Today is my three year anniversary of starting work at RPL. A few stream-of-unconscious thoughts and observations…
1. I started working for the Writers Guild of Alberta at almost the exact same time of year – I know because I was in their office doing my initial training a couple days before September 11. (I’ve started my two other major jobs since undergrad – SPG and Southeast Regional Library – in the spring.)
2. I have had two bosses since I started at RPL (the boss who hired me retired soon after I started) and have worked in two different locations within the library – originally sharing a basement office with the web designer before being moved upstairs closer to my co-workers in the HR Unit during a major reorganization the library undertook a couple years ago.
3. My current office is in a very high traffic location within the library – halfway between the Director’s Office and the HR Department, close to our largest public meeting room and our board room as well as being directly across from the elevator and right beside to the water fountain and washrooms.
4. RPL’s second floor water fountain has a cooling unit and I’ve thought it’s the single best water fountain I’ve ever drank out of since I was 14 years old!
5. The washrooms, on the other hand, leave a lot to be desired! (We’re a downtown central library after all.)
6. I rarely drive and take the bus almost every day. Coincidentally, I was instrumental in RPL joining the City of Regina’s employee transit pass program! 😉 This program allows employees of any organization or business in Regina to get their monthly bus passes 12 for the price of 10 via a simple payroll deduction.
7. I used to enjoy eating a leisurely lunch in the staff room then reading for the remainder of my lunch break but have lately made a point to eat quickly then go <gasp> outside every lunch hour for a walk instead (our weather’s been amazingly beautiful for the past few weeks!)
8. I often feel like I have the most unique position within the library – I’m the only in-scope employee in an otherwise entirely out-of-scope unit and I’m the only professional librarian at RPL who reports to a non-librarian (who’s an awesome boss by the way!)
9. My other co-workers in the HR Unit are awesome as well. We’ve had a lot of turnover at RPL in the past few years for a variety of reasons – massive changes with the move to a province-wide library system, a big staff re-organization, a new management approach, boomers simply choosing to retire, people moving on to other opportunities or to other provinces or to travel the world. (I did a count today and of the 20 to 25 out-of-scope employees who were at the library when I started, there are only seven who are still there! Happily, three of them are still in the HR Unit which I think reflects what a good group we have right now.)
10. I currently have $4.20 in fines which I find endlessly amusing for some reason!
Bonus Fact: September 8 is also International Literacy Day – how fitting!
