Big Changes at Work

On Tuesday, my boss’s position was eliminated–meaning that as of now, the library no longer has a director. Obviously there’s a time and place to talk about what happens at work, and I’m not going to use my blog to air all my thoughts about the change–what went into it, why it was done, what should happen now. But what I do feel comfortable talking about is my reaction to the change, albeit briefly.

Mainly I bring it up because my mind just isn’t in a spot to be writing big blog posts at the moment. (Thankfully, I have previous posts written on dealing with just such occasions–see here and here.) In some ways, I feel like the last six months have just been one thing after another: the lawn tractor died, the snowblower broke, the roof needed to be repaired, TRC knocked out his front tooth, I got in a car accident, and now my job is facing huge changes. But at the same time, there have been many things that have gone the right way that have made it much easier to face these challenges. Yes, it’s been a fairly bad run as far as bad runs go, but it could have been much worse for yours truly, is what I’m trying to say.

And if there’s one thing I’ve found so far in dealing with trouble, it’s that the worst thing possible is to dwell on what’s happened. The sooner you can pick yourself up and get moving again, the better. Because once the terrible present is now the terrible past, it’s up to you in how you deal with it.

But I’d be remiss if I didn’t take a moment and talk about my current boss, and how much he’ll be missed. I’ve had a number of bosses in different jobs over the years, and often I’m just happy to have a boss who’s not terrible, as opposed to a boss who’s genuinely good. My current one is genuinely good. He’s always been willing to go to bat for his employees, he takes an active interest not just in how we’re doing our jobs but how we’re doing as people. Too often in the workplace, the personal falls by the wayside as if it doesn’t matter. But I don’t believe we should live in order to be able to work. We work in order to be able to live. My boss realized that, and it makes a huge difference.

He’s been supportive of me in my various endeavors across the state, giving me the chance to fill major roles in the Central Maine Library District and then the Maine Library Association. He’s helped guide the library through some genuinely sticky and treacherous times, and his stoic approach to dealing with adversity is going to be missed not just in the library but on the campus in general.

I don’t know. I feel like this post is turning into a eulogy, and that wasn’t my intent. I’ll just leave it as saying a big thanks and nothing but best wishes in what I hope is a bright future for him.

As for me . . . I have no idea what’s going to happen now. The direction the library will go. The choices that will have to be made. But still, you deal with the hand that’s dealt to you (except in Magic the Gathering, where I’d definitely mulligan this hand in a heartbeat). But if I seem a bit distracted over the next week or two (or month or two), you’ll know why.

Here goes nothing.