I am so busy. I am so tired. I’d thought I had a fair amount of extra time, but I added a part-time job and now I am run off my feet and stressed and tired all the time, not to mention losing all my Candy Crush streaks.
It is at least a job I like. I am working mornings at the library. I’m a page, which means I re-shelve things and fetch things and collect materials from the book-drops. I don’t know if I will like it long-term (I seem to like jobs for six months and not any longer than that), but we will see. I like being at the library. I like library stuff, and library activities, and library fundraisers. My co-workers are smart, which is nice for an entry-level job. And something about putting things in decimal order does something therapeutic in my brain.
Also, the work is surprisingly physical. I have had to deliberately switch which knee I naturally kneel down on, so that I wouldn’t get one leg so much more exercised than the other. I am the indoor type, so this is an improvement in my usual physical activity levels.
It feels like a financially/mentally/physically good change in many ways, but also I am so busy and tired. And, more importantly, things like “Oh, Edward has to go for another follow-up appointment” are HUGELY stressful, now that I have to continually ask for the time off from work. I started the job two days after we came home from the hospital after his first surgery, so I’ve already had to ask for many, many schedule changes, which makes me feel unreliable and difficult when I KNOW I am NEITHER. It would be so much better if this had happened after, say, two full years of showing up five to ten minutes early, leaving five to ten minutes late, and never missing a shift without giving two weeks’ notice.
And without the recent Edward complication, this job meets all my weird job requirements for this stage of life. It’s part-time. It gives me a pleasing answer to the “And what do you do?” question, which is higher on my list of priorities than you might expect. It’s moderately flexible. It’s nearby. It’s not a “warm body” job: if I have to have a day off every seven weeks for Edward’s Remicade infusion, they don’t have to find a substitute for me as they would if I were a bus driver or a caregiver; on that same note, I won’t be called EVERY SINGLE DAY and asked to cover shifts for other employees, as I was with my last warm-body job. It’s entry-level, but not fast-food or retail or customer service. It’s indoors, and a comfortable temperature. There’s room for learning more skills and adding more hours as time goes on. (It doesn’t pay well, but with a list like that, SOMETHING had to give.)
And I do like the work. The other day, I went home after my shift and had lunch, and then texted my supervisor to ask if she wanted me to come back for a couple of hours, because I’d had to leave a TON of work behind (the long weekend meant a FULL book-drop) and I found I was itching to get back to it. Like, I WANTED to do it. And another day, I was re-shelving some books in the New section, and a patron asked if I’d recommend any of them, which was on one hand WAY too much pressure, and on the other hand I COULD recommend one of them, and then she sat in a chair in the library reading it for like an hour, and then checked it out!! That is close to the level of thrill I used to get at the doughnut shop when someone would let me pick the doughnuts for their dozen.
This is very exciting for me as I am a librarian who hires pages! All my pages tend to be college students because it is so physical. I was a page in college and made seven dollArs an hour and now i hire college kids starting at fifteen! It’s such a pleasant work environment and it’s important work but no one is going to die if i take vacation. Oh I hope you love it forever!
I hope so too! And I can’t believe some pages make FIFTEEN DOLLARS AN HOUR!!! Here, it is much much closer to $7 than to $15. But I know cost-of-living in an area plays a big role, so I will try not to be inappropriately envious.
Librarian here to echo YES! VERY physical job. But so rewarding.
Oh, YAY! This sounds perfect for you!
This was my job for two years in high school and I loved it so much.
This sounds like a DELIGHT. I love visiting my local library and have always wanted to work there, but I can’t swing it financially because of the aforementioned tiny salary. I’m so jealous. :D
I have fantasized about working at the library!
AHHHH I hope you like it past 6 months! I volunteer and do this for free at my library!
I have similar issues not loving a job after a short time. I think the library is lucky to have you. And I think they should be understanding for medical emergencies. Glad you are enjoying it!
This sounds like your perfect job!
I was a library page in high school and in college. It was great. I loved looking at all the interesting books and putting them in order was so soothing. It’s an ideal part time job for a certain type of introvert!
This sounds overall like a delightful job.
I think as long as you are communicative about the time off needed, you’re being perfectly reliable! As a manager of people, let me tell you, someone needing extra time during one phase in their life is on the good end of the spectrum of reliability.
I worked at the public library part time in high school and loved it. The best part was all the people that I’d see regularly: a guy who had just moved to the US and decided to change his name to something more American name and picked “Tom Selleck”, a guy who always carried around his bicycle seat, the guy who only checked out Dean Koontz books while muttering how much he liked them under his breaths, etc. And so many funny stories to tell at parties! Like the time I got a death threat … by someone on the phone looking for Elton John tapes. You haven’t fully lived until a librarian makes a whacked out dude apologize to you.
I worked as a page for two years in college and am now a librarian. The library gig is wonderful AND trust me, you are 1000% more reliable than the usual younguns who take the job even with time off for sick children. Enjoy it however long you wish it to last. I like to think of the library as one of the last civilized public spaces in the world…and that’s even with the homeless and the fights and the drug overdoses in the bathrooms. For a large part of the time, it is pleasant interaction with polite people about the exchange of information.
Congrats on the new job. Sounds like a good fit. I worked in a library one summer in high school, but it was closed for renovations most of the time I worked there and the job mostly consisted of boxing up the books and moving them around and unboxing them. It was hard work!
Oh Swistle, this sounds like such a cool job! I have a weird question — does it involve phone work? I’m not currently working, but since I went deaf my main job requirement is no phone/walkie talkie/headset involvement AT ALL. And I can’t seem to find any jobs like that — even cashiers use the phone or walkie talkies. So I’m always kind of on the lookout for possible non-phone jobs. :) (I wish file clerks were still a thing, haha)
Enjoy!
I don’t know if it’s consistent across libraries, but in the library where I work, pages don’t answer phones or make calls. It’s one of the things I love!
Yay! Thanks so much for the info, I’m adding it to my list of possibilities. :)
I used to be a public librarian, and we hired a page who was deaf. She still works there apx 6 years later and is absolutely fabulous! Librarians in general tend to be very accommodating because our entire ethos is to help people get whatever they need to be successful, whether it’s books, computer help, or anything else. Definitely add this to the list of potential jobs. You might try it out by volunteering, especially since that can be just one day a week for a few hours or whatever works for you at the moment. Good luck!
I agree! Definitely keep it in mind for future job opportunities! I’m a librarian at a public library and our pages never answer the phone, and even our library assistants don’t have to. We have one library assistant here who hates answering it, so they just don’t. There is always someone else who will or it’ll go to voice mail and someone will call them back. I’m always surprised at how few phone calls we get daily anyways, our patrons have really moved over to email.
To add to this, we had a volunteer shelver at our library with one arm. Hope this doesn’t sound weird, like I’m patting myself on the back, but she was fantastic and everyone benefitted.
Here’s a great anecdote from Toni Morrison:
My second job as a teenager was shelving books at the only library in Lorain, Ohio. Every shift started with a tall stack of returned books—fiction, history, drama, poetry, everything. It didn’t pay much, but it was magical. Then I got fired.
The trouble was that instead of replacing the books on the shelves, I kept reading them. A title would catch my eye, I’d crack the book open for just a quick look, and pretty soon I’d forget the stack of returns. I didn’t get far in my career as a librarian, but that experience opened my eyes and shaped my future.
That’s what libraries do. Here in New York, libraries connect people to resources that are life-changing. Lifesaving. Citizenship classes, story times for kids, job searches, and so much more.
I’m SO excited for you. I’ve never worked in a library, but I’ve always wanted to. And getting the odd chance to recommend a book is a HUGE perk.
I love that books are your new doughnuts, if you will. It would be funny if the library offered books by the dozen.
I think they should offer suggested — well, not a dozen, but maybe six? — combinations for various occasions: easy-to-follow stuff for after surgery, catching up with various categories while you’re on vacation and have time to read, pointed topics into which you’ll be burying your nose during the influx of unwelcome houseguests . . .
What a terrific job! I miss working at the bookstore sooooo much.
Your new job sounds PERFECT. I’m always looking enviously at the librarians at our local library, wondering how they got their jobs and if they like them.
I’m not sure if it even a possibility, but is it possible for Paul to take time off for Edward’s appointments when you’re rostered on to work? That could take some of the stress off (it might also not!).
Theoretically it is, but he makes so much more money than I do that usually it doesn’t make sense to do it that way. But it’s nice to know he CAN, like if it’s a day I REALLY need to be at work.
Ah I didn’t think about the per hour thing! Also I am living in the land of lots of annual leave and sick leave, so perhaps none of my experience in this matter is relevant at all.
soothing decimal order……….ah, yes indeed!
I’ve been wanting a part time job when my kids get a bit older, and I can’t believe looking into library work never occurred to me! I love being in the library! I’m off to look that up right now . . . .
I volunteer at the library twice a month, and these are the sorts of tasks I help with, too, and I LOVE it. Love, love, love it. How exciting you get paid to do it! :)
I’m now wondering if Swistle is on GoodReads. I’d love to get swistle book recommendations there in addition to this blog.
I’m not! I started on there once and got overwhelmed and never went back to it, so it’s even possible there is an old unused Swistle account still on there.
I can’t believe every time you go outside the home to work there is guilt. Is Paul god?
What on earth is this about? I didn’t say anything remotely like this.
Just actually guffawed out loud. …WHAT!? Was this a comment meant for a completely separate blog??
I am the queen of seeing subtext in utterly benign posts and even I didn’t get that. TF?
PS Paul is not G_d, but Swistle is a goddess, so maybe that’s why Mb is confused?
This sounds like SUCH a great job! I am really excited for you and hopeful that the Edward appointments stuff tapers off (for MANY reasons) and you can catch your breath a bit.
As yet another manager-of-people, I can also assure you that someone who TELLS ME they cannot make it in / reschedules often / needs flexible time is SO PERFECTLY FINE, especially if I know they’re competent during the time they *are* there (and I have literally zero doubts that you are competent at this work). Needing flexibility is not an issue. Regularly not showing up when I expected to have you available as a resource, without telling me first, is problematic.
So happy for you that you are enjoying this job!!
I’m the mother of an adult daughter with ulcerative colitis. She has had to be very clear with her employers about her illness so there wouldn’t be any chance of them thinking she was faking illnesses for the days off she had to take (flares, appointments, etc). Bowel diseases are on the rise. I think it’s good, if you can, to explain to your employer why you have these appointments (and yes, it is more then a “typical” child would have). It’s both educational for your employer, and a bit of protection for you.
This was my job for 4 summers in high school and I LOVED it. I am from a small town, so I even got to cover for the librarian when she was away, and do the weekly radio program and the story hour and order new books, etc. I loved every second of it and still think fondly of it. I’m so happy that you’re enjoying it.
This would be my ideal part time job! I love libraries and spending time in them (plus I love numbers and putting things in order). So now I know what I would like to do when I retire. Congratulations on your great part time job.
Library page was my first job – oh, how I love the library! So soothing.
Would you mind sharing how you got your job as a library page? Did you see a posting on a big-name job search engine, or had you gone into your library asking about employment? I am SO interested in something similar, but I rarely see jobs like this posted for my area. Thanks!
I was keeping an eye on the employment tab of our town’s website, and that’s where it showed up.
I so wanted to get hired as a page after my public library placement. The pages were all really cool people, and I would have loved it for the same reasons you do. The up side is that I got my tiny part time school library jobs soon after I didn’t get hired for paging, and it fills most of the same boxes, plus not having to work week-ends. And we both work in a library!