Be Kind to the Workers, Please

My sister and a poster in an Underground station in London

I work at the circulation desk at the library for a minimum of six hours a week. I know, not a lot of hours at the desk, but still, enough to be insulted at least once a week by someone who thinks they are better than me because I work in a service position. For example, last week I was yelled at by a patron because we didn't have the book that was supposed to be on hold for him. Frustrating, yes. Annoying, yes. Worth scolding my student worker and myself and then getting mad that department actually responsible for the mix-up is not there on a Sunday night, no! I will move heaven and earth to help someone, especially if it is our fault, but I am less willing to help when you scream at me.

A few weeks ago, two of my student workers got screamed at because they were doing their job. A patron sent several print jobs to our desk, which have to go through a digital cue before they are actually released to the printer. One student worker, from past experience, knew that there might be an issue with the formatting because they were PowerPoint slides and wanted to send a single job through to check before sending all of the print jobs. He refused and told her "he was in a hurry" and walked away while they printed. She sent the printouts and, surprise!, they weren't formatted correctly. Ninety pages later, the patron refused to pay for the printouts. I am a big believer in do-overs but not with this number of pages. The other student worker informed him that he needed to pay for the printouts. Enraged at the worker's unmitigated temerity to ask for payment, the patron told both student workers they had "the worst possible approach to humanity [he] had ever seen" but he pulled out his credit card to pay. The student worker ringing it up the transaction pressed the wrong button and had to void everything and start over, to which she was berated with "she gets a do-over but I don't?!". What a charmer.

In this digital age, I also get insulted via email. I was told in a reply from an automated fine notice that the phone number for our Media Collections desk listed on his notice was "not valid" with a "Come on.. try to show some professionalism" attached to the end. After some minor sleuthing, I discovered that the phone number was not invalid, we were just closed because of President's Day at the time and he got the answering machine. And he wanted a waiver on his fines. Not the best way to approach the situation, I think.

The sad thing is, I know that being verbally abusive to those who serve is not limited to library. I see people being rude to restaurant servers, grocery baggers, and bank tellers every day. The kid who stocks Macey's doesn't control what flavor Doritos are available and the girl working the drive-thru at Burger King doesn't control price increases on you large Double Whopper meal. They're just peons.

The moral of the story: Treat people in service positions kindly, even if they are dumb, surly, or obnoxious. They're people, just like you, not your personal whipping boys/girls. Kill 'em with kindness if their mean. Let them make the scene, don't add to it.

Thanks for reading and remember: don't fold down the pages of your library books.