job hazards, and other stories

[ontology]

I have been telling myself, very firmly and resolutely, to list the things I don't like about my job, lest I get too carried away with enjoying it, and... unspecified bad things happen. Not dwell on them, mind, just -- keep them in mind. To help me along, as it were, today I was introduced to the saddest task I have ever been asked to complete thus far.

I. destroyed. books.

I feel like a murderer.

I have betrayed my sacred duty as protector and advocate of book-kind!

Apparently The Company has a great massive list of things they have decided are not selling, and therefore we must remove them from our shelves and send them back. I scan every single book with some sort of device (it goes 'whirrrring!' when there's stuff), and mostly it just beeps, but every couple of shelves it makes a great racket and then I know I have to dispose of the book I have just scanned. The hardcovers and the nice paperbacks are simply placed on a cart, where they do look forlorn, but at least they are going back to somewhere, perhaps to bargain bins, or to the publishers. The cheap mass market paperbacks, however, we are ordered to strip. Which is a clinical euphemism for brutally ripping off their front covers and tossing them into a box to be thrown out.

(All right, and it isn't only the book lover in me that rebels at this wanton destruction: I was raised not to waste things, ever, at all, and to understand the value of everything, and destroying perfectly good merchandise is wrong. I wish we could at least send them off someplace to be recycled, instead of to moulder in a landfill somewhere.) 

In happier news, I am scheduled to work two days next week, instead of the one I've been getting, and... my name is no longer at the bottom of the schedule list. Which is probably somehow telling? I've been moved up to right beneath the managers and key-holders. People who have worked jobs before, this is good, yes? 

* * *

Yesterday the gang & I finally finished Coraline, and it was very very lovely and wonderful and Mr Gaiman should be proud (which I am certain he is, after reading blog and Twitter entries on the subject), and stop-motion animation is fabulous, and imagination is fabulous, and how did they make fire on the candles sakhghg, and alas, I do still have the niggling complaint that they shouldn't have changed the setting to America, rather than Britain, but that is niggley and due mostly to my extreme Anglophilia. (Also, the fact that everything is tiny and real fills me with glee. Sets! Which are real, and filled with real tiny hand-made props!) 

And then I came home and my family was gone and the only member left (Timmy, on the computer) had no idea where they were. Which is to be expected, as he never remembers such things, and I had a vague memory of Mum planning to go shopping, but it was still a very eerie and hilarious coincidence.

I feel rather tired and smushy and blank; I hope bed and book will cure much of this.

(Also, take note of my glorious new layout, courtesy of midenianscholar's scholarslayouts. I've tweaked the fonts a wee bit, but otherwise it is all her masterpiece: all hail Alyssa!)

Comments

[cherise.livejournal.com]

Jo, this layout is the prettiest! I have to admit that your other one was starting to feel cluttered, though I did like the tag cloud on the side, it's very useful for looking at trends. The header was so pretty I didn't scroll down for a bit. :)

It's tragic that you had to do that! I would probably be committing a small felony but I would save a couple copies ... honestly, they can't sell them to small bookstores or something? Aw. That's great that you're working more too! It's not fun to have a job you can't work at.

I feel smushy and blank, as well. This song I'm listening to right now, Oren Lavie's "Her Morning Elegance" is very telling, with "she fights for her life" etc. blargh. Spring needs to come.

[faeriemaiden.livejournal.com]

It was beginning to feel cluttered to me, too, but I didn't have any fresh exciting ideas for a renovation, either, so when Alyssa posted this I fell in love and had to have it. I haven't used someone else's layout in... quite some time.

If I run into a book that I want to own, I will rescue it. ...Probably with money, but still. I don't think anyone would object to me buying it instead of throwing it away, as they get money out of the deal & things. ^-^

Spring needs to come oh yes yes yes. I am getting very restless. But today it was sunny and warm and sometimes if one is very quiet one can hear birds chirping, so I am optimistic!

[lady-moriel.livejournal.com]

Very pretty! I feel kind of bad that I've never used a customized layout, just picked ones I like from various LJ layouts, but...I am lazy, so.

They couldn't...donate the books to charity or something? Or at least have a recycling center take the paper? Really, that's...yeah. I cannot abide waste, especially when it's something that doesn't have to be wasted. I am also kind of into recycling in general, 'cause...we've only got one planet and I'd like to not screw it up much more badly than we already have, which makes me a little unusual among conservatives, I suppose, but we are supposed to be stewards and stuff. Anyway. Yeah. That is bad. It seems worse because it's books--I can't help thinking of all the authors represented by remaindered books, and how likely it is that if I ever get published, mine will also end up as mass-market paperbacks unsold and eventually destroyed, which is...emo and pessimistic but not statistically unlikely.

Although other places kind of do that too. When I was at Fred Meyer, we would salvage stuff that was damaged, which for me meant chucking it in a box in the back somewhere; I think the stuff was sent back to the manufacturer or something. But sometimes there was stuff that we couldn't sell because it had been returned, say, and shouldn't have been, because it reeked of cigarette smoke or was dirty or something--so we couldn't sell it, but we also couldn't salvage it because it wasn't a defect. So we would "find" defects. By which I mean we would tear seams and stuff. Sometimes we had to use scissors to help us find these defects. Which was admittedly pretty fun, especially since my hostility level toward clothes in general tended to be pretty high during that job, and I had no real moral qualms about it because...well, my bosses told me to. (We did try to keep somewhat out of sight of the security cameras, though.)

But--I am terribly pleased you love your job so much. That is fabulous.

[faeriemaiden.livejournal.com]

Speaking of layouts and lazy and youuuu... your layout is Christmastastic. And also, it is February. Chaaaange it. ;)

I think I'll ask next time, to see if the company recycles the stripped books, because at least then I'll feel better about it. And at least I spent the evening going through the mystery & thriller section, so mostly what I was destroying were rubbish outdated pulp thrillers and silly mystery novels.

I can't help thinking of all the authors represented by remaindered books, and how likely it is that if I ever get published, mine will also end up as mass-market paperbacks unsold and eventually destroyed, which is...emo and pessimistic but not statistically unlikely.

YES EXACTLY ME TOO. Every time I destroyed a book, I would note the author's name, not exactly intentionally, but... I felt so badly for them, even though some of them were writing the most awful stuff with lots of sensationalism and violence and sex and very few semi-colons. Someone worked on that and loved it and made it and probably went excitedly to local bookstores just to see their work on the shelf, and here I am destroying it and throwing it away.

If they weren't books, though, I would... kind of enjoy the stripping process, because... I really enjoy destroying things. *shifty eyes* If there was fire involved, well. *SHIFTIER EYES*

[faeriemaiden.livejournal.com]

Oh, wait, you did change your layout, to one I like muchly. *headdesk* Observance fail. :/

[lady-moriel.livejournal.com]

I think I changed it just yesterday. >_< But it's still a pre-set or whatever, so...yeah.

You know what's really fun? Volunteering at an electronics recycling event. I've only done this once but I'd love to do it again, because basically I got to spend hours dumping computers in bins and cutting cords and breaking monitors and printers. It was awesome.

[bornofstars.livejournal.com]

I feel sort of crazy, but this makes me more than a little angry and...some other emotion. I don't know. It just disturbs me. Why oh why must they destroy the books?!

Wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings.

...because ripping off the covers is practically like burning books. My logic is impeccable, I don't know what you mean.

[midenianscholar.livejournal.com]

When my mom worked in Sears as a young adult, she had to rip the books apart too. She got around it sometimes by sneaking them into the employee's lounge room and putting them on the table. Don't know if you have an employee's lounge room, but... the bathroom would work. ^_^

*bows* I was just going to comment on your lovely layout. ;)