Thursday, February 05, 2009

Fair warning

My fellow refugee from Hell approached me a few days ago and reported the following:

Our old boss and someone she used to supervise (let's call her Malory) are on the same committee. Malory approached my colleague recently to tell her that she (my colleague) and I should watch out. Apparently at one of this committee's meetings, our ex-supervisor said the following to Malory:

"I don't understand why Vee and Cee haven't come down to work on our desk. They said they'd just need a little time to get settled in their new jobs, and then they could do reference work again."

Okay, first of all, I don't know who "they" are. I think my new boss and her boss said to my old boss and her boss that they'd like us to be left alone for a bit until we settled in. Working on a reference desk is something a few of the catalogers do for a couple hours a week--it's called "job enrichment." They were probably saying that eventually we could join the job enrichment program.

While I am interested in using the reference muscle before it atrophies completely (G, your word questions help me there) I have never, ever, ever indicated in any way that I intended or even wanted go back downstairs and work for them for two hours a week.

I would rather be shot.

From a cannon.

So now every time I go downstairs I'm waiting for my ex-boss to ask me about that. I'm ready for her. I'm planning to ask my supervisor if I can do an exchange to another library entirely, one where I know absolutely nothing about the subject matter. 'Cause really that's the point of this program, to learn new skills. Right? Right.

I am so very grateful to Malory for giving us a heads-up, and I told her so. She shook her head and said, "They just don't get it, do they? They're horrible to their people for years and then are surprised and hurt when those people later shun them."

Yep. That about sums it up.

7 comments:

Just Me said...

I'd definitely leave a fresh coffee and pastry on Malory's desk.

It would be so nice if the "they don't get it" quote could be said to the old boss' directly. It would be so much easier if you coudl say, "why on earth would I come back here? Why, when for X years you made me feel UNwelcomed and UNappreciated?"

--V said...

Or how about this:

Me: "BWAhahahahaha!"

She: [silence}

Me: Oh. You were serious?

Hotch Potchery said...

Man, my blog roll has not been updating, I have missed MANY posts...fun, now I have stuff to read at work this afternoon.

Sorry about the work stuff...blech.

Anonymous said...

Malory? Why call her Malory? Why not Chaucer, or Langland, or Hunter S. Thompson?

Today's word verification is isoiste. That would be a French female specialising in joining up points of equal barometric pressure, I believe.

--V said...

Coz Malory's the only one that sounded like a girl. Next man I rename though? Spenser.

Anonymous said...

Actually, I thought afterwards - rhyme, maybe?

ASELUSL, everybody.

--V said...

I think it had more to do with watching "Juno" on HBO recently. Jason Bateman's in that movie. His sister Justine played a character named "Malory" on a show I used to watch a lot growing up called "Family Ties."

Six Degrees of Separation, the "alias" edition.

And "Alias" is the name of a TV series that Jennifer Garner (also in "Juno") starred in a while back.