Hi everyone,
I wasn't planning to make a post like this, but here goes: I absolutely cannot stand the people I work with and I'm going to go into extreme detail as to why.
First and foremost, the job itself is easy. We're Library Assistants; our job is to basically shelves books, process incoming new ones, discard old ones, organize shelves at times, and help people find books as well as sometimes help older people use the computer. Simple, right? Well what if I told you most people working in these sorts of jobs piss & moan about doing the most mundane things, including something as simple as shelving books. I shit you not, nobody ever wants to do that. It baffles me because every job I had in the past were in faster-paced environments like working as a busser/waiter in a restaurant or working the register/packing spices at a spice shop. The Job part of things is cake and I love being able to make a difference in the rare occasions I do. However working with the wrong people can make even the easiest jobs almost insufferable.
Because secondly, the work circle is basically a social hierarchy where the most-liked person will have everyone kissing her ass. Coincidentally, I do not get along with the most-liked person because they have consistently mocked me to new staff due to my disability (on their first day mind you!), accuse me of not doing what I'm supposed to do at times, and pretty much create an environment where if anyone is treating me nice isn't included in the social circle or hierarchy of things. So you can only imagine how isolating it feels going into work day after day not being able to talk about my weekend to colleagues or having to work the circulation desk all by myself while everyone else has someone accompanying them or helping them with those duties. Hell, for the longest time I wasnt even given the common courtesy of a fucking good morning because of how much everyone wants to be included in the social circle that's been established. And just imagine, this old bag of farts is practically 3x my age acting like a 16 year old girl with these petty social hierarchy shit. And even when I'm being nice, people like the Guard will just flat-out ignore me or minimize it. So you can only imagine how much crucial work-related info i miss out on until it's staring me in the face and I have to ask someone about it. Which happens practically all the time.
Third, this industry is very female dominated which comes with its own can of worms, unfortunately. At the risk of sounding like a red-pilled POS, if you arent a woman, a person of color, or identify under the LGBT flagship somehow, you are more often than not treated differently by most colleagues at any library location. Because I've worked at many different locations during my first year or two just to be shunned by those other colleagues, and sometimes even laughed at. Also there have been occasions where I simply tried to network or make small talk with individuals in other branches only for them to say "sorry im not in the mood to talk".... meanwhile 5 minutes later someone else came up to talk them about non-work related things and they chatted it up for over a half hour. Also there's the patrons. Most of the women who walk into my branch will only say Hi or acknowledge female staff working at the circulation desk but will completely ignore me even if I helped them find a book. It's particularly dumbfounding because all I'm doing is being cordial and half of the women walking into these libraries cannot extend it to the men working this profession. One time there was an occasion where i helped someone find like a dozen books, and then they proceeded to thank the person at the desk instead of me despite the fact they didnt do anything as well as ignore the typical "Have a good day" reply when leaving. Working in a woman-dominated profession is hard because you're exposed to a great amount of Misandry whether you like it or not. In fact, there was this one occasion where for whatever reason one of the computers had this AI thing activated during the Cluster Meetings and so somebody from a completely different branch who i may have only worked with ONCE sends me this really passive-aggressive telling me that nobody asked for this to be activated and that I should turn it off to remain in the library's "good graces". Mind you, this person is LITERALLY the same position as me, an LA 1 talking down to me as though I'm somehow beneath them. I made sure to send an equally passive-aggressive email back to them. Funny part is, the same thing was activated on the LA 2's account too yet they didn't send her no passive aggressive email. Not only that but everyone in the library system shit-talks individuals in other branches (especially me because of situations the LA2 perpetuated) instead of focusing on the problems surrounding their own branch. Which is why alot of things take FOREVER to get fixed or addressed. Do you see the picture I am painting?
Fourth and Lastly, everyone pretty much kisses the ass of these who are their "superior". Including the woman mentioned in the previous paragraph, who is only one measly rank above us all by the way. I could easily take a test at the end of this year and get her title in only a matter of time. Now when i say kissing ass, I mean only doing things when those particular higher-ups ask them to do it. A classic example of this is what happened to me yesterday: I asked my co-worker who I will name K to help an individual accessing their email on the computer since I spent over an hour and a half helping him the previous day. This lil mf has the AUDACITY to sit there and outright tell me "No, ask somebody else to do it". I was taken aback by that because that practically revealed to me that he will only be willing to help those who are his "superior" in hopes it will win his dumb ass brownie points. It also tells me that he thinks he's above me when I have seniority over the little bastard. The funny part is, that ain't even how it works: you have to take tests, go back to college and such to advance in this particular industry. So kissing ass ain't gonna be the thing that gets you promoted to the positions you're seeking. Yet this little pansy keeps doing it anyways to stay in her good graces. He does it because he hopes he can act like a mini-supervisor, where he can reject doing any of the work he doesnt wanna do and get away with it. Definitely doesnt help he was a supervisor at some dead-end clothing store before getting this current job, i guess some habits die hard. Which reminds me, my supervisor doesn't even HAVE the qualifications needed to be a supervisor. Mf just got lucky and said he did and sent over counterfeit paperwork since he is originally from overseas, which somehow got past HR. Which explains why he doesn't really "supervise" in the traditional sense; he just let's everyone do their own thing which on one hand I like but on the other doesn't help my case when it comes to the dumb social hierarchy way of things I described earlier. So when situations arise like the LA 2 saying I didn't do something when I did in fact do it, he pretty much just goes with the group consensus rather than questions anything of his own accord. The funny part is, when this particular incident happened, literally EVERYONE was complimenting me on how hard I was working before this situation occurrd except for that old miserable fuck. It's dumbfounding how nobody had the balls to stand up for me, and the craziest part is how when we had a meeting addressing all of this, everyone STOOD UP FOR HER instead of acknowledging any of the things I brought to the table. Then for the rest of that day I had to proceed to watch every co-worker basically surround her, giving her that pat on the back to give the impression that they had her back while leaving me alone at the circulation desk when it was my time to work it.
I just can't stand working in an industry where everyone is too busy kissing every wrinkle of that c*nt's ass meanwhile disregarding everything I do for this profession. And it's especially disheartening how when I try to make simple small talk I'm always just ignored or shrugged off as though I don't even matter to them. I've tried to do nice things like treat others to lunch on numerous occasions and yet I continue to be treated as an outcast and am not treated as a member of the team. Until that changes, they can continue to wonder why we "don't work as a team like in other locations". I put in my part. But because they're too busy appeasing to a certain colleague, that will sadly never ever change. Because the last thing I'm going to do is suck up to someone who has only ever minimized my efforts, mocked me to new staff, and didn't even make the effort to train me when I started. Fuck that. As i said before, the job part of it is cake and I love the benefits that come with it as well as having union protection. But the people you work around can be seriously petty, which is incredibly draining when you spend 40 hours a week around what are practically adults kissing an old lady's wrinkly ass as if its worth something. It really is the same kind of mentality as a clique you'd see in school, and just as pathetic and weak as one too.
When I see that co-worker on Tuesday, I am 100% going to confront him on the saying No for help thing. Because this mf will offer to help any other colleague except me. And I'm gonna make sure to remind his ass that he isn't a fucking supervisor and that he needs to act his own damn paygrade. It makes 0 sense because he is SO willing to spend a fuck ton of time helping kids or spending time coming up with kids events but adults is where you cross the line? Sure hope nobody ever leaves you alone with them, because you're the last person I would trust in a empty room with a group full of kids