[Sca-librarians] Speaking of rants........

[Sally Burnell]

For three and a half years, we've been working out of a temporary 
facility while our new $58 million Main Library has been under 
construction. Today was our last day in temporary quarters and starting 
tomorrow, we report back to new Main Library in downtown Akron, OH. 

I'm NOT happy about this because the cost of parking ($55/mo. compared 
to free at Temporary Main), the downtown traffic (Akron has among the 
worst drivers in the country and more stupid one-way streets than any 
other city its size), the panhandlers, drug dealers, lack of good 
restaurants and places to eat AND our department is located in what I 
jokingly call "Dick Cheney's Concrete Bunker in an Undisclosed 
Location". We are not permitted to decorate the walls of the new place 
with posters to liven it up, we have formica "work stations" instead of 
our trusty old, sturdy wooden desks, and worst of all, I won't have a 
desk, a computer, printer or phone, so I am supposed to do my 
work......HOW? 

The architects screwed up and where my desk was supposed to be won't 
fit because they grossly overestimated the size of the office and 
underestimated the size of the furniture. I mean, they made all these 
lovely blueprints, but someone forgot to measure things properly. One 
department, Delivery Services, was completely forgotten and has been 
left with nowhere at all to work. As it is, we are now housed in what 
is "Plan C" for us, when Plans A & B failed. So we're in a backup 
facility that wasn't originally supposed to be ours in the first place 
and has had very little finishing work done on it. It looks like a post-
industrial concrete basement with pipes, noisy machinery, pumps 
whirring and whining and poor lighting that is going to drive my 
already failing vision crazy. 

I can't tell you how many of my patrons have been ranting that they 
didn't want us to move from Temporary Main because of the proximity to 
the mall and the free parking. Two-stop shopping - mall, library, home. 
They liked that. Also, since Temporary Main was all on one level and 
everything was easily accessible with no stairs, elevators or 
escalators, patrons really liked that, too. Never mind the rather plain 
and ugly concrete floors and the rather warehouse-y feel it sometimes 
had. We spruced it up these past years to look rather homey, inviting 
and comfortable, and staff and patrons took to the place very well. The 
staff is about as upset as the patrons are. No one wants to go back 
downtown again. The stress level at work has been very high as we've 
prepped for the move. 

I guess I will find out tomorrow what it's like working back in our new 
department, and I know that like any move (this is my 3rd move at work 
in as many years), it will take a while to work the kinks out and get 
things smoothed over so that everyone's happy. Or at least relatively 
so, anyway. But right now, I don't have a parking spot in the new 
garage because the day they handed out the few monthly passes that were 
available, I wasn't there and the garage manager has been recalcitrant 
with me, refusing to speak to me on the phone when I call to inquire 
about obtaining a monthly pass that I applied for in person down there. 
I am constantly told, The Manager Isn't In. No matter what time of day 
or what day of the week I call. I am constantly told to call back, and 
when I do, I am told, The Manager Isn't In. 

I'm tired, I'm frustrated, I'm unhappy with the fact that not only do I 
have nowhere to park tomorrow, but no desk, computer or phone to do my 
job. The fact that I was allocated a spot where a desk simply will not 
fit makes me feel as if I have been thrown a bone, which I am tired of 
putting up with. I've been thrown bones by the management for too long 
now and have had to acquiesce and accept whatever bones they throw me 
in order to keep my job. But this feels almost as if there is an 
anticipated layoff. No desk, no computer, no phone. A sign they want me 
out of there? After 21 years? What gives? Or did the architects just 
royally screw up? 

Sorry I sound so negative right now. The contents of my desk are in my 
car, and I suspect that they are going to stay there for a good long 
while until I figure out whether or not I will be kept on or let go in 
this move. If I am let go, it's going to be damned hard to find another 
library job that pays a similar wage in these parts, and at my age 
(47), no one's going to hire me anyway. I'm too old. I have grey hair. 
I have a bad left leg (it was left an inch and a half shorter as a 
result) from an automobile accident 33 years ago. A pre-existing 
condition like that is a huge liability to potential employers. I 
could "retire", I suppose, but I can't stop working now, being a single 
woman with bills to pay. 

Anyway, thanks for letting me get all this bad ju-ju off my chest. I'm 
just really tired, stressed out and unhappy about this move. As are 
most of the staff all throughout the Main Library. I don't know of 
anyone who really wanted to move back there. Even as lavish as the new 
library is. We liked our old warehouse. It was hip, it was funky, it 
was convenient. And we decorated it in our own personal styles to add a 
lot of zest to it that the patrons really loved, too. It sure had a lot 
of character. I'm sure gonna miss the ol' place. 

~Saradwen
lowly (and very stressed out right now) library assistant