I was a library “aide” in for a year and a half about a decade ago. We were the ones who shelved books. Who cleaned the section, who had to answer some questions of people around the floor. We also, and this was the majority of the job, had to go through the DVDs and CDs and books to make sure they were in good condition. And make sure there were no bed bugs in them. We found loads of bed bugs. So many. It sucked.
We also had to just do whatever we were told so we had to do jobs of higher paid workers some times because they weren’t able to schedule someone for the couple hours of time we had to fill. We also got paid 10 cents above minimum wage to “be competitive” and were limited to 30 hours.
We also had higher ups saying “well 30 hours and not paid a lot is fine because this job is meant for super young people in or just out of highschool or while in college. It’s not meant to let you make a living.” But almost every single one of us aides were between 20 and 35 with multiple in their 40s and were not in school and many were living with their parents because our job wasn’t paying us enough to survive by ourselves.
They also had this “hey maybe if you stay here long enough in this job that doesn’t pay enough and won’t provide insurance, we’ll hire you for a higher paying job. Maybe.” Only a handful of aides in the entire library system got hired on for a higher paying job during my time there. This was a system that had like 15 branches. They gotta simultaneously dangle the carrot of higher paying job after years of being there while also saying that the job you have isn’t meant to be something you stay in for very long and isn’t meant for non people in highschool.
In short, if you’re the lowest rung employee in a big system, it sucks ass.
I was a library “aide” in for a year and a half about a decade ago. We were the ones who shelved books. Who cleaned the section, who had to answer some questions of people around the floor. We also, and this was the majority of the job, had to go through the DVDs and CDs and books to make sure they were in good condition. And make sure there were no bed bugs in them. We found loads of bed bugs. So many. It sucked.
We also had to just do whatever we were told so we had to do jobs of higher paid workers some times because they weren’t able to schedule someone for the couple hours of time we had to fill. We also got paid 10 cents above minimum wage to “be competitive” and were limited to 30 hours.
We also had higher ups saying “well 30 hours and not paid a lot is fine because this job is meant for super young people in or just out of highschool or while in college. It’s not meant to let you make a living.” But almost every single one of us aides were between 20 and 35 with multiple in their 40s and were not in school and many were living with their parents because our job wasn’t paying us enough to survive by ourselves.
They also had this “hey maybe if you stay here long enough in this job that doesn’t pay enough and won’t provide insurance, we’ll hire you for a higher paying job. Maybe.” Only a handful of aides in the entire library system got hired on for a higher paying job during my time there. This was a system that had like 15 branches. They gotta simultaneously dangle the carrot of higher paying job after years of being there while also saying that the job you have isn’t meant to be something you stay in for very long and isn’t meant for non people in highschool.
In short, if you’re the lowest rung employee in a big system, it sucks ass.