At the end of August, I took a week of vacation to handle some wedding preparations while my fiancé was home. During that time, I focused on some cleaning and, most importantly, spent quality time with my fiancé and our cat. Following the vacation, there was Labor Day and, shortly after, contracted an end-of-summer cold. As a result, when I was finally able to return to work and sit at my desk, I found myself with a significant backlog of tasks. I missed some important deadlines and, understandably, felt quite overwhelmed. I couldn't help but think that I wasn't meeting expectations as a librarian and was concerned about falling behind in serving our branch, team, and patrons. It was a challenging month for me. However, I am happy to share that as of September 18th, I am mostly caught up.
There are days when I feel I do not have enough work hours, and other days when I have more than enough. In my respectful opinion, it is perfectly acceptable to take a moment to get caught up. We can be quite critical of ourselves and others, and sometimes unforeseen circumstances arise that are beyond our control. I previously shared this perspective with a colleague who was also catching up after being out of work. I have taken care to find a more professional way to express that idea. It is important to remember that we are all human, and although our work is vital to our community, we also deserve moments to pause and care for ourselves. “Life be life-ing” sometimes.
I wanted to share an additional thought. I noticed in a librarian's mention on a Discord associated with my alma mater that they have been experiencing lower attendance at some of their programs, despite their hard work in organizing them. I can relate to this challenge personally, as I often encounter similar situations. Low attendance can be a bit discouraging and sometimes makes me feel that the programming may not be resonating as hoped. However, an excellent piece of advice I received from a respected administrator was that as long as we are offering programs for our community, we are indeed providing a valuable service. Ultimately, community members have the freedom to attend whenever they are able, and their attendance (or lack thereof) isn’t a reflection on us personally. Remembering this can be difficult at times, but it is an important perspective to help navigate periods of lower attendance.
Thoughts? Feel free to share!
