So, I was going to publish a post about my experience at Anime Weekend Atlanta, but I changed my mind because today was Staff Development Day at the library. In years past, Staff Development Day featured a theme--at the last Staff Development Day, the theme was country (it was originally going to by "Duck Dynasty", but the idea of celebrating a group of homophobic bumpkins turned out to be a rather terrible idea)--but this Staff Development Day did not have an official theme assigned to it. But, if one were to observe the events of the day from an outside perspective, then one could easily make the assumption that the unofficial theme of this year's Staff Development Day was: "Screw the rules, we're here to appease everyone!"
In the months since the library system's leadership transition and in the weeks leading toward today, I had started to feel this vibe about an ongoing shift in attitude toward patron service, but today confirmed it. From here on, whenever a situation becomes to burdensome and difficult to handle, staff within the system will simply give up on enforcing policy and just appease the ill-behaved and unruly patron without concern about any potential ramifications in the future. Of course, I find this to be complete and utter rubbish (or to put it more bluntly, it's bullshit) because such actions further complicate an already, at-times difficult position. I'm of the simple belief that creating exceptions or gray areas only creates difficulties for personnel down the line and rewards negative behavior.
Providing good customer service does not have to come at the expense of subverting set policies or procedures. If the primary concern of the board of trustees and administrative personnel is increasing patronage, then there are far better and more effective methods of encouraging library usage rather than bending the rules to appease patrons. This approach to customer service is not beneficial to anyone aside from those individuals who have purposeful malice intent toward the system and its mission. Sure, this bending-over-backwards approach my encourage this disingenuous patron to return to the system, but is this the sort of patronage one really wants? By taking this approach, you are rewarding negative behavior and spitting in the face of patrons that abide by policy and take personal responsibility for their errors. Rather than reward the negative behavior, the system should look for ways to reward the positive behavior and to encourage those negative patrons to become positive patrons.
Of course, the catalyst for today's "customer service" training is because these negative patrons tend to also be the most vocal patrons--why voice an opinion when thing are done correctly--and their complaints (as one-sided as they most likely were) fell upon the ears of a brand new system director and board of library trustees chairman that are looking to make their mark on the system. Now, I will be the first to admit that we, as staffer, aren't at times at fault, but we own our errors and we take responsibility for our errors. My job as a responsible employee of the library system is work with patrons to create the best possible experience within the groundwork laid forth by the policies set by the Georgia Public Library Service and the Board of Library Trustees and I take this responsibility seriously, but I will admit that there are moments of frustration and irritation and I work as best I can to remain calm and respectful toward the patron.
Another point of contention I had with today's training was the notion that because a policy is deemed to be "pointless" or "silly" that means we should subvert it and deviate in enforcing the policy and to me, that is absurd. A policy is typically created in response to some action deemed inappropriate by a governing entity. Now, I'm not saying that all policies are created with sound logic behind them and in those cases it's not our job to merely reject the policy, but to work to change the policy so that it comes in tune with a more reasonable rationale.
Honestly, all of this is insanity and more cause for lost faith in this system. I used to want this system to succeed, but given the recent decision making; I've become numb to it and am simply biding my time until I can finally escape.
