Wednesday, August 06, 2008

Tag Team Catch Up

I went back to work tonight after dinner. We're short two aides and the aide I work with the most had come in to a pretty nasty backlog. This is the second night in a row she's come into such a backlog. Though always upbeat, she was rather daunted with the amount of books/DVDs before her and waiting in circulation. I had a dinner appt and couldn't stay late as I usually would have but by the end of dinner I'd decided I would rather go back and help her than stew about it and get frustrated.

I have to say--this particular aide continually impresses me. Last night while I was putting up one display and climbing in and our porthole with a glass shelf as part of putting up another display (yes, we have a 6' porthole), she powered through an incredible backlog. Tonight she came in to four half to mostly filled carts that were each barely grouped by section (chapter books/teen/non fiction/etc) but not alphabetized--plus two more full carts in circulation. By the time I got back from dinner she had all the carts integrated and alphabetized and was ready to start flying the books out to the shelves.

And I kid you not when I say she can shelve circles around me. As I went through teen and the children's fiction she HAULED through picture books, easy readers and non fiction. I shelved a few DVDs while she straightened up the room, and we exited stage left, with only a cart that I'd pulled from circulation and sorted waiting for the morning. While it would have been okay, and (in my opinion) quite understandable if some other books had been left for the next day--it would have frustrated her and, as she's leaving for a nice long weekend, I felt we should avoid that.

Truly--she impresses me. If we were all as efficient imagine how much more we'd get done. :)

No comments: