education makes us smarter than custodians
i've been cleaning the library computers (all 70 something of them) everyday for about a month. this includes wiping the monitor screens, the keyboards, and the mice. pretty prestigious duties. some of the monitors look all scatched up. the custodian explained to me (in detail) why this is happening and mixed a different cleaning solution for me to use. a lady that works in one of the cubicles overheard our conversation and told me i should check with my supervisor before doing anything differently. that sounded reasonable, though i hadn't thought of it myself. "everyone has a story," she told me, and "he hasn't been here very long."
when myself and a coworker asked our supervisor what cleaning solution we should use, she clearly didn't know...so she asked someone else and we found we'd been using the wrong thing--but the "right" thing is not what the custodian recommended. so he went to explain to the "lady in the know" why the screens are being scratched and what we should use. about 60 seconds later i found myself converged upon from both sides by my supervisor and her boss. they wanted to make sure i was using the solution as instructed and said, "don't listen to what Tom says." what i'd like to know is, why is it so important that Tom the custodian be wrong? because he doesn't have a fucking MLS he must not know anything about computer screens. as it turns out, he's been at the library for 3 yrs. and went through the computer screen problem at a different branch, did some research and found out what was causing the scratches. but no one is willing to even check his explanation. he has to be wrong because he not in administration and he doesn't have some fancy degree to validate any of his knowledge.
what pisses me off even more is i must be complicite with one of the sides. if i want to keep my job, i say, oh yes, i know what to do and i won't listen to what Tom says. unfortunately, i'm too wussy to say, how do you know he's wrong?
such a silly little thing to bitch so long about, but the whole thing is silly already so what the hell. maybe i'm just angry because i clean computer screens. i've been told explicitely not to help any patrons but to direct them to a librarian. certainly, that's part of the efficiency and consistency of the system, but it's definitely a little cut to my pride. honestly, i think i was born to be a blue-collar laborer who reads books.
when myself and a coworker asked our supervisor what cleaning solution we should use, she clearly didn't know...so she asked someone else and we found we'd been using the wrong thing--but the "right" thing is not what the custodian recommended. so he went to explain to the "lady in the know" why the screens are being scratched and what we should use. about 60 seconds later i found myself converged upon from both sides by my supervisor and her boss. they wanted to make sure i was using the solution as instructed and said, "don't listen to what Tom says." what i'd like to know is, why is it so important that Tom the custodian be wrong? because he doesn't have a fucking MLS he must not know anything about computer screens. as it turns out, he's been at the library for 3 yrs. and went through the computer screen problem at a different branch, did some research and found out what was causing the scratches. but no one is willing to even check his explanation. he has to be wrong because he not in administration and he doesn't have some fancy degree to validate any of his knowledge.
what pisses me off even more is i must be complicite with one of the sides. if i want to keep my job, i say, oh yes, i know what to do and i won't listen to what Tom says. unfortunately, i'm too wussy to say, how do you know he's wrong?
such a silly little thing to bitch so long about, but the whole thing is silly already so what the hell. maybe i'm just angry because i clean computer screens. i've been told explicitely not to help any patrons but to direct them to a librarian. certainly, that's part of the efficiency and consistency of the system, but it's definitely a little cut to my pride. honestly, i think i was born to be a blue-collar laborer who reads books.
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