|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Stumpage Reports
|
|
|
|
|
|
Monday, June 02, 2003 :::
Why I'm Glad I Don't Work With the Public: Reason #4372.
At the archives downtown, you have to request the records, and the lackeys dissappear into the back and bring them out in boxes. Depending on how old or valuable the records are, you can only look at one box or sometimes one folder at a time.
When I was down there last week I heard some old goat complaining he could only look at one folder at a time. The lady behind the desk handled it well, she pleasantly explained the policy, talked about the uniqueness of the records, security etc.
Here's how I would have handled it:
Old Goat: That will take me forever if I look at one file at a time.
Me: Yes.
(Thinking to myself, yes, it will take a long time. They call it doing "research," sometimes known as "work")
My last job I had prior to going to grad school, I was at the point where I was answering questions like that and getting in trouble. Not the parenthitical part, just answering yes in an even tone when the patron says something obvious and bitchy can get you in trouble. If I was ready to quit or be fired, I would have handled it like this:
Old Goat: That will take me forever if I look at one file at a time.
Me: What the hell else you gonna do? Can you read two things at once? Oh sorry, you old bastard, I see you have a third eye. Oops, that a mole on your forehead. Is that thing malignant? Stay the fuck away from me.
Yes, me and a lot of other people are glad I don't work with the public.
Quote of the Day:
The snotgreen sea. The scrotumtightening sea.
--- James Joyce, Ulysses, 1922.
::: posted by tom at 10:58 PM
|
|
|
|
