Thursday, January 12, 2006

So that's why I now and then get the urge to strangle someone. . .

. . . well, not really (yet). I picked this up from the Librarian Avengers blog, a link to an article from the BBC entitled "Librarians 'suffer most stress.'" Actually, I would have expected something more in the lines of librarians have a systematic madness or such, but who knew, stress? Well, I can see where this is possible. I think reading some of the public librarian blogs out there, especially the anonymous ones, one sees that there is a lot of stress out there in libraryland. The study reported in the BBC article is based on a survey of 300 people drawn from firefighters, police officers, teachers, train operators and librarians. They thought librarians would be the less stressed of all. Ha! Apparently they did not interview librarians on this side of the pond. On a serious note, the stress librarians face is based on the work environment, the repetive nature of the job, and other stress factors, according to the report. This does make me wonder where does this put me. I was a public school librarian, and I can tell readers it is a very stressful job, and that does not include the kids, which add to the stress. So, am I less stressed now? Overall, I have to say I am. Sure, there are some days that really elevate the old blood pressure, but most of the time things are pretty good around here. Well, I haven't strangled anyone yet. I wonder what other folks out there in libraryland would say about this report.

By the way, my job? Anything but repetitive.

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