30 Days of Thankfulness- Work

Most of us agree that Mondays are terrible, usually because that’s the day we all go back to work. Every job has its good days and bad days, and today, I am sharing my gratitude for my job.

I work at a medium-sized branch of our city’s public library. I’ve been a patron of this library since I was about 6 or 7 years old. One day, when I was a junior in high school, I came in to get some books, and one of the ladies that works there asked if I was looking for a job. My first job was as a page at my library. I started the summer before my senior year of high school, shelving books 20 hours a week. I made minimum wage, but unlike all my other working classmates, I earned sick leave, vacation time, and had paid holidays. There are perks to working for your city’s government, even if your city’s government tries to have as little to do with your place of employment as possible.

A year after I started at the library, I applied for a promotion. It was spectacular timing- a coworker had transferred to another branch, and his job became available for bidding just as I was getting my diploma, which was a requirement for the job. I moved up, still working 20 hours a week, but earning almost twice as much money per hour.

Working with the public has its challenges- particularly if you work at a library, where all sorts of interesting, special, difficult, and scary people like to hang out. Some of the problems that accompany working at a library are compounded when your library is considered a part of the city’s government. People occasionally make annoying, rude, or untruthful remarks about your job. Folks who don’t want the government involved in their lives at all tend to forget that you technically work for the government when you are in their presence (even if you’re a libertarian, like me, and agree with them on a lot of political points.) People can be more demanding, because their tax dollars pay your salary, gosh darn it. They try to get you to stay open later, joke about how they wish they could keep you at the library all night, and sometimes treat you like slaves, I’m sorry to say (we have one lady who is always happy to remind us we exist simply to “serve” her.)

But despite the occasional struggles, I really am thankful for my job. I enjoy working at a library. I have good relationships with most of my coworkers (and I don’t have “bad” relationships with any of them.) I get to work most of my hours with one of my best friends. I am grateful I get paid what I do, because working full-time would be really difficult for me in a lot of ways. And I’m not qualified for a higher-paying job. If I didn’t work where I do, I’d have to work twice as many hours for half the wages, with about six times the stress. Ick.

And I do love books. I love talking to kids about reading. I like the fact that so many little old ladies find me extremely charming. I like being around books all the time, always finding new things to read. I’m thankful for my job, and I’m thankful for the library!