With the two new guys n the library and my release coming anytime this summer, I'm trying to take a step back form work and let the new guys take over. I figure that I can show them how to do the uncommon tasks, like adding or deleting books, when the opportunity arises. Just in case, I do leave before I'm able to teach them, II typed up a how-to manual for the library, complete with daily tasks and screenshots for walk-throughs of the trickier stuff.
Unfortunately, one of the new guys didn't wait to learn and completely ignored the walk-throughs when adding and deleting books yesterday. He seems to be in a massive hurry to get everything. As we all know - or quickly discover - mistakes pop up like weeds when you rush through something, even when the task is almost second nature. I've told this guy, Dawson, that most of our work is not time-sensitive, but it's like screaming at a submerged swimmer form above the waterline.
It took two hours for me to clean up the mess in our database and another hour to fix the tags on the books themselves. We probably could have done the entire process together in about an hour. That's the cost of impatience.
Yeah, this is a prison library where the workers don't apply for the positions and aren't paid anyway, but the lesson carries to the streets. The habits formed here will stay with him.
I hope Dawson can pull a 180 - or at least a modest 90 - because I don't want to see all my work wasted. I don't want these guys on the inside deprived of a decent library on top of every other thing missing in their lives. I hope the new guys will maintain the progress achieved over the past year and a half.
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