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An incident at work today reminded me of how much I hate it when people are petty and get fussy and angry over trivial things. Here's a little background on the incident.
I'm a college librarian, and over the past couple of days I have been going through the book sign-out sheets from the last few months to find the people who have overdue materials. After compiling a list of people who had overdue items, I proceeded to send emails to those people explaining that their items were overdue. Just this afternoon, I got an email*and* an phone call from a lady who was on that list. The email looked something like this.
"Yu need to chek ur records again because i have nevr checkd out that book"
Shortly after sending me the email, I get her phone call. She proceeds to tell me several times that I need to check my records again because she has never checked out that book. I then get the sign-out sheets and tell her that her name is indeed signed on the sheet, and that the book I mentioned really was signed out under her name. She asks me when the book was signed out, and I tell her it was back in February.
Now, she starts asking me why she is just now hearing about this, and asks me why I'm just now looking at my February records. Now, I really have been a little lax on checking for overdue items recently, and that is for two reasons. One, some people check out books and need them for most of the term, which is ten weeks. Two, since becoming librarian, I've noticed that most people will return the books if given a little time. However, I tell this woman that I must have just overlooked her name, because quite frankly, I don't think it's any of her business how I do my job. Plus, the matter is pretty irrelevant, anyway.
Finally, she tells me---in the angry, self-righteous tone that she had maintained throughout the entire conversation---that she must have just forgotten to sign the book back in, because she does NOT have the book and she is NOT renewing ANYTHING. I say something like "Okay, fine" and we hang up.
Now, this probably sounds like the everday SC story, and I probably could have posted this on CS, but there's more to it than just this lady's attitude. I absolutely loathe when people get this angry and sanctimonious over trivial things and minor mishaps like the incident above. And the reason is that I know it's just an act their putting on. For example, I know that, deep down, this woman wasn't really angry because I sent her an overdue notice for a book that she no longer had. If she really did get angry over something that minor, there is no way she would have lived this long. She would have committed suicide a long time ago. If she really did get ticked off over things like this, she'd end up putting a firearm in her mouth over some of the other curves, inconveniences, and agonies that life undoubtedly throws at her. For instance, after I pointed out to her that she had indeed signed this book out of the library, she still failed to assume any responsibility for it. She just told me that she must have forgotten to sign it back and continued to treat me as if I were being the most unreasonable person on the planet for having the gall to send her anything like an overdue notice.
And for the record, I'm not a Nazi about stuff like this. After compiling the list of people with overdue materials, I have seen several of the students in the library, and I have asked them if they had the materials attributed to them (diplomatically, I might add). And if they said they did, my response was "just bring it in when you can." Not "have it in by tomorrow or I'm going to have you arrested" or anything like that. And honestly, if they no longer had the items, I would probably just forget about it rather than having the school fine them.
With all this having been said, even though this is irritating, I don't really take this personally. Other staff and faculty have had problems with this woman, which IMO, is evidence for my above thesis about people like this.
I'm a college librarian, and over the past couple of days I have been going through the book sign-out sheets from the last few months to find the people who have overdue materials. After compiling a list of people who had overdue items, I proceeded to send emails to those people explaining that their items were overdue. Just this afternoon, I got an email*and* an phone call from a lady who was on that list. The email looked something like this.
"Yu need to chek ur records again because i have nevr checkd out that book"
Shortly after sending me the email, I get her phone call. She proceeds to tell me several times that I need to check my records again because she has never checked out that book. I then get the sign-out sheets and tell her that her name is indeed signed on the sheet, and that the book I mentioned really was signed out under her name. She asks me when the book was signed out, and I tell her it was back in February.
Now, she starts asking me why she is just now hearing about this, and asks me why I'm just now looking at my February records. Now, I really have been a little lax on checking for overdue items recently, and that is for two reasons. One, some people check out books and need them for most of the term, which is ten weeks. Two, since becoming librarian, I've noticed that most people will return the books if given a little time. However, I tell this woman that I must have just overlooked her name, because quite frankly, I don't think it's any of her business how I do my job. Plus, the matter is pretty irrelevant, anyway.
Finally, she tells me---in the angry, self-righteous tone that she had maintained throughout the entire conversation---that she must have just forgotten to sign the book back in, because she does NOT have the book and she is NOT renewing ANYTHING. I say something like "Okay, fine" and we hang up.
Now, this probably sounds like the everday SC story, and I probably could have posted this on CS, but there's more to it than just this lady's attitude. I absolutely loathe when people get this angry and sanctimonious over trivial things and minor mishaps like the incident above. And the reason is that I know it's just an act their putting on. For example, I know that, deep down, this woman wasn't really angry because I sent her an overdue notice for a book that she no longer had. If she really did get angry over something that minor, there is no way she would have lived this long. She would have committed suicide a long time ago. If she really did get ticked off over things like this, she'd end up putting a firearm in her mouth over some of the other curves, inconveniences, and agonies that life undoubtedly throws at her. For instance, after I pointed out to her that she had indeed signed this book out of the library, she still failed to assume any responsibility for it. She just told me that she must have forgotten to sign it back and continued to treat me as if I were being the most unreasonable person on the planet for having the gall to send her anything like an overdue notice.
And for the record, I'm not a Nazi about stuff like this. After compiling the list of people with overdue materials, I have seen several of the students in the library, and I have asked them if they had the materials attributed to them (diplomatically, I might add). And if they said they did, my response was "just bring it in when you can." Not "have it in by tomorrow or I'm going to have you arrested" or anything like that. And honestly, if they no longer had the items, I would probably just forget about it rather than having the school fine them.
With all this having been said, even though this is irritating, I don't really take this personally. Other staff and faculty have had problems with this woman, which IMO, is evidence for my above thesis about people like this.
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