Helminthdale Library Service is not unaffected by the Icelandic volcano. Half a dozen of the staff who should be in this week are stuck in various parts of the Mediterranean. As this is an Act Of God there is every likelihood that the time spent trying to get back will be taking off their annual leave. Arguments that the council has a long-standing commitment to mobile working were dismissed out of hand.
All this makes life interesting in our libraries. We struggle to keep the doors open at the best of times; between the people who are leave this week and the people who were on leave last week and are marooned in a foreign land we're pretty much stretched too thin for words. The only question is: will the breaking point be somebody going off sick with food poisoning or will it be somebody being taken off the front line to go and staff something or other that Policy Team has cooked up at a moment's notice with no thought whatsoever?
4 comments:
One dreads to think of the chest complications which could occur from the undoubted smog that is in our atmosphere now. But it's being so cheerful that keeps me going.
Here in Romania the solution to all dilemmas such as these is simple: close places down temporarily, force staff to take unpaid leave, and let people die.
You've never roughed it until you have had to survive in an airport lounge for 5 days on only warm Tizer and a plethora of boiled sweets.
Pat: it's an interesting balancing act between basaltic glass now and particulate rubbish from the jet engines in a few days' time.
Gadjo: a very civilised race the Romanians.
Jimmy: a staff outing!
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