Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

I am well familiar with transition. From moving once a year and breaking into the "real world", to having a different hair cut/color every few months - the one constant in life is change.

Transitions at work are always...fun. Working at a place with high turnover (hmm..like a library?), really makes you appreciate change and adapt. One month you can have a coworker you love, the next month they quit and a person who makes you wish you were deaf takes their place. (That is, after 3 months of screwing around the county does before they hire anyone). It's that constant shift in group dynamics that throws me for a loop sometimes. However, I suppose if I didn't have such annoyances, I wouldn't have any good stories either - and I'm sure everyone is well aware I love to tell a good story.

Some examples: Our reference librarian quit after I was there about a year. No tears were cried, I assure you, because she was the most unreasonable, short-tempered, nasty person I had met who worked with the public. (Nick, you know who I'm talking about). Shortly before she left, they hired someone in the other reference position (so she wasn't literally taking her position, but in essence she was). I was hopeful that she would be better than our other, but as time wore on I found out she wasn't.

She wasn't quite as mean, though she had her moments, but was just on another level (an illogical one) as far as her thinking. She got too stressed out if she was at the desk by herself (she liked to wander away from the desk for about 20 minutes at a time, and then those pesky patrons would come up wanting help, and she had to drag herself away from the stacks - can you believe the nerve of them?) Sometimes her way of finding the answer to a question made no sense, and at least once she accused me of opening her email and writing to someone, and then later, stealing notepads from the desk. She quit a couple of months ago, and I can only pray that the new person will be different. I can't help but think that maybe you have to have a certain personality to work reference - or maybe the position turns you into a bitch if you work it long enough.

Sadly, that's not the only change in employment that wasn't for the best. I used to have a coworker I loved to work with. We had the same taste in books, so she was always giving me new series to read, and in general was great to talk to. Well she quit and started working for a school in Branford because it was closer to home, and she could spend time with her sons during vacation, before they went off to college. About 3 months later a new person comes on, and again I thought she was alright at first.

Now she's been here for awhile, and every minute around her makes me want to pull my hair out, or move - that position in S Korea looks better everyday. She never listens, and she is always trying to guess what you're going to say. There's a reason - her husband's tongue was removed because of cancer or something, so I understand why she does it, but she needs to realize that most people (probably 99%) would rather just talk instead of having her guess (incorrectly). Here is a sample conversation:

Her: What did you do this weekend?

Me: Well I -

Her: Did you go to the Azalea Festival? I didn't even know it was going on, did you know?

Me: I did, but -

Her: You didn't want to go? Don't you like flowers? Or do you? I don't know...

Me: Well -

Her: Have you heard about such-and such going on next week? Blah, blah, blah....

That's the point that I start wondering if the edge on the ruler is sharp enough to slit my wrists. I thought it would stop when we got the other computer at the desk, and I could resume my web browsing as before, but it hasn't. To drive the point home, one of my other coworkers, who is the most patient person I know, is fed up with her.

To compound these problems, we just switched to a new system, so those of us who are faster at picking things up have to pick up the slack, and help train the slower ones. Everyday is an uphill battle it seems. Sometimes I just have to tell myself "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can - keep myself from stroking out today"