The Sound of His Own Voice

The Mad Director has taken full control, and I can't even begin to keep on top of the weirdness that is going on here.

There is the insanity of taking a place which budget is on thin ice and eliminating overdue fines from children's books (isn't that sweet; almost as though he is doing something nice for the children by not having the parents be as responsible for their borrowing as they would for adult materials).  The first result of that decision was to order the staff to harass the other borrowers whenever they had any fine at all on their record, and not just collect fines upon the three-year renewal of their account.  The second result is the need to now increase fines on adult materials.

I am watching this impulsive, power-driven personality make decisions that are destructive and wondering how far it will go.

What blows me away is the disinformation that he passes for fact:

•  99 % of staff evaluations were "good and honest".  (What on earth does that mean, and how on earth would you know?)
• "Staff" really liked the customer service training presented on Staff Day.  I wonder how that information was garnered; apparently, I missed the anonymous feedback forms that must have been collected from staff.
• Circulation is up because of the "floating collection".  Actually, circulation is up because patrons can now check out hundreds of DVD's at a time instead of the prior limit of five.

This is a dude who is such a narcissist that reality is totally in his head.  I have heard that he is one not to be disagreed with.  I have an internal conflict with wanting to stay under his radar versus speaking my mind in order to do the right thing. This is not good.

I am not under the radar.

So we'll see what happens.  I know that, like Santa (the Bad Santa variety), he listens in to see whose naughty or nice.  He has let us all know that he has access to our library borrowing records, our internet communications, and the Staff Forum he initiated.

As narcissists do, he has also made himself very public.  I look forward to going to Board meetings, and I promise to read the minutes of all the staff meetings that get sent along to us mice, as disturbing as they are.

This is a small place, but it is turning out to be a real microcosm of what can go wrong when the wrong person is in control.