With a crackle and hiss the tiny goblin materialized in the center of the cavernous chamber. Disoriented, he glanced quickly from side to side, taking in the astonished looks of the small party of battle weary adventurers who had summoned him, before, finally and fatefully, looking up into the rapidly descending jaws of an enormous dragon. In a tiny, squeaky, quivering voice he uttered the only words of his brief and ill-fated existence... "oh shit".
Thursday, January 12, 2006
Vindication: Or, You're Gonna Love This One, Hadrian
I don't think I'll write an introduction because I expect the comments to provide plenty of commentary. It's even from the BBC.
Beautiful. But then again, I could have told you that. Remember, I went from what would generally be thought of as a high stress job, to my current position. But honestly, I think I'm just as stressed, if not more in the library as I was working 911, worrying about fires and shootings and juggling ten phone lines sometimes with more than one life or death emergency going on at the same time. I think the difference is control. When things are burning down, when people are getting shot, there is something to do about it. You have some power. You are appreciated and respected. When you're working the front line public service at the library, you get no respect. You have dull, mind-numbing repetitive work, and the monotony is only broken by some asshole going ballistic about his fifteen fucking cent fine, because he is goddamn sure he returned it, right there in that book-drop, same day as he returned everything else. And the hapless clerk cannot tell the asshole to go fuck himself, he or she has to stand there and take it all with a smile and wish the patron a nice day, and please come back and see us again, won't you? Having people arrested is much more satisfying.
Wait, Hadrian, Mr. "Is it time to go home yet?", will love this one? I don't get it. I mean, arguing with blue haired psychos all day over 15 cents isn't stressful, it's envigorating! On a side note, one day I'm going to hire somebody to steal that goddamn train set and I'm gonna have one giant motherfucking bonfire!!
The big problem with the study is that I'm not sure who they talked to. If it's clerks and pages, then, hells yeah, it's a freakin' stressful job! If, on the other hand, they are talking to degreed librarians, who have some degree of control and are frequently faced with challenges, then I disagree. Hadrian's job is high stress. Mine? Rather less so.
Even though I started this whole thing, I have to agree with you, Leelu. I love the low-key nature of my job and the variety of it. I constantly debate the benefits of my current pleasant working environment vs. the total lack of time off as compared to when I was a school librarian and generally decide the daily enjoyment is worth the trade-off of summers but a much more stressful environment.
Now if I had Hadrian's position, I think I too would detest my job. I've done enough of it, though, to question if stress is really the right word. Boredom, monotony, frustration with patrons, and lots of other negative feelings. But is it ultimately stress?
7 comments:
Beautiful. But then again, I could have told you that. Remember, I went from what would generally be thought of as a high stress job, to my current position. But honestly, I think I'm just as stressed, if not more in the library as I was working 911, worrying about fires and shootings and juggling ten phone lines sometimes with more than one life or death emergency going on at the same time. I think the difference is control. When things are burning down, when people are getting shot, there is something to do about it. You have some power. You are appreciated and respected. When you're working the front line public service at the library, you get no respect. You have dull, mind-numbing repetitive work, and the monotony is only broken by some asshole going ballistic about his fifteen fucking cent fine, because he is goddamn sure he returned it, right there in that book-drop, same day as he returned everything else. And the hapless clerk cannot tell the asshole to go fuck himself, he or she has to stand there and take it all with a smile and wish the patron a nice day, and please come back and see us again, won't you? Having people arrested is much more satisfying.
Wait, Hadrian, Mr. "Is it time to go home yet?", will love this one? I don't get it. I mean, arguing with blue haired psychos all day over 15 cents isn't stressful, it's envigorating! On a side note, one day I'm going to hire somebody to steal that goddamn train set and I'm gonna have one giant motherfucking bonfire!!
Yeah, I know I spelled invigorating wrong. That was a copy/past error. Those responsible have been sacked.
The big problem with the study is that I'm not sure who they talked to. If it's clerks and pages, then, hells yeah, it's a freakin' stressful job! If, on the other hand, they are talking to degreed librarians, who have some degree of control and are frequently faced with challenges, then I disagree. Hadrian's job is high stress. Mine? Rather less so.
Even though I started this whole thing, I have to agree with you, Leelu. I love the low-key nature of my job and the variety of it. I constantly debate the benefits of my current pleasant working environment vs. the total lack of time off as compared to when I was a school librarian and generally decide the daily enjoyment is worth the trade-off of summers but a much more stressful environment.
Now if I had Hadrian's position, I think I too would detest my job. I've done enough of it, though, to question if stress is really the right word. Boredom, monotony, frustration with patrons, and lots of other negative feelings. But is it ultimately stress?
If you don't think it qualifies as stress, you obviously haven't gotten a really difficult patron my friend.
Boredom, monotony, frustration, and negative feelings all lead to stress.
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