Balance of Power

It didn't take long for there to be a clash in the balance of power at Great Hollands between me and Glynis. Friday was a pretty dire day at work. Five days in I was feeling pretty exhausted, the pedal came off my bike half way to work, and there were certain logistical problems that needed to be worked out, and that caused a little bit of upset with Pat Almond, my librarian aide, as she and I both had interrupted lunch hours to ensure that both libraries opened up OK.
Worse than that was the problem with Glynis. I get the feeling that she's trying her best to undermine me already- she's helpfully offering to open up for me on Wednesdays and got the only full set of keys for the place (which meant that Pat was unable to get to the money on Friday afternoon) and generally saying that she'll or we'll be doing certain things... not unexpected. Her reaction, however, when she found out that Val was coming out to teach me how to do the banking and the money side of things was rather vicious. Yes, I can see that she would be hurt that not all her "expertise" was required to teach me my job, but to get angry and fire off emails about it won't do her any good at all. I tried to explain that it was part of the standard training programme, but that just provoked her. So Paula ended up coming out and having a word with her. I hope it's done the trick...
It is a difficult situation because she has been looking after the branch for six months and will have to step back now, but, and this is a huge but, she's done bugger all with it. It's exactly the same as it was when Blanche left- it's drifted along for the last few months and she's not been at all active in doing anything to make it better. She's come in, opened the doors (most days) and served the few people that have come in. She's resisted any change, she's been deliberately sabotaging any changes that have been made and to be honest it can't go on.
So it won't. There are several things that can be done- ranging from a little one to one between us to establish who's in charge, through to moving her to Bracknell for a few weeks while I establish myself...

I've got a meeting with Fiona tomorrow and I'll be bringing up all this issue, though Fiona may well bring it up first after all the emails she's getting.

But otherwise it wasn't too bad a first week really!

We had a lovely night on Saturday for my leaving do. Despite the food being pretty rubbish, it was lovely to see everyone there to see me off and I got a magnificent Essential Branch Supervisor Kit from Gill. It took forever to unwrap as there was so many essential items for each branch to open! Items such as sweets, biscuits, lovely teas and a bag of marbles for when I lose mine... it might not too long before I need them!