Overlooked

Originally published at a denizen's entertainment. You can comment here or there.

Last week after I asked the toy librarian if I could list her as a reference, she gave me one of the toy library pamphlets to copy her email address from. I put it in my shirt pocket so I would not forget it.

Of course I did forget it was there, which led to being asked about it by a service station attendant when I went to pay for petrol later. She had not heard of the toy library before and thought it a very nifty idea when I explained. I regretted not having more pamphlets with me, so that I could have offered her the one I had, and wondered about making a practice of wearing them there as a conversational starter and means of promotion. Suspect it leans a bit into obnoxious to do deliberately, despite the one example outcome we have being thoroughly positive.

Volunteering

Originally published at a denizen's entertainment. You can comment here or there.

Another couple of days this week, of volunteering at the charity shop done. I talked to some other people there who like me are there assigned as part of the government's 'work for the dole' program. Seems morale in that department is catastrophically low.

We have a personnel excess - this is not the sort of operation that needs a 1:1 or higher ratio of floor staff to customers. Pretty much the only direction given to anyone in this position is to 'work the floor' and pick up clothes dropped by customers, with a distinct lack of hoped-for useful experience, such as getting taught to work the register or donation processing activities, which seem to be covered by the regular staff. I have been making an effort to be assertive and check several times a day if there is anything I could be doing, which netted me doing some washing dishes in the staff room today. That was a welcome change.

I am not the only one plotting getting out of there. Have plans in place to pursue some more library volunteering opportunities tomorrow and the next day, which will hopefully bear fruit and enable me to occupy my time doing something more  satisfying with my time.

I don't think I would mind working in a retail environment, despite it not being at all my first choice, provided there was actually work for me to do, to keep me occupied doing it. But there isn't, and I need to find something else.