Happy Job Situation

41 Replies

I have had a very happy thing happen at work. I don’t know if I have complained often enough about the situation: it was weighing me down, but I didn’t have much of an urge to discuss it. The main issue was that I was making less than $10/hour in a job I love and which comes with many other benefits (almost no commute; flexible hours and easy to get time off; a pleasant and interesting working environment; I like my coworkers; I like and respect my boss, and I like the way she bosses; etc.), but also I have twins heading for college, and the McDonald’s/Target starting pay in this area is $15/$17. I didn’t see how I could continue justifying working in my current job once the twins had left for school. I was feeling pretty upset about this for many reasons, ranging from small whines to large ones, and I was not looking forward to the change from a pleasant job to a miserable one.

The only way to increase my pay while still working at the library would be to get promoted to checkout desk (a position they’ve offered me, so I knew it was an option)—but the last time I worked a customer service job, I left it thinking NEVER AGAIN. (Well, with the automatic footnote that of course I WOULD if I HAD TO.) And if I’m going to hate doing customer service for, say, $13/hour at the library, I might as well hate doing customer service for $17/hour at Target, or maybe even more than that at a pharmacy.

In the meantime, though, I’d come up with an idea: I would learn to work at the check-out desk at the library A LITTLE BIT. Customer service in small quantities is vastly different from customer service forty hours a week. And that way I could cover other people’s shifts sometimes, which would increase my take-home pay if not my hourly pay. So I did that: I told my supervisor I’d like to know how to work the checkout desk at least enough to give my co-workers their breaks, and she JUMPED on that, because SHE’S been covering their breaks and she is almost always interrupted/inconvenienced by it.

But this led to a fresh issue: I ended up getting asked to cover the desk QUITE A LOT—like, sometimes for half my shift or more. So I was falling behind in my own work and getting stressed/overwhelmed by that, and also it turned out I did not cope well with making MUCH LESS MONEY than other people who worked the checkout desk. And I didn’t like that my boss didn’t seem to be noticing any of this as a problem. And it made me even more certain that I was going to have to leave this job and get a new job.

I was experiencing some significant misery over it.

Then I had my annual performance review. I was ALL GEARED UP to say something about the situation (in fact I rehearsed it unstoppably at 3:00 a.m. most nights)—but my supervisor beat me to it. She brought it up first and said OBVIOUSLY I could NOT keep working at the checkout desk for page wages, and then she talked on the topic at some length, in a way that indicated to me that she has not only been noticing the problem but also thinking about it and working at it: she said the problem is that the library wages are in some sort of wage-table, so if page wages are increased, they also have to raise everyone else’s wages. She said she was working on an idea to bring to the director, and that I should hold tight. I went away from this meeting feeling like IF NOTHING ELSE, my respect/like for my supervisor was once again justified—which was one of the list of things bothering me before, when I thought she wasn’t noticing, and I was feeling disappointed about that.

Today the director came to me with paperwork to sign: a position-title change, and a significant wage increase. She said my supervisor said there should be no difference between a page and a checkout-desk employee in terms of pay, and that all of us should have the same job title—which means they can pay me more, without having to increase the entire wage structure. I will still MOSTLY page, since that’s what I like doing, and I will also work sometimes at the desk, which so far I am finding pleasant, and nice for job variety; other employees will MOSTLY work at the desk, since that’s what THEY like doing, but will also start doing some paging. My supervisor said, and the director agreed, that it benefits everyone to know how to do more of the tasks at the library. And now I will make $16-something/hour, so I don’t have to quit this job I love and go work at McDonald’s/Target instead. AND I can increase my hours if I feel at loose-ends (and at low-bank-account) when two more children are living elsewhere. This whole thing could not have gone better.

41 thoughts on “Happy Job Situation”

  3. Susan

    This is how it’s SUPPOSED to be done! Congratulations to you, and “well done” to your supervisor and director.

    Reply ↓
  5. Jessica

    It’s interesting that those were two separate roles. I worked at the public library throughout high school (late 80s early 90s) and we were called circulation assistants and did the checkout desk, shelving and periodicals. It was one of my favorite jobs.

    Reply ↓
    1. Cara

      I don’t work at our library, but I think our circulation desk librarians do everything you described. However, there are teenagers who only shelve and clean up the stacks. Basically, they support the circulation desk. I’m pretty sure some get paid, though many are earning volunteer hours. I wonder if that was the original situation and the origin of the page job, but now it’s not handled that way and so the distinction no longer makes sense.

      Reply ↓
  14. Corinne Brzeski

    Wow! What a win for Team Swistle! Congrats and I’m happy for you. I think your job sounds dreamy.

    Reply ↓
  15. Anna

    Such good news! Good for your library! Good for you!

    I need some of your mojo, because the job I just went back to pays the same as it did when I last had it, in 2017. Which is also the same pay as when I started, in 2013. One of the reasons I quit in 2017 was the pay. One of the other reasons was a newborn, but she’s starting kinder in the fall and I needed something to do, so here we are.

    Reply ↓
  16. KC

    YAY! I love it when things go like that! (except for the problems that resulted in this being a relief, that is; we could do without those; and the 3ams)

    So glad that you can just… do more of this job, if you want to, rather than moving to something you are distinctly not excited about! And be paid well! Hooray!

    Reply ↓
  17. Lindsay

    Great news on the library job. Being a cook At McDonalds was also really fun back in the early 2000’s. When I got hired I said I wanted to be in the back and not do cashier.

    Just an fyi to anyone considering it.

    Reply ↓
    1. rlbelle

      Seconding how fun it can be to be in the back in fast food. I did a year at Arby’s and two years at Carl’s Jr. in the late ’90s, and while all the free soda was terrible for my teeth, the cooking/assembly at both restaurants, once I got good at it, was actually weirdly satisfying. Not so much the many months I spent in drive through, though I’m still very good at saying “Thank you, have a nice day” in a cheery voice even when I want to murder.
      I often wonder if I’d still enjoy it now that it’s harder to be on my feet all day, or if “fun” is relative to age when it comes to fast food work :)

      Reply ↓
      1. Kalendi

        Oh gosh I didn’t think about that, but yes I worked drive through for several places and I have that “thank you, have a nice day in a cheery voice thing too!” Thanks for the memories

        Reply ↓
  19. Carmen

    Yay! That is excellent news and I am pleased with your boss for sorting this out – and for noticing it needed sorting. I worked in my town’s library all through high school and I really loved it. It is such a perfect job. 🙂

    Reply ↓
  21. Cece

    Oh this is fantastic news, what a happy outcome! And I can of express enough how amazing (and rare) your boss sounds – what a problem solver and how thoughtful!

    Reply ↓
  25. Maureen

    Oh my gosh I LOVE this! What an amazing outcome. The money part and the NOTICING part and the creative problem solving. So happy for you.

    Reply ↓
  26. jeanne worthy

    Great for you for standing up for yourself….sometimes it’s SO HARD!! Definitely easier as we get older (and maybe because we’re grumpier?)

    Reply ↓
  27. Surely

    Your dark-hearted, stoic BFF is over here TEARY HAPPY for you!!! That’s so fantastic!

    Proud of you! (and still insanely jealous of your library job, btw)

    Reply ↓
  28. Allison McCaskill

    My jaw is just literally hanging open first WHAT THE HECK at your salary before (I know, the U.S. is even worse for minimum wage crap than we are), then WHAT THE HECK at how awesome your boss is and how the review went like WHAT THE HECK so perfectly, when the heck does that ever happen? What a wonderful thing to read on a dreary rainy Sunday when my daughter is leaving again tomorrow.

    Reply ↓
  29. Catherine

    This is great! I actually applied for a library page job partly because of all the good things you’ve said about it. Interview a week from tomorrow!

    Reply ↓
  36. liz

    This is awesome news! I’m actually choked up a bit, because of how it shows that you are SEEN and VALUED at your workplace, and how rare that is, and how it shouldn’t be rare.

    MAZEL TOV!!!

    Reply ↓

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.