The Secret of my Success
One of the interesting things about my life is that I work two jobs. Some nights I work in a library and other nights I work in a hospital with my dad. Today I will tell you a little bit about my job at the library.
I am not a librarian. My official title is Evening Circulation Associate; a more concise way of putting it would be to say that I am the "Night Guy." Essentially I do everything that they do during the day with a tenth of the staff but I get to kick all the patrons out a midnight and use a PA system. Its a trade-off but one that I am quite happy with.
To the untrained eye it may appear that I do not have enough work to justify an eight hour shift. This is not the case; as any professional librarian could explain, there is plenty of work to be done. It just so happens that I am an extremely efficient individual. What takes the average librarian two hours to complete I can finish in roughly twenty minutes. Sometimes with greater accuracy then the trained librarians.
So what, you may ask yourself, is the secret to my success? I can attribute my success to two factors the first being my ADD and the second being the blunt and condescending manner in which I handle the patrons. For many ADD is an affliction but every once in a while it can be a bit of a blessing. The upside to being constantly distracted by just about everything around you is that you are very rarely bored. Everything around you has the untapped potential to suddenly become the most interesting thing on the planet without warning. Sure this is a liability when sitting in a classroom, or on a jury but when you work nights at a library it becomes a godsend right around ten o'clock when things start to slow down.
Who says Add is bad. Drawing by Mike
The ADD was a gift from God; but the condescending bluntness...well that took years of working in a Longmeadow CVS to cultivate. The simple fact of the matter is that 90% of college students do not know how to use the library. I can understand that figure, I am still appalled by it but I understand. The fact that 75% of them do not know the name of their professor six weeks into the semester I find irritating. When someone asks me for a book on reserve and they do not know who the professor is or what the name of the class is I get irritated and I let my irritation show.
Drawing by Mike
Thanks to my ADD and my unique approach to customer service I have plenty of free time at work to work on other things like homework, reading, the occasional blog post...with illustrations.
I am not a librarian. My official title is Evening Circulation Associate; a more concise way of putting it would be to say that I am the "Night Guy." Essentially I do everything that they do during the day with a tenth of the staff but I get to kick all the patrons out a midnight and use a PA system. Its a trade-off but one that I am quite happy with.
To the untrained eye it may appear that I do not have enough work to justify an eight hour shift. This is not the case; as any professional librarian could explain, there is plenty of work to be done. It just so happens that I am an extremely efficient individual. What takes the average librarian two hours to complete I can finish in roughly twenty minutes. Sometimes with greater accuracy then the trained librarians.
So what, you may ask yourself, is the secret to my success? I can attribute my success to two factors the first being my ADD and the second being the blunt and condescending manner in which I handle the patrons. For many ADD is an affliction but every once in a while it can be a bit of a blessing. The upside to being constantly distracted by just about everything around you is that you are very rarely bored. Everything around you has the untapped potential to suddenly become the most interesting thing on the planet without warning. Sure this is a liability when sitting in a classroom, or on a jury but when you work nights at a library it becomes a godsend right around ten o'clock when things start to slow down.
Who says Add is bad. Drawing by Mike
The ADD was a gift from God; but the condescending bluntness...well that took years of working in a Longmeadow CVS to cultivate. The simple fact of the matter is that 90% of college students do not know how to use the library. I can understand that figure, I am still appalled by it but I understand. The fact that 75% of them do not know the name of their professor six weeks into the semester I find irritating. When someone asks me for a book on reserve and they do not know who the professor is or what the name of the class is I get irritated and I let my irritation show.
Drawing by Mike
Thanks to my ADD and my unique approach to customer service I have plenty of free time at work to work on other things like homework, reading, the occasional blog post...with illustrations.
posted by TheDarkLordDerfla at 7:17 PM
3 Comments:
Mike... after all these years of laughing with you (at you?) as you tell these hysterical library stories, I never once thought to put a pencil in your hand and piece of paper in front of you. Your drawings perfectly enhance the whole "Mike at the library" experience that I've grown to love.
mike, your drawings are fantastic and so true to life, but where are your glasses? (sorry, im a stickler [sp]for 2d details.)
I realized that I forgot my glasses yesterday and I promise to fix this glitch in the future.
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