Sometimes people are just grumpy

Every now and then we have a day where people (customers, patrons, whatever you want to call them) are just grumpy. I've said previously that the library where I currently work is very busy. This summer we have seen our highest gate count (close to 36,000 in July), highest circulation (over 86,000 items in July - yikes!), and highest program attendance (nearly 2,000 in July) that we've ever seen. On top of that, we are quite short-staffed due to unfilled vacancies (hiring freeze, you know), vacations, and a staff member on bereavement leave. We're all totally freakin' exhausted! So when customers have a grumpy attitude from the get-go it's very difficult to be calm and remain professional.

Take today, for example. Today I had 4 grumpy customers in a row, and it was a challenge to be polite 'cause they were all acting like jerks. #1 was a lady who insisted that she had already paid her $25.20 fine over a year ago, even though it was not marked paid in the circulation system. Of COURSE she paid with cash, of COURSE she didn't keep her receipt, and of COURSE she didn't pay it at my library. I was supposed to just take her word that she paid it even though she had no proof and there was no way for me to check cash register records since it wasn't my library. I'm a reasonable person; what I offered her was splitting it in half - we would "forgive" half and she would still be responsible for the other half. This was not acceptable to her and she argued and argued and argued with me about it, while other customers piled up, waiting for someone to help them. Very unpleasant. I did not budge, though. (Honestly, I thought forgiving $12.60 was quite generous). Afterwards I saw her on a computer and it looked like she was filling out our online survey. I'm sure what she had to say was not complimentary. (That's the problem with the online survey - the only people who are motivated to fill it out are the ones who are pissed off!)

Anyway, immediately after her I had to deal with an irate man who had been in one of our computer classes. He was upset because the person sitting next to him in the class was "clicking too much" and distracting him, and he also thought the instructor was moving too fast for him. He really NEEDS this instruction and was just SO unhappy that things weren't just exactly perfect for him. What a baby. It's a FREE class, man - you should be grateful we're offering them at all.

Oh, and then there was Bridezilla! She was trying to print stuff from a Web site for her wedding - I guess honeymoon destinations and such. I showed her how to do a print preview so she could make sure she was printing what she wanted, and I also explained that only the first 5 pages were free and for anything more than that she would have to add money to her printing account. She said that was "just stupid." Really, that's what she said. I didn't know how to respond so I didn't say anything at all. Later I found out that she brought two pages up to the desk and said the computer printed the wrong pages so she wanted her money back. Obviously she wasn't watching when I showed her print preview! This woman was one of the most unpleasant people I've encountered in a long time - really a bitch. I truly feel sorry for the guy she's marrying - he's in for an unhappy life.

Then I had a guy who swore up and down that he returned all six of the DVDs that were checked out on his card. He was just absolutely, beyond-a-shadow-of-a-doubt certain that everything had been returned in our bookdrop over the weekend. Now I can see where a staff member might miss checking in one or two items, but six in a row? That's unlikely. Plus, if they HAD been returned, wouldn't I at least be able to find ONE of them? I could not find a single one. Where the hell did they go?

We have lots of people swearing that they returned items that we can never find. When I check for these items on the shelf, I PRAY that I can even find at least one of them but I seldom do. Are people just lying to us? Are we that incompetent? Do we have someone coming in when we're not open and stealing things from the bookdrop? It's a constant problem, and it makes people really grumpy, staff and customers alike. Most of the staff are convinced that people are just liars, but I don't know what to think - they all seem so certain! My strategy has been to renew things for people and ask them to really check around thoroughly, but in following up I have found that most of the time, the items still have not been returned, nor can we locate them anywhere in the library. Where they are is one of the great mysteries of the public library.