Tales from the library

[Locutus]

My manager, who runs the library (she's the library administrator), told me about the cleaning crews we had before our current one.  The one crew was a husband and wife team.  After noticing things not getting cleaned, she checked the camera footage out.  Turns out they were coming in, opening all the doors, waited for everyone to leave, and then walked out and came back in two hours or so.  They would clean a few days of the week, but the majority of the days they skipped out.   Another guy was part of a cleaning crew.  My manager was staying late getting work done and as she was walking out, noticed a light on in our slop room.  She went in and found a guy sitting there listening to his music.  He claimed he was on break.  She thought it was a little odd as his shift recently started.  She decided to check the cameras, and would you believe it, he went there every night and sat for one to two hours listening to music!   

That takes employer theft to a whole new level.

[Purplelady1040]

My manager, who runs the library (she's the library administrator), told me about the cleaning crews we had before our current one.  The one crew was a husband and wife team.  After noticing things not getting cleaned, she checked the camera footage out.  Turns out they were coming in, opening all the doors, waited for everyone to leave, and then walked out and came back in two hours or so.  They would clean a few days of the week, but the majority of the days they skipped out.   Another guy was part of a cleaning crew.  My manager was staying late getting work done and as she was walking out, noticed a light on in our slop room.  She went in and found a guy sitting there listening to his music.  He claimed he was on break.  She thought it was a little odd as his shift recently started.  She decided to check the cameras, and would you believe it, he went there every night and sat for one to two hours listening to music!   

I guess I would never think of doing something like that if I was cleaning up an area.
Like Locutus posted,theft in a brand new way.

[AbbyTC]

About two weeks ago I posted a picture of a chair with a urine stain on it.  Today the reference librarian brought over a chair to me.  We thought it was the same thing as last time although the patron we thought had did it wasn't in the library.  I started cleaning the seat when I noticed the white cloth I was using started to turn red.  Holy shit!  It wasn't urine but blood!     I cannot believe how disgusting people can be.     Can't wait to talk to my manager tomorrow about this.

[Purplelady1040]

About two weeks ago I posted a picture of a chair with a urine stain on it.  Today the reference librarian brought over a chair to me.  We thought it was the same thing as last time although the patron we thought had did it wasn't in the library.  I started cleaning the seat when I noticed the white cloth I was using started to turn red.  Holy shit!  It wasn't urine but blood!     I cannot believe how disgusting people can be.     Can't wait to talk to my manager tomorrow about this.

That is disgusting

[Locutus]

About two weeks ago I posted a picture of a chair with a urine stain on it.  Today the reference librarian brought over a chair to me.  We thought it was the same thing as last time although the patron we thought had did it wasn't in the library.  I started cleaning the seat when I noticed the white cloth I was using started to turn red.  Holy shit!  It wasn't urine but blood!     I cannot believe how disgusting people can be.     Can't wait to talk to my manager tomorrow about this.

 

[Y]

I have to ask, where is the custodial staff in all this?  That should be their job and not the library staff's job.  When I work as a custodian at Anderson's public library, all cleaning jobs were our duty - as were all maintenance jobs.

[AbbyTC]

I have to ask, where is the custodial staff in all this?  That should be their job and not the library staff's job.  When I work as a custodian at Anderson's public library, all cleaning jobs were our duty - as were all maintenance jobs.

We have a custodial crew that comes in after we close, but all they do is vacuum, clean bathrooms, dust and take out trash.  Because of cuts to library funding many years ago, and because those funds have never been brought back to their previous level, the custodians that worked at the library during opening hours were let go.  We have only two people who do maintenance on 8 libraries; 5 down county and 3 up county (which is over the mountain and out in the boondocks, almost an hour's drive from my branch). So staff is responsible for any issues that arise during opening hours.  If a toilet runs over, whoever gets notified of it or sees it gets to clean it up.  Unfortunately, in my position as an administrative assistant, a lot of this falls on me as the reference staff and PSAs get extremely busy helping out patrons.  The good thing, though, is my manager and my former manager will help me out with anything and get down in the trenches with me to clean things up. 

[Locutus]

You should get hazard pay for that kind of shit.   

[AbbyTC]

You should get hazard pay for that kind of shit.   

I wish.   

[Y]

We have a custodial crew that comes in after we close, but all they do is vacuum, clean bathrooms, dust and take out trash.  Because of cuts to library funding many years ago, and because those funds have never been brought back to their previous level, the custodians that worked at the library during opening hours were let go.  We have only two people who do maintenance on 8 libraries; 5 down county and 3 up county (which is over the mountain and out in the boondocks, almost an hour's drive from my branch). So staff is responsible for any issues that arise during opening hours.  If a toilet runs over, whoever gets notified of it or sees it gets to clean it up.  Unfortunately, in my position as an administrative assistant, a lot of this falls on me as the reference staff and PSAs get extremely busy helping out patrons.  The good thing, though, is my manager and my former manager will help me out with anything and get down in the trenches with me to clean things up.

We had three properties to maintain, but only two were in use.  We had only one main library and only two of us for everything - maintenance, custodial, repair, landscape etc.  No other library personnel were ever asked to do anything within those realms.

Our library also used wooden chairs for everything - it was an original Carnegie library - and I worked there long before the computer era so those sort of desk chairs didn't exist there.

It's a shame the powers that be aren't making certain you have a proper custodial/maintenance staff.

[Purplelady1040]

You should get hazard pay for that kind of shit.   

I agree.

[Purplelady1040]

We had three properties to maintain, but only two were in use.  We had only one main library and only two of us for everything - maintenance, custodial, repair, landscape etc.  No other library personnel were ever asked to do anything within those realms.

Our library also used wooden chairs for everything - it was an original Carnegie library - and I worked there long before the computer era so those sort of desk chairs didn't exist there.

It's a shame the powers that be aren't making certain you have a proper custodial/maintenance staff.

I need to ask a couple of teachers who work at our library, I guess on a volunteer basis, if there is a custodial crew to take care of things. I wonder if there are cuts in a lot of libraries or if it depends on the town.

[Y]

I'd just about lay money it's across the board with the repercussions of the economic crunch still being felt and all the business/corporate tax abatements being handed out hand over fist in the name of 'jobs' that don't seem to appear, or for which the taxpayers would have received a far better deal if the money had gone straight to paying for more public employees.

Passing out those abatements willy nilly only places that extra tax burden on the current tax base - you, the taxpayer.

[Purplelady1040]

I'd just about lay money it's across the board with the repercussions of the economic crunch still being felt and all the business/corporate tax abatements being handed out hand over fist in the name of 'jobs' that don't seem to appear, or for which the taxpayers would have received a far better deal if the money had gone straight to paying for more public employees.

Passing out those abatements willy nilly only places that extra tax burden on the current tax base - you, the taxpayer.

I believe and will have to find out when they merged our library into a city-county one, it raised our taxes in both city and county. I know the library has book sales to offset the cost but I am sure that doesn't  really help and like you stated, it is all economic crunches

[AbbyTC]

I believe and will have to find out when they merged our library into a city-county one, it raised our taxes in both city and county. I know the library has book sales to offset the cost but I am sure that doesn't  really help and like you stated, it is all economic crunches

Book sales might not offset the cost, but our Friends group's book sales help us out a lot.  The last book sale made over $10,000, and the one before that was over $12,000.  Might not sound like a lot in the grand scheme of things, but it allowed us to buy badly needed book carts, octagonal display units, office chairs (one for me!) and a host of display units.  On the Friends' anniversary last year, they tied balloons to all the items that had been purchased with the book sale money through the years.  I never realized how much they had contributed.  Shelving units, all the chairs at our circulation and reference desks, book carts, slat walls, and the list goes on. 

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