Friday was like a bad Monday
Jan. 30th, 2009 10:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altivoYou'd have thought it was a full moon. We had more looneys today than I've counted in several months together. The lady who insisted that there was a DVD left out of the box she checked out, because the one DVD in there was labeled "Side A" but there was no "Side B"... (It was a double sided disk, just needed to be turned over.) Several people who wanted to know what tax forms they needed in order to apply for "The stimulus check" that Congress hasn't even finished approving, let alone the IRS or whoever deciding how it will be delivered... and they get really irate when you tell them their questions can NOT be answered yet...
Then there's the stupidity of the companies like Walmart and Walgreens that are insisting that all applicants for all jobs apply over the internet. Walmart in particular is notable for hiring people who are, well, less than all there in the brains department, let's say. These are folks who have never used a computer, don't want to use a computer, don't have a computer, and don't know a thing about the web. So Walmart tells them to "Go to the library, they'll help you." No. We have neither the staff nor the time to sit holding someone's hand for an hour or 90 minutes while they hunt and peck their way through a job application, needing help with every question and every mouse-click. Multiply that by hundreds and thousands for all the people who are being laid off from their jobs, and libraries are simply NOT going to be able to help them all. There has to be a better answer. Part of that is that employers cannot be permitted to shove people away by making them go through this sort of misery. They are just trying to "screen" applicants by shutting out all but the most persistent ones, and making us bear the burden of their laziness.
Then there are the schoolteachers. The library provides storytelling and books to check out for classrooms full of elementary kids on Fridays. The teachers are asked to sign up for a regular appointment every three weeks and keep it, or call if they aren't coming. They get a written list of their scheduled dates and times, which of course they all promptly lose. So they are always calling to ask when their next date is, or showing up in the wrong week, when we already have seven or eight classes scheduled for that day, or not showing up and not calling. It's maddening. These are teachers? They expect their students to hand in assignments on time? Yet they can't keep track of half a dozen appointments and be responsible about them?
Then there are the people who call before the building is open and want us to let them in so we can send a fax for them, or so they can use the copier. And the ones who come in at five minutes to closing and "Just need to check their e-mail."
My gem for the day was the woman who wanted to know if we had the video Gandhi on DVD. No. But three libraries in the system do have it, and we could request it from them. This was at 10 in the morning. So she wanted to know if she could pick it up this afternoon at three. No. We can request it today, but the next pickup at those libraries will be on Monday morning. With luck, it will be here on Tuesday, but more likely Wednesday. That's not fast enough, she needs it now. So where are the libraries that have it? She'll go there to get it. So I told her. All were city libraries within 20 miles or so of us. Not only had she never heard of the libraries, she'd never heard of the cities and didn't know where they were. OK. Finally she settled for letting us request the thing and call her when it comes in. I asked for her library card number, but she didn't know what it was and didn't have the card. I asked for her name, and she gave me a first and last name. I wrote those down, and said I would place the request for her. All this took place on the phone at my desk, where I didn't have access to the circulation system. This was because the front desk was so busy that the call rang through to me.
I went to place the request for her, and there was no user with that name on record. I was about to give up, but the director figured it out. The user had a hyphenated last name as listed on the records and on her card, but had given me only half of it. (Probably she has divorced and never told us to change her name on the record.) Then it seemed that her card was expired and she's a non-resident so she has to renew the card in order to borrow. She'll be real unhappy to hear that. Anyway, the request was put in the queue finally.
I'm glad there's nothing in particular on tap for this weekend. I need to unwind somehow.
Then there's the stupidity of the companies like Walmart and Walgreens that are insisting that all applicants for all jobs apply over the internet. Walmart in particular is notable for hiring people who are, well, less than all there in the brains department, let's say. These are folks who have never used a computer, don't want to use a computer, don't have a computer, and don't know a thing about the web. So Walmart tells them to "Go to the library, they'll help you." No. We have neither the staff nor the time to sit holding someone's hand for an hour or 90 minutes while they hunt and peck their way through a job application, needing help with every question and every mouse-click. Multiply that by hundreds and thousands for all the people who are being laid off from their jobs, and libraries are simply NOT going to be able to help them all. There has to be a better answer. Part of that is that employers cannot be permitted to shove people away by making them go through this sort of misery. They are just trying to "screen" applicants by shutting out all but the most persistent ones, and making us bear the burden of their laziness.
Then there are the schoolteachers. The library provides storytelling and books to check out for classrooms full of elementary kids on Fridays. The teachers are asked to sign up for a regular appointment every three weeks and keep it, or call if they aren't coming. They get a written list of their scheduled dates and times, which of course they all promptly lose. So they are always calling to ask when their next date is, or showing up in the wrong week, when we already have seven or eight classes scheduled for that day, or not showing up and not calling. It's maddening. These are teachers? They expect their students to hand in assignments on time? Yet they can't keep track of half a dozen appointments and be responsible about them?
Then there are the people who call before the building is open and want us to let them in so we can send a fax for them, or so they can use the copier. And the ones who come in at five minutes to closing and "Just need to check their e-mail."
My gem for the day was the woman who wanted to know if we had the video Gandhi on DVD. No. But three libraries in the system do have it, and we could request it from them. This was at 10 in the morning. So she wanted to know if she could pick it up this afternoon at three. No. We can request it today, but the next pickup at those libraries will be on Monday morning. With luck, it will be here on Tuesday, but more likely Wednesday. That's not fast enough, she needs it now. So where are the libraries that have it? She'll go there to get it. So I told her. All were city libraries within 20 miles or so of us. Not only had she never heard of the libraries, she'd never heard of the cities and didn't know where they were. OK. Finally she settled for letting us request the thing and call her when it comes in. I asked for her library card number, but she didn't know what it was and didn't have the card. I asked for her name, and she gave me a first and last name. I wrote those down, and said I would place the request for her. All this took place on the phone at my desk, where I didn't have access to the circulation system. This was because the front desk was so busy that the call rang through to me.
I went to place the request for her, and there was no user with that name on record. I was about to give up, but the director figured it out. The user had a hyphenated last name as listed on the records and on her card, but had given me only half of it. (Probably she has divorced and never told us to change her name on the record.) Then it seemed that her card was expired and she's a non-resident so she has to renew the card in order to borrow. She'll be real unhappy to hear that. Anyway, the request was put in the queue finally.
I'm glad there's nothing in particular on tap for this weekend. I need to unwind somehow.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2009-01-31 05:38 am (UTC)MLS degree. @.@
But of all that, this one thing caught my attention:
So Walmart tells them to "Go to the library, they'll help you."
Your not serious, you can't be.
@.@
no subject
Date: 2009-01-31 11:48 am (UTC)Now, with the economic disaster created by more greedy yuppy bureaucrats and pirates, thousands of these people are desperate, helpless, and in need. With our staffing (often just two people, or three at most) and a library crawling with noisy, ill-behaved kids, how are we to help them? We have our real jobs to do, and this task is like the fabled Augean stables. If we start sitting with each one for 90 minutes to get their (probably hopeless) job application filled out, the word will get around and they'll be lining up for it. We just can't do it.
A guy from the count unemployment office was at the library earlier in the week asking us to do exactly that. He wanted us to attend "training sessions" on helping these people. His office is completely overwhelmed, and I understand that, but we don't have the resources, staff, or hours to take up his slack either.
As for Walmart, they are so bad now that they didn't even print W-2 forms for their employees. They gave them passwords and told them they had to log in on the web and print their own. Can you believe that? I don't think that's even legal, but they've done it, and we are being swarmed by people who need the W-2 form for their taxes and haven't the foggiest notion of how to get it. These are people who don't read or write anything if they can avoid it. They've never used a computer in their lives.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-31 02:29 pm (UTC)Cuddles with loved ones, that is what you need right now. *hugs warm and tight and starts grooming you* Poor horsie.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-31 03:02 pm (UTC)You're right about JD, he's not my friend. I need peace and quiet, time to read and create. Of course with the "Stupid Bowl" being this weekend, I need to hide out at home anyway to avoid the sports fanatics. Even the supermarkets have pushed aside the normal, reasonably healthy food offerings in order to replace them with huge junk food and beer displays.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-31 06:50 pm (UTC)I hope things stay under control in there.
And... Gah... Replacing good food with junk... I probably shouldn't even get started about that. :P
no subject
Date: 2009-01-31 10:33 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-01 08:12 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-02-01 12:39 pm (UTC)So the idea is that it gives the women a chance to get away from the football mania, which I guess makes sense. I've gone to a couple of those sales, but they're just as crazy as the football parties, and, to be honest, just as dull. ;p
no subject
Date: 2009-02-02 04:17 pm (UTC)See, this is what I told wife a few years
ago, that the current paradigm of the corporate
world is to "flatten the pyramid".
CEO and Board at top, no middle layer, and
poorly paid programmers, probably from China
or India, at the bottom, setting up call centers
that you have to wade through to get a human,
and things like the little kiosks to submit
applications for employment.
Its like when they said, "Oh we won't need disk
drives soon!" when they meant, "we'll still sell
you the computer for full price, but omit a bit
of hardware and become richer."
Fortunetly for me, I'm not cowed by this stuff,
and I usually take pains to instruct anyone that
asks how to print a file or such.
I used to have this illusion about progress, that
each generation would be faster/smarter/stronger/better
than the last.
Apparently the two big elephants in the room;
Big Business and Big Government are happier with
a low skill level on the populace.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-02 04:28 pm (UTC)The Bush administration regulated nothing. They appointed people to regulatory positions based on their promises NOT to enforce regulations. That's not big government, it's laissez faire, and it's what ultimately triggered the current disaster. Because banking regulations went unenforced, the top cats at the financial offices focused entirely on padding their own pockets, regardless of the long term issues it would cause.
Other people's misery is comedy gold.
Date: 2009-02-03 10:13 am (UTC)Re: Other people's misery is comedy gold.
Date: 2009-02-03 04:53 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-31 06:37 am (UTC)Fortunately, this is exactly the kind of thing that horses and other critters are good for. Go out and spend some time with them; Grooming or brushing or scritching, or whatever... They'll love the attention, and you'll feel better...
Of course, you already know this, so you're probably out there now... :)
no subject
Date: 2009-01-31 11:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-31 02:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-31 02:56 pm (UTC)The people who work low paying jobs and are not computer literate though, are not morons. They may not be very bright, but society has encouraged them to be what they are and now suddenly expects them to change overnight. I feel very bad for them, but I can't help them any more than I can help the people who come to the desk feeling sick and want ME to diagnose their illness. I'm not a doctor, I can't do that. Yes, this happens. Or they come looking for legal advice. I'm not a lawyer either. If I gave out bad medical or legal advice, they could try to sue me for it too. But when I say I can't advise them, all I can do is offer them books to read, they get very angry sometimes.
Helping the semi-literate unemployed is a job for social services agencies and unemployment offices. Of course, the right-wing "smaller government" advocates who have been running the country for much of my lifetime have been snipping away at those services continuously for 40 years until there's nothing left of them. Now that their rotten economic policy has destroyed the economy, they expect the rest of us to clean up the mess while they sit back in their walled mansions and drink champagne purchased with their cash bonuses and excess profits made in the phony real estate market bubble.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-31 06:53 pm (UTC)A system based on $ cannot survive without $
Date: 2009-02-03 10:37 am (UTC)Nobody's looking ahead until they're desperate, and by then it's too late. People are commiting suicide- some, mass suicide- because they're out of work! Pansies. I went three years without so much as a temp job or day labor. Survival of the fittest still applies, and if you want to take yourself out, you're only helping the rest of us by reducing the number of those we must overcome to get what each of us wants. If you want to survive, regardless of how, you have to learn to live without. I came to think of it as "training for the real world", and it's become a lot more useful than anything I ever learned in community college.
With the recent death of a relative, I came to see the upside to death- and how anyone's loss is someone else's gain. People seem to prefer to make their lives a win/win scenario, free of hardship and sacrifice... but it's a tad bit unrealistic, to say the least. Life isn't change, but rather adaptation to changes, whatever they may be. Death is freedom from that constant struggle to continue living. But people who off themselves are really afriad of failing or sacrifice, or being looked down on. I've been on a journey through many of the ideas people fear, fearing the unknown at first myself- until it became familiar. Once you know how something works, it takes a lot of the negative effect of it out. Being without money is no big deal...I found four dollars this morning whilst awaiting the opening of the local Denny's- they're giving away free Grand Slam Breakfasts today ;) Add that to what I already have, and I can afford to pay for my breakfast :) No humble pie, no moping or whining- you succeed by trying, again and again; that, as I see it, is survival.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-01 01:46 am (UTC)The way they put it says you have to pass this test if they will consider you for an interview, well even though I answered the thing with what I thought were concise and honest answers I still failed it. Apparently in their view you are supposed to make customers wait while you get your supervisor or allow fellow employees to lie, cheat and steal. You aren't allow to try and figure out how to help the customer yourself but have to go though hoops for them. It doesn't help that most of the questions and answers were in the form of "On a scale of 1 to 5 or 10 please rate you view on..." or true and false questions.
In hindsight I suppose this would explain why I have never had any good customer service when going into a WalMart and why my parents will only shop there in desperation. Mother herself rather prefers Target over WalMart.
no subject
Date: 2009-02-01 02:48 am (UTC)Employee discounted...
Date: 2009-02-03 10:17 am (UTC)