two more guys, somehow cultivate the level of service I'm used to (got two guys who are awesome, one guy who didn't realize he was getting paid, and, well, suck-tards) and, generally, just want to shut everything out and do USA Today crossword puzzles and Sudokus, and, oh, Thursday is the 15th, which means making a lot of lists and filling out forms and somehow finding volunteers to venture into The Hole (even though they're allowed to leave).
Gods, I love this job.
P.S. Oh, and CO Guy has finally stopped hitting on me. We're still "good friends" apparently...?
~~~
*Hyperbole and a Half is the best comic-blog evar that you could possibly read or find online. Click the link, any of then, and start from the beginning. If you start from the beginning, you will come to fully appreciate how awesome both Girl and Blog are. Trust me on this. I'm addicted on an Intervention-type level. ("Hi, I'm KP and I'm 29 and I've been reading Hyperbole and a Half for 3 years...")
Thursday, November 3, 2011
Puttin' Out Fires and Gettin' Shit Done...Mostly
Wow, I owe you guys a lot. Not that anyone really reads this, but I still owe you.
Okay, FIRST (that looks awkward in all caps), based on my previous post, Correction Officer (hereby referred to as CO Guy), gave me his cell number the other day. Luckily he hasn't asked why I haven't called. Honestly, I really hope he does so I can put him in his place/teach him a lesson about asking whether or not Ladies have Significant Others before not-so-bluntly "asking them out" (pretty sure he was angling for me to move in with him...not sure, won't judge...yet).
Also, WOW has a LOT been going on since I last posted. I've met all of the other DOC Librarians. They mostly say the same thing (when the Veterans aren't talking about retirement...Transfer Opportunities!), this job is all about Putting Out Fires and finding the time to Get Shit Done. I've asked my Employees (don't like to think of them as "Offender Workers"...except the one that pisses me off constantly) and they say I spend way too much time holed up in my office. I'm trying to Get Shit Done! And, of course, when I'm actually being productive, M -- we all blame him for everything that goes wrong, but he has an excellent sense of humor and is the only Employee that can tell I Can't Be Bothered Right Now -- is in my office every five minutes telling me in great detail the problem (VERY helpful, that attention to detail) and then asking if I need help/constantly checking up on me. Good show, that.
Honestly, I'm pretty much forbidden to play favorites, but certain others from my past know how much I can rely on a Number 1. M is my Number 1 for this job. I will be very sad to lose him and his friend at the end of the month -- M not only does all the dirty work I don't want to do, but is Ecstatic to do it (I'm actually considering offering him a Letter of Rec should he ever get a real job on the outside) -- and I really don't want to see him come back, but I do want to see him come back. Because he does so much I don't want to do and I'm lazy and have lots of lists to write.
Coincidentally, I mentioned to my Real Boss that half this job was list-writing. Her response was a stressed, melodramatic sigh. That's cool. I love lists. I'm closet OCD.
Also, I'm giving CO Guy a week (my personal CO won't be here then, so CO Guy will feel Free And Clear) before he asks why I haven't called him. Man, I have so many snappy comebacks planned, he'll probably be even more impressed and start comin' round more often.
OH! And, most importantly, in the past month and some, got my Budget approved (not hard here), placed all my purchase orders, got my miscellaneous funds spending approved (might have to spend more of that in the next week), placed all THOSE purchase orders, repaired a bunch of books my library doesn't even own, did a Good Deed, interacted will a lot of Offenders that love the Library (rawk on!), and mostly completed the Major Task (Inventory...dun dun duuuuuhn) that should have been completely completed last month. Oh, and got the heat fixed so that it works too well now and everyone complains.
It's been a good, busy month. *grin*
Okay, FIRST (that looks awkward in all caps), based on my previous post, Correction Officer (hereby referred to as CO Guy), gave me his cell number the other day. Luckily he hasn't asked why I haven't called. Honestly, I really hope he does so I can put him in his place/teach him a lesson about asking whether or not Ladies have Significant Others before not-so-bluntly "asking them out" (pretty sure he was angling for me to move in with him...not sure, won't judge...yet).
Also, WOW has a LOT been going on since I last posted. I've met all of the other DOC Librarians. They mostly say the same thing (when the Veterans aren't talking about retirement...Transfer Opportunities!), this job is all about Putting Out Fires and finding the time to Get Shit Done. I've asked my Employees (don't like to think of them as "Offender Workers"...except the one that pisses me off constantly) and they say I spend way too much time holed up in my office. I'm trying to Get Shit Done! And, of course, when I'm actually being productive, M -- we all blame him for everything that goes wrong, but he has an excellent sense of humor and is the only Employee that can tell I Can't Be Bothered Right Now -- is in my office every five minutes telling me in great detail the problem (VERY helpful, that attention to detail) and then asking if I need help/constantly checking up on me. Good show, that.
Honestly, I'm pretty much forbidden to play favorites, but certain others from my past know how much I can rely on a Number 1. M is my Number 1 for this job. I will be very sad to lose him and his friend at the end of the month -- M not only does all the dirty work I don't want to do, but is Ecstatic to do it (I'm actually considering offering him a Letter of Rec should he ever get a real job on the outside) -- and I really don't want to see him come back, but I do want to see him come back. Because he does so much I don't want to do and I'm lazy and have lots of lists to write.
Coincidentally, I mentioned to my Real Boss that half this job was list-writing. Her response was a stressed, melodramatic sigh. That's cool. I love lists. I'm closet OCD.
Also, I'm giving CO Guy a week (my personal CO won't be here then, so CO Guy will feel Free And Clear) before he asks why I haven't called him. Man, I have so many snappy comebacks planned, he'll probably be even more impressed and start comin' round more often.
OH! And, most importantly, in the past month and some, got my Budget approved (not hard here), placed all my purchase orders, got my miscellaneous funds spending approved (might have to spend more of that in the next week), placed all THOSE purchase orders, repaired a bunch of books my library doesn't even own, did a Good Deed, interacted will a lot of Offenders that love the Library (rawk on!), and mostly completed the Major Task (Inventory...dun dun duuuuuhn) that should have been completely completed last month. Oh, and got the heat fixed so that it works too well now and everyone complains.
It's been a good, busy month. *grin*
Tuesday, September 27, 2011
Oooooh, Convict Employees...
Highlights of My Day:
One of my best Employees was so happy today. Why? Because he had an hour-long conference call (on MY time) with his lawyer. He's confident that, even with his "17 felonies" and 58K in lawyers' fees ("that's a house!...Well, it's almost my house."), he only has to do 5 years in Fed. He left my office crowing, "5 years, in 2 I'll be home!"
My other Con Employee asked what I read. When I replied, "Mostly fantasy, but also mystery, biography, and some urban fiction, but I'm really only up to Patterson in the mystery genre." He was all, "Urban fiction?" And I say, "Hot books" (In my setting, urban fiction tends to be stolen/destroyed, therefore designated a "hot book" and only lent out for one week). He gives me this 'but you're clearly a white girl from the 'burbs...why would you be reading this shit?' look and sorta grunt and all I can say is, "Well they're popular around here and ya'll always want more, so I figured I should familiarize myself with the genre." This got an even weirder look and, saints be praised, guy actually shut up for 10 seconds and quit attempting to schmooze me.
Yeah, a lot of weird in about 45 minutes of my day.
One of my best Employees was so happy today. Why? Because he had an hour-long conference call (on MY time) with his lawyer. He's confident that, even with his "17 felonies" and 58K in lawyers' fees ("that's a house!...Well, it's almost my house."), he only has to do 5 years in Fed. He left my office crowing, "5 years, in 2 I'll be home!"
My other Con Employee asked what I read. When I replied, "Mostly fantasy, but also mystery, biography, and some urban fiction, but I'm really only up to Patterson in the mystery genre." He was all, "Urban fiction?" And I say, "Hot books" (In my setting, urban fiction tends to be stolen/destroyed, therefore designated a "hot book" and only lent out for one week). He gives me this 'but you're clearly a white girl from the 'burbs...why would you be reading this shit?' look and sorta grunt and all I can say is, "Well they're popular around here and ya'll always want more, so I figured I should familiarize myself with the genre." This got an even weirder look and, saints be praised, guy actually shut up for 10 seconds and quit attempting to schmooze me.
Yeah, a lot of weird in about 45 minutes of my day.
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Too Much James Patterson...
...rots the brain. That's the reason there haven't been any Readers' Advisory updates - because all I've been reading is James Patterson and nothing has been recommendable until Kiss the Girls, which I finished this morning. However, I'm pretty sure that everyone who's literate and over the age of 14 has read this, or seen the movie, and I am not planning on reviewing it (although I probably should to keep in practice).
Meant to post last week, because last week was a Week of Firsts for me. First full week of open library hours, first purchases delivered, first random staff drug screening. That last one is the event that really stands out because it was totally awkward. Dear Boss, when you tell me to go to this one room at this one time and I have to SHUT DOWN THE LIBRARY TO DO THIS, I really wish policy would let you tell me not to pee before I go there. My workers were cool with my delay, though, so it's all good.
This week has been all about getting my Monthly Report in on time (got it in early!), ridding my office out of the 10 bajillion books that are laying about (New Books, Repairs, and Random Piles Left to Me That Are Not Labeled), and compiling worker schedules/duties...oh AND working on my budget. I can't wait until I go to the budget meeting and everyone's like, "Why do you need these not-quite-super-swanky baskets and little drawers and scotch tape?" And I get to reply (in a professional manner), "Have you seen my supplies cabinet? No? Go find me my 2-inch clear book repair tape with the peel-off backing in less than 2 minutes and then tell me I don't need hundreds of dollars of organizational supplies. Oh, and did I mention that we're down to our last two half-rolls of scotch tape and I won't be able to buy any more for at least a month?" Yes, I like to be organized where I work.
Two final notes:
Meant to post last week, because last week was a Week of Firsts for me. First full week of open library hours, first purchases delivered, first random staff drug screening. That last one is the event that really stands out because it was totally awkward. Dear Boss, when you tell me to go to this one room at this one time and I have to SHUT DOWN THE LIBRARY TO DO THIS, I really wish policy would let you tell me not to pee before I go there. My workers were cool with my delay, though, so it's all good.
This week has been all about getting my Monthly Report in on time (got it in early!), ridding my office out of the 10 bajillion books that are laying about (New Books, Repairs, and Random Piles Left to Me That Are Not Labeled), and compiling worker schedules/duties...oh AND working on my budget. I can't wait until I go to the budget meeting and everyone's like, "Why do you need these not-quite-super-swanky baskets and little drawers and scotch tape?" And I get to reply (in a professional manner), "Have you seen my supplies cabinet? No? Go find me my 2-inch clear book repair tape with the peel-off backing in less than 2 minutes and then tell me I don't need hundreds of dollars of organizational supplies. Oh, and did I mention that we're down to our last two half-rolls of scotch tape and I won't be able to buy any more for at least a month?" Yes, I like to be organized where I work.
Two final notes:
- I love my job.
- I am quickly learning to hate covering paperback books.
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