shift 0 - the new job
How does this work? ... Hello? Hi? Ah, yes, ok. Anyways. My therapist recommended that I start a voice log about my daily life after I told her about my memory issues and tendency to dissociate. She thinks it will help me remember things and having a record of my life might make it easier to find patterns and identify triggers. It could also be a way to ground myself.
I don't know if it'll work but why not try, in a slightly different way though. I don't like recordings or voice memos, so I got this thing! It transcribes whatever I say into it, so I can just have written documentation. No idea how precise it'll be, but hopefully I won't have to edit too much.
Right now I'm sitting at home, trying to decide what to wear. I really wish they would just state a dress code. On the first day of a new job you're supposed to make a good impression, right? I guess I'll go for a more professional outfit.
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Okay, I'm sitting in front of the main building - 20 minutes early, but oh well. I'm supposed to meet someone here, get my library keys and then join up with the other newbie to start the tour. I don't look forward to that part. Meeting new people makes me nervous. I don't want to seem weird and sitting here, talking into this - I think it's called a dictaphone? - I sure look weird. Good thing my job will mostly consist of sitting in a basement with a lot of books and no people and books don't judge.
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The tour is over and we have a small lunch break. I haven't met my boss yet, but his vice showed us around. She told us to call her by her first name, Andrea, but she is a bit intimidating, so I don't know if I'll do that. My co-worker - I already forgot his name but he seems nice - didn't have any qualms and asked her a lot of questions. It's always nice to find an extrovert to hide behind, so I don't have to speak, but still get information.
Back to the tour. I don't know what I expected, I've never been in the archive before, but the place is kinda strange. It's located under the university's main library, where I spend a lot of time studying and stuff, so I know it pretty well, but we entered through the employee entrance and I had no idea where in the building we were. Andrea - feels weird to say - produced a green key and unlocked a metal door at the end of a corridor. It opened to a tunnel of stairs leading downwards, the low ceiling and walls made of solid concrete. One after another, harsh white light tubes buzzed to life, casting sharp shadows and reflecting on shiny metal. The stairs went down way deeper than seemed reasonable. It somehow made me dizzy and I had to hold onto the hand railings to not fall down. It was so cold it hurt.
Andrea must have seen me stumbling because she commented "Oh yeah, it does have that effect in the beginning. Please don't fall, I really don't like the paperwork." I think that was a joke. She led the way and we followed her cautiously. I tried counting the steps but kept losing track. At one point I looked back up and saw the door had closed behind us, absolutely soundless.
Apparently the library was built on an old bunker, which now contains the closed stacks on the first two floors, the special collections on the third and the archive on the fourth level. I think there are two or three more floors after that, but we didn’t get details on them, because “they are irrelevant to us”. She showed us around the stacks, lectured us on how to move the shelves and how to use the conveyor system. Our job will mostly consist of fetching books that people ordered, sending them upstairs in boxes and putting the returned books back in their place. We also got a very thorough introduction on how to scan books, when to use gloves and which buttons not to push.
So far, everything sounds very doable. I think this might be nice.
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I'm home. After the break we watched some instructional videos: about safety and security measures, the specific handling-instructions for the rare collections and how to staff the chat. It was a lot, but we got a printed hand out, which is good, because I already forgot most of it. For the first two weeks the other newbie and I, his name is Tristan btw, will only have shifts together with an experienced colluege, who will train us and oversee what we do. After that, we are on our own. I didn't quite realize it before, but when I properly start my job, I will be the only person in the entire bunker more often than not. Our closest co-worker oversees the open stacks in the main building's basement and there are several meters of solid concrete between us.