Sarcasm Rules

This weekend sarcasm has been a big part of my Poets House experience. I don't mean I've been using it myself, or that any of it has been directed at me, but it's certainly there and only as a tool for creating interesting bonds between employees. Sarcasm in the workplace is one of those things one would normally need to watch out for. It's unprofessional and likely suggestive of one's negative disposition to respond in a matter-of-fact, deceptively ignorant, or belittling manner, and sometimes it's dangerous to even use one of these tones sincerely. But some workplaces contain business relationships that have the opportunity to reach a level of sarcasm that, if played well, can make the workday more exciting and comfortable.
I think this weekend featured a good deal of that atmosphere. I don't know that I'd have minded much either if it were present or not, but it being a focus in our community, I have no problem embracing its comic benefits.

Showcase month is a couple days away, it's getting busy. We're running out of space on our shelves, about 90% of the books requested have passed through our doors now and we expect around another couple hundred in the coming weeks to level our usual average of two thousand (and change) books. A number of volunteers and interns have been working hard. We were able to iunput 111 books on Saturday, between Izzy, Reny, me, and Mike and Stellan who only occasionally input a few books. Put that way it doesn't seem like much, but then there are many steps to the input procedure and then there's shelving.
Mike took us three interns aside to look at some of the books we entered on Saturday to see how we were doing and to give us the formal opportunity to ask questions. I was glad to have this chance, since I had a number of questions about the system that I just felt would be random and pointless if just asked at any time. The more difficult books to enter are: the books in translation or those written in other languages, books with multiple editors, or complicated author systems, and sometimes anthologies.
Our information is being entered into an online database! So, it's imperative that we enter things in streamlined fashion.

See ya next week!