This really has been a strange week, and a busy one at the library. I’ve been running an Online Basics Course for OAPs and people bullied into it by the DWP, ran this month’s Chatterbooks session, and took this week’s Rhymetime with 30-40 preschool toddlers and parents.
All this in the week our assistant manager retired, staff shortages left us running the place on two people, stock checks were needed, roughly 200 new books needed receipting and processing, and another 300 books or so needed pulling from the shelves and either recirculated or withdrawn. So no pressure or anything.
And then there were the customers, who were generally good natured and a joy, except for the one’s who weren’t.
My, there were a lot of those. From the not so passive-aggressive mass photocopying people who nearly came to blows while screeching about how they paid their council tax for some peace and quiet, to the reading group who didn’t see why they should pay for lost books, we had it all.
It’s been a week of normally reasonable people all choosing to have complex, fiddly, or downright bizarre requests, all delivered in bad tempers, grumpiness, or total lack of irony.
We blame the sudden change from winter storms to sunshine with a side order of higher temperatures that seem to have got sinuses inflamed and people suddenly overdressed and overheated.
See, we’re British, we can find something to complain about with any change in the weather.
