Hi, Miss Julie

Brian Herzog wrote an amusing post about a dream he had, wherein he chastised a library user for playing Marco Polo too loudly.

Have you ever dreamed about work? When I was still a preschool teacher, I would sometimes dream that somehow all of the children I taught had ended up in my apartment, and why was I sleeping when I was supposed to be watching the children? These days,  I dream about performing kick-ass storytimes, and about the busyness of the after-school rush.

I don’t mind dreaming about my job, because it is my dream job (god what a Carrie Bradshaw sentence. I apologize).  I really can’t imagine what job I’d rather have, outside of girlish fantasies of rockstardom (I totally wanted to be Jem when I was a child). During my first six months at my current position, I described my work situation as “being in the belly of a unicorn that poops rainbows and barfs sunshine.” A little gross, yes, but doesn’t it effectively demonstrate how violently and viscerally happy I am? If not, then let me say more clearly: I love, love, love my job.

My love for my job also leads me to be deeply sad when I come across librarians who have lost their passion for the work, or who never had any to begin with. Often they are older librarians who are unwilling and unready to retire, which would allow  passionate, new librarians (who may or may not be younger; there are many mid-career shifters entering the library field) to take their places.This is damaging in so many ways. The joyless librarians continue to be joyless, and they spread their misery to their coworkers and their library’s users. The enthusiastic librarians-to-be can’t get a job in their profession, so they end up unemployed, or underemployed, and the field is robbed of fresh ideas and people to implement them. The people who are served  by the joyless librarians miss out on exciting and new programs and materials. And on and on and on….

Have you ever worked with anyone who has no passion or joy when it comes to their work? How does that make you feel? Does it change that attitude that you have towards your work?

Or do you have that dream job, where everyone is happy all of the time?

*I heard today that the number of Library School graduates compared to the number of retiring librarians is not good; does anyone have any data to confirm that?