It is a feature, or a bug, of our library
culture that occasional extracurricular work activities are seen,
managerially at least, as a problem. Internet usage, personal phone
calls, too much chatting, both among staff and with
patrons, have all had their moments under the bright, revealing library police
lights. Also culturally speaking, the response to this problem has not
been the most efficient. Instead of a quiet, low key request, gently
put, with the one or two main offenders of certain basic
standards, we more commonly get blanket bans: No Internet. No chatting.
No calls. Most of these blanket bans erode over time depending on the
will of the staff to persist in natural, albeit slightly dangerous, behavior, and on the managerial
gusto to enforce a rule being minisculy violated
nearly everywhere.
Which brings me to a new
blanket ban that greeted me in my email this morning. Someone has been
constantly poking at their smartphone while on the job. Consistently enough, instead of said person being talked to, the response has instead been that no one is to use their cell phone while on the job. In
fact, everyone should, ideally, leave their phone in their locker.
This is not a particularly significant event except for, and perhaps because of, this:
I don't have or use a smart phone.
And
so in 24 years of working at the library, through dozens and dozens of
wide condemnations of aberrant, slacker, and unprofessional employee behavior, this, this just now,
is the first time I've ever been innocent.
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