Three levels of loss at work
It has been an interesting two weeks at the old library. To sum up, three employees are leaving or have left. Two of the employees will be missed. The third employee's leaving represents a good, good--heck, what am I talking about?--a marvelous opportunity for change in leadership for our library system.
First, IF has announced her retirement. I will always remember her for our conversations, for laughing at my corny jokes, and laughing in my face when I lamented the fact two years ago that I had turned forty. She's twice my age.
Second, one of our Adult Services librarians has landed her destination, dream job. Although she was with us for only six months, I was glad for her time here. I will miss our exchanges of trivia questions and our sarcastic bantering while in the office and on reference desk.
Third, our Director of Libraries has begun retirement immediately. Obviously, one does not begin retirement immediately because he/she wants to. The Director was asked to give up his position. Now every employee probably has an interpretation as to what happened and every employee has a strong opinion of the man. In my opinion, the Director used the combination of rhetoric and leadership in poisonous fashion. Apply this opinion as you see fit, dear reader. But as I see it, we are headed for a more constructive and progressive future for our library system.
And, once again, to sum up, I will miss two out of the three people leaving our library. And like Meatloaf says: Two out of Three ain't bad.
