When people ask me about things that happen at work, I often find myself giving this reply, "you would not believe me if I told you." This is one of those moments.
Once in a while, Boss With a Fist finds itself without much of anything to do, also known as some idle time. When this happens, Boss With a Fist usually pokes around until it finds something that will make more work for the rest of us. If that something happens to demoralize the staff in the process, well, that is just icing on the cake. Case in point. And I am using some of the language from the memo Boss With a Fist sent, with some slight modification, because again, if I did not tell you, you would not believe me.
The library at Backwater Rural Branch (BRB) U. has a small comment box in the Distribution counter. The comment cards are a basic form card where a patron can mark from excellent to poor in a series of basic categories in things like service and cleanliness. You know, a step above the little cards you see in some chain restaurants. Most people in the campus who come to the library pay the comment cards little to no mind. So, when someone actually fills one out (about once a year or so), Boss With a Fist gets all excited. We just got a card this week. Boss With a Fist let us all know with the following message:
"I got one of the BRB library unfrequent user cards. This particular patron who filled out the card neglected give specifics regarding time, department or anything. All check mark options were “good” and “excellent” except for one and that category was 'friendliness of staff' with a ranking of 'fair'.
I know we’re not going to please all of the people all of the time, but this is just a memo to all of us to always push to get the 'excellent' score. One of the best things about the BRB U. Library is the helpfulness of the library staff and this is reflected in the positive comments we receive on the Big Poobah Library Distinguishing survey."
My initial reaction, and keep in mind, this nice memo was waiting for us in our e-mail boxes first thing in the morning, which means Boss With a Fist sent it out the night before, was what the fuck is this about? Then I had time to sit and think it over, only to see that this "feedback" is pretty much useless:
- There is no time, department, or any other specific detail given. As I told Sensei Girl when we were talking about this, I can't fix something if I do not know it is broken, let alone where and how it may be broken.
- Without knowledge of the department or a time, we can't figure out who the disgruntled person, who, for all we know, could have put that response in for shit and giggles (and yes, in here, the kids do a lot worse for shit and giggles, like unplugging the printers once in a while when someone is not looking). But even if the patron was sincere, again, the feedback is meaningless.
- For instance, if this had something to do with Reference Boy, our less than capable reference desk assistant, I have no way of proving it. While I suspect at times he is just slacking his way, I can't just reprimand him on the basis of a generic anonymous non-specific comment.
- And that leads me to my next point, which Sensei Girl made much better for me, so I will put in what she said: if you have a specific service issue with someone, and you know who the someone is, you call them to your office in private and chew them out. You do not send out some memo and make everyone panic and wonder if they themselves did something to piss some patron off. Personally, I think that is a step below the classroom teacher that punishes the whole kindergarten class because a couple of students were chewing gum in class, and gum chewing is not allowed.
So, thanks Boss With a Fist for throwing off my day, throwing off the day for my colleagues, and overall making us feel like less than shit because you got some anonymous comment card that, though by your admission looks pretty positive overall (after all, the other categories did get "good" or "excellent"), you decide to dwell on some minor detail and thus ruin our day in the process. No, we cannot please everyone all the time. That is a given, and it is one that you should have figured out by now. Also, you have not worked a reference or distribution frontline position in who knows how many years, so maybe you could give those of us who do the benefit of the doubt? After all, we work for you, and you know us. You have no idea who filled out your precious rarely used comment card. And by the way, I should add the note that Boss With a Fist pretty much swears by the Big Poobah Library Distinguishing survey. No matter what imperfections the survey may or not have, Boss With a Fist clings to that instrument like a shipwrecked sailor to the last raft after the boat sank.
Sensei Girl wrote to me an excellent response. In the interest of maintaining the pseudonimity, I will only highlight some parts, but I think she pretty much says much of what I was thinking in a more eloquent and passionate way, and it needs to be heard, because lord knows Boss With a Fist won't be hearing it anytime soon:
Sensei Girl said that now she was going to spend the rest of her day trying to figure out when she was only "fair" to a student. She asks if it could have been during any of these specific situations; the comments in parenthesis are mine:
- Was it when I told them they could not eat their salad in the library? (We have a no food in the library policy, due in large part to a significant pest problem. In fact, we have had reports of roaches in the library recently. And by the way, Boss With a Fist recently bought some new fancy furniture for the library. And one of those tables was just found, by frontline staff, to have a fruit beverage stain. But heavens forbid we enforce the rules. This issue by the way could make another post later).
- Or was it when I stayed late to help a student who had no clue about his assignment? (Sensei Girl is notorious for going the extra two miles for a student. She stays late. She comes in early in the mornings. She drops anything she may be doing if it means she is helping out a student who needs help. Between you and me, this memo from Boss With a Fist was a slap in the face to her).
- Or maybe it was that time when I spent all day hand-holding student after student who were in an intro humanities class and had no clue what to do to find info on their topic so I walked them (them being 6) through Big Art Depot Database, and Huge Journal Warehouse, and one other database, and explained what their paper is about? (See my note above. By the way, she spent a good three to four hours with these kids overall. Did anybody thank her? Other than me nodding in agreement when she told me about it, nope. That certainly is "fair" friendliness and service, right?).
I could go on, but this should give my visitors here an idea. So, any administrators out there who may be reading this, here is your lesson for the day on how to lower morale and productivity for your library staff without really trying.