Superworker, walkthroughs and badgers

I went to Shoreham library this morning as I had my annual review and Wendy, the colleague doing it had to cover the enquiry desk there for the first hour so I went and joined her at that library and worked on the counter there for the first hour. There is a really different vibe at Shoreham – obviously it’s a different building, with different staff and different borrowers but it is also the area office with a large basement where lots of important county library staff are based in offices and there is just a very different feel to the place than at Lancing. I met a 91 year old man who could have told me he was 71 and I’d have believed him and still thought he looked good on it, who was returning a joke book and recommending both the book as crammed with good one liners and laughter generally as a good life philosophy – he got no argument from me on that one!

I’d been asked to think in advance of what has gone well over the last year and what has gone less well so I’d jotted a few things down and worked out that if I’d worked 37 hours (full time at the library, still shockingly part time in retail terms ;)) then I’ve only actually been there the equivalent of 3 months, which made me feel very good about what I have learnt and got to grips with in a very procedure-heavy work environment. I didn’t actually do much of the disclosing what I thought had been good or bad as Wendy bombarded me with her list of what she thinks I’ve done well at; integrating very well with the team, completing the training which has been mostly outside of my normal working hours and they appreciate the efforts I’d made to attend it all having to find extra childcare, bieng willing to do extra events and travel around when required, being very competant both at procedures and the general working practises aswell as competant and confident generally, apparently they regularly consider me the ‘number two’ on duty :). The things which have gone less well according to Wendy are that I’ve had little or no time working with senior staff, only working with most of my colleagues once a fortnight – none of which are within my control of course. I had a couple to add – that I struggle with not knowing what I’m doing and can sometimes try and do things without being utterly sure about how to and sometimes cock them up through trying, which she discounted and said she’d never noticed and actually she thinks I am very good at asking for help when I need it. I also agreed with the initial concerns voiced to me at my interview about struggling with both the pace and culture change from retail to libraries and the fact I have been at management level in previous jobs for years and would be going back to lowly assistant level again in libaries. I confessed that I had indeed struggled with both those issues but she decided that was another strength in that I’d overcome it and recognised it and put that in the things that have gone well box aswell. So erm, yay me I guess! :). I know it is *just* a libaray assistant job and it is *just* 11 hours a week and it’s not what I want to do when I grow up but coming to it some 6 odd years after I last had a ‘proper’ job with no experience in that area and having to juggle it (sometimes very precariously) with the rest of my life I guess I am quite proud of what I’ve pulled off with it this last year and it was nice not to get the praise particularly but to know it is recognised and appreciated :). She summarised that I am a real asset to the library and that the managements’ only issue with me is a frustration that I am not able to work more hours as they can see much more potential and hope as and when I am able to work more I will do so and develop my role further. 🙂

We then got right off track chatted about her job a lot, she got all upset and tried not to cry when she was saying how rubbish she feels about some of the changes that have happened in the library service this last year (top level redundancies, staffing changes, different business focus and pressures etc.) so we deviated a bit with her doing lots of ‘between you and me’ and ‘to go no further than this room’ type stuff. Bet she does that to all the library assistants 😉 :lol:. We over ran slightly and will have to finish off the review another time but it was all good and fluffy and stuff so I am really pleased that if we stay round here I have a career path to tread again if I want to and if we leave I think I have found a good niche for my skills and available hours for now in libraries with the possibility of higher level career things moving higher up. A years good service and a glowing reference off that back of that should assist with finding another job if we do move away too :).

I came home and although Lucy and The Rs had intended heading off fairly soon after I got home Scarlett and Rebecca were deep in a game with baby dolls (so Rebecca in her element and Scarlett probably having used her entire baby doll game quota for the next six weeks 😆 she clearly needed the balance after all that testosterone / Harry Potter / muddy stick games of yesterday :lol:), Richard fell asleep and Davies was playing x box, getting Lucy and I – well more Lucy actually, I’m rubbish at gaming – to help with a tricky bit on his Charlie and The Chocolate Factory game while adding snippets to our conversation so disproving the idea that kids on games get locked into some electronic world that you can’t penetrate them through ;). So Lucy and I (with added bits from Davies) managed a nice long chat which was great, I don’t remember the last time we’ve done that. Oh we were also interupted a bit when Scarlett brought me a birds and their eggs book and we looked at the eggs (actual size and colour) on the inside covers and talked a bit about sixes of eggs in relation to birds, why some are coloured, incubation periods, biggest and smallest eggs and stuff.

Lucy and The Rs left, I found a walkthrough for Davies for his game and then left him working through it a bit more and Scarlett DSing while I sorted their tea out. They ate, got changed for Badgers and Ady arrived just in time to come with us so I got to sit and chat to him in the car instead of sitting in the cold all alone for an hour. 🙂 He had his laptop with him as he’d come straight from work so we tried to see if we could pick up a wireless signal so I could bring mine in future to occupy me while it’s dark and tricky to read a book by the car interior light. This involved driving across the carpark which meant we ended up under the window and could see in to the Badgers. I drove Ady mad by watching the children and trying to decide what they were doing and saying and thinking instead of ignoring them but we did firm up plans and plotting a bit more which feels good :). I went in to collect D and S and checked that S is still doing ok and will pay for her and get her uniform next week :). They got their timetable for the term, they are doing Wild Badger and there is some really cool activities on there which they’re both going to really enjoy including making a wormery next week, looking at animals we eat, food chains, plants and how they grow and stuff like that :).

Today’s out of nowhere learnings including double negatives and why ‘not done nothing’ is the same as ‘have done something’, why bananas are bent and a monologue from Davies about how ‘school makes children different’. Oh and a very jazzed up version of Walking in a Winter Wonderland from Scarlett on the way home (oh we’re walking, yes we’re walking, we’re walking in winter, oh yeah it’s winter, we’re walking and talking, talking and walking, walking in a winter wonderland, a won derrrrr laaaaaanddddd!) with added jazz hands, which brings us rather nicely to tomorrows activity – can anyone guess? 😆