It’s a tough time for libraries, and people in customer service. And while we don’t want to veer into any toxic positivity, it is good to spend a little time focused on building your happiness level. We are not going to solve people’s serious mental issues here. But bringing some happiness skills to your week can be helpful to everyone!

Mondays can be a little hard, even when things are going fine. Use this small injection of a happiness skill to your week. We are here to support you, and to help you to be a little happier in the library.

Jobs are not necessarily supposed to be fun. Even working in libraries, which should be one of the best places to work, they can be filled with stress and hard days. But it’s important to remember that you have the choice: You choose to stay and continue as is, or to make other decisions. Remembering that you have that power is powerful for you. If you want to stay at a hard job, or get through a hard day, you can make some choices to remind yourself that you are in control of the situation.

You can read this excerpt from the article How to find happiness at work instead of quiet quitting:

“For the sake of illustration, let’s just say that you’re one of them [unhappy employees]. Broadly speaking, in that situation you have four options: (1) do nothing, (2) quit, (3) quiet quit, or (4) do something to improve the situation, so you can be happier. I’m not here to tell you which is objectively the right or wrong choice to make, but each choice comes with a set of consequences.

• The first step is simply making the conscious decision that you are going to commit to proactively make the situation better.
• By “perspective,” what I mean is to mentally put yourself in your boss’s shoes. Now, I realize that this suggestion might be triggering for some people. “Why should I do that?” you might say. “They should be the ones putting themselves in my shoes!” This understanding prevents you from “otherizing” your boss and facilitates a cooperative approach to problem-solving rather than an antagonistic one.
• Even in a collaborative problem-solving situation, there is still a range of possible tactics that potentially work better with certain people than others. That’s what the assessment stage is for.
• Here’s where we get to the crux of the matter. Up to this point, much of the work has been mental. Now you’ll actually be interacting with your higher-up(s) to improve your situation.

Improving relationships is challenging and the process is typically neither immediate nor linear. Execution is a reminder to keep at it until you’ve either succeeded in improving the situation or you’re back to the point where you have to decide whether you want to remain at your organization.”

You can read the whole thing here.

CMLE can be part of your support network; we are here for you, and support you in your library work. Take a nice deep breath in, and whoosh it out; it’s going to be okay today.