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darchildre) wrote2015-10-06 02:58 pm
darchildre) wrote2015-10-06 02:58 pm
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Back from the film festival and back to work!
So, this is my tenth year of working at the library. Which is pretty cool - I like working at the library and it's nice to think that I've been there that long and still enjoy it.
When you get to 10 years at the library, they give you a pin. I got mine today. I got one at five years, too.
I don't know, you guys, maybe I am just really cynical but what is the point of that? I assume there are people who value things like that and I envy them, but it always puts me in mind of those awards ceremonies we'd have at the end of the year in middle school, where everyone got a certificate for something. Just these weird mass-produced pieces of paper with a facsimile of the principal's signature, saying that you'd had perfect attendance* or whatever you were being "recognized" for. Ours had pictures of tigers on them, despite the fact that our school mascot was the jaguar, and we told at least one of our teachers that every year. (Once I had a teacher try to argue with me about that, as if I didn't know/couldn't tell the difference between tigers and jaguars. I invite you to imagine my adolescent scorn.) That level of attention to detail should give you an idea of how valuable these certificates were, yet they were given out every year of my school life as though we ought to treasure them.
That's what the pin feels like. It's a random mass-produced anonymous piece of useless nonsense. I guess I've never really understood the point of trophies, either. Either you won a competition, in which case you won, or it's an achievement you reached on your own bettering yourself. In either case, you have what you achieved. Having a weird useless cup as well seems silly to me.
The uselessness bothers me too. At 15 years working at the library, you're given a plaque. What do you even do with that? I mean, obviously, you hang it on your wall except no, I'm not going to do that. I didn't even hang my college diploma on my wall, and I put actual work into earning that, rather than simply clearing the lowest bar possible by showing up to work every day. You want to reward me for clearing that bar? Then at least give me something I can use.
I can never tell if being weirdly annoyed about this kind of thing is just me being overly cynical or if a lot of people don't really get trophies and certificates and we've all sort of silently agreed that it's not done to talk about it. Maybe there are a lot of people who really like this kind of thing. (If so, I hope that you'll accept that I mean no insult to you.)
I don't know, guys. Anyay. Now I have a pin.
*Awards for perfect attendance are especially bullshit, because a) don't come to school when you're sick, that's a terrible decision and you'll infect everyone else, and b) a child has basically no control over deciding whether or not to go school. It's like getting an award for not being struck by lightning - you put no effort into achieving it, it happens whether you want it to or not.
So, this is my tenth year of working at the library. Which is pretty cool - I like working at the library and it's nice to think that I've been there that long and still enjoy it.
When you get to 10 years at the library, they give you a pin. I got mine today. I got one at five years, too.
I don't know, you guys, maybe I am just really cynical but what is the point of that? I assume there are people who value things like that and I envy them, but it always puts me in mind of those awards ceremonies we'd have at the end of the year in middle school, where everyone got a certificate for something. Just these weird mass-produced pieces of paper with a facsimile of the principal's signature, saying that you'd had perfect attendance* or whatever you were being "recognized" for. Ours had pictures of tigers on them, despite the fact that our school mascot was the jaguar, and we told at least one of our teachers that every year. (Once I had a teacher try to argue with me about that, as if I didn't know/couldn't tell the difference between tigers and jaguars. I invite you to imagine my adolescent scorn.) That level of attention to detail should give you an idea of how valuable these certificates were, yet they were given out every year of my school life as though we ought to treasure them.
That's what the pin feels like. It's a random mass-produced anonymous piece of useless nonsense. I guess I've never really understood the point of trophies, either. Either you won a competition, in which case you won, or it's an achievement you reached on your own bettering yourself. In either case, you have what you achieved. Having a weird useless cup as well seems silly to me.
The uselessness bothers me too. At 15 years working at the library, you're given a plaque. What do you even do with that? I mean, obviously, you hang it on your wall except no, I'm not going to do that. I didn't even hang my college diploma on my wall, and I put actual work into earning that, rather than simply clearing the lowest bar possible by showing up to work every day. You want to reward me for clearing that bar? Then at least give me something I can use.
I can never tell if being weirdly annoyed about this kind of thing is just me being overly cynical or if a lot of people don't really get trophies and certificates and we've all sort of silently agreed that it's not done to talk about it. Maybe there are a lot of people who really like this kind of thing. (If so, I hope that you'll accept that I mean no insult to you.)
I don't know, guys. Anyay. Now I have a pin.
*Awards for perfect attendance are especially bullshit, because a) don't come to school when you're sick, that's a terrible decision and you'll infect everyone else, and b) a child has basically no control over deciding whether or not to go school. It's like getting an award for not being struck by lightning - you put no effort into achieving it, it happens whether you want it to or not.
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