Monday, October 21, 2013

New People

We have two new staff members. As is common for my Library they are refugees from other branches. Among the Circulation staff there are very few of us who are native to this, the giant, branch in the system. When I experience pride over my co workers it is because we are a rough bunch, with a streak of displacement, malcontentment, and independence. The little Libraries couldn't hold us. Nevertheless, the transition to this large, busy branch can still be a complicated one, and the process of assimilation is strange and challenging.

When I expounded the following analogy to Dave, he characterized it as disgusting, which it kind of is, but there was a certain warm pleasure in his voice, which is part of why we get along.

My Library is like a giant stomach, and when the new people come in, we only have so long to digest them into working the way we want them to, into being the kind of co-workers we want them to be, before they become part of the stomach, and thus become part of who we are.

Our manager shows them around and tells them some random assortment of duties and rules they should know. Those rules are fine, and the new people need to know them. But there are easily twice as many secret rules, and I convey, in the natural scheme of things, as many as I can to the new people. And then, sometimes in a day, sometimes in a few months, it's over, and they are just, for good or ill, us.

1 comment:

  1. Creepy. Ya'll are like the Borg library.

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