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Dear Fitz,
My employer doesn’t seem to trust me to do a good job. But if he doesn’t give me a chance, how can I prove I’m worthy of trust?
Signed,
Frustrated
Dear Frustrated,
Just make sure you’re the purrfect employee! Be on time and make sure you’re not the first to leave. Volunteer for tasks no one wants to do. If nothing changes, schedule a meeting to talk about your concerns. Good luck! For further reading, I dug up some articles on having productive conversations with employers—check out the links below.
Your Friend,
Fitz
A few minutes later, I was putting a tray of muffins and doughnuts into the breakroom. Luna poked her head in, fresh from her storytime, and groaned when she saw it.
“I look at that tray and you know what I see?” she asked.
I shook my head with a grin.
“Sabotage,” she answered. “Did I tell you I’m on a diet? My mom and I both are. I swear I don’t know how the weight has just hopped right on me since I moved here. When I was in New York, I was always the same weight.” She stared gloomily at the muffins.
“I’d blame the mayor, except he only has his Muffins with the Mayor event once a month,” I said lightly. “Anyway, I don’t see that you’ve gained any weight.”
Luna wagged a finger at the tray. “Oh, it’s there, believe me. You know what I think it is? It’s lack of exercise. When I was in New York, I walked everywhere. Here, I’m just hopping in my car and carting myself over to the library and back.”
“Same here,” I said. “Although I’m not sure I particularly want to change my habit right now. It’s about a hundred degrees outside.”
Luna tilted her head to one side, letting her purple hair tumble. “I wonder if I could just sweat this weight off? Maybe I should start walking to work and back.”
I gave her an encouraging smile, although it sounded miserable to me. I decided to offer an alternative. “Do you have a bicycle? That would be quicker and would still provide exercise.”
Her eyes widened. “True! And no, I don’t, but I bet I could find an inexpensive one online. Because I’m also trying to save money.”
Wilson joined us in the breakroom. He was delicately holding Fitz, who was purring. He set the cat down carefully and I walked over and gave him a scratch under his chin. He gave me an appreciative look before finding his favorite breakroom sunbeam and falling asleep in it, still purring contentedly in his sleep.
Wilson’s eyes widened as he spotted the tray of pastries. “Oh, wow.” He got himself a plate and picked out a few muffins for himself. “Wasn’t there a good turnout for the event?” he asked me with concern.
“There were plenty of people there, but I guess the draw was the mayor and not so much the food. Or else, the attendees weren’t very hungry,” I offered. I glanced at my watch. Considering the three of us were in the breakroom, I figured I should head out to the circulation desk.
“Before you go out there,” said Wilson, brushing a few crumbs from his mouth, “I wanted to talk with you about the advice column.”
Luna tried unsuccessfully to hide a smile. We’d talked before about Wilson and his pet projects. And this one really was a ‘pet’ project.
I walked back toward Wilson. “I should have given you a better update earlier. You probably saw the flyers and the signs on the bulletin boards here, but I also did post a cute picture of Fitz wearing glasses and a notice about the column on our social media accounts. We’ve had a couple of questions come in and I’ve answered them but haven’t posted them yet.”
Wilson nodded eagerly. “Yes, I’ve seen the social media posts. What I wanted to let you know is we’ve already gotten some responses. The column seems to be very popular online. It’s even being shared.”
I admit my heart sunk a little at this news. After all, I didn’t exactly consider myself an expert when it came to relationships . . . or even life. I was very good at doing research, but aside from that, I felt like I struggled. I still had a crush on a man who wasn’t interested, for heaven’s sake. And now I was apparently stuck with yet another looming blind date with someone named Kevin.
Luna leaned forward with interest. “What kinds of responses are we getting? I mean, what do the problems look like?”
Wilson gave her an approving look as if she were a star student. “The problems that I’ve seen come in are a range. Some of them are written by students and have to deal with telling parents about a bad grade or something similar. Some are definitely letters from the lovelorn.”
I winced. Again, I wasn’t feeling super-qualified to give advice for relationship issues right now.
Luna said to Wilson, “That’s great that the program is getting such a response! But then, a lot of people don’t really have anyone to go to when they have issues. Neutral parties can be very attractive because you know the replies aren’t biased.”
Wilson looked uncomfortable and suddenly directed his attention toward Fitz. This attention was somewhat unwarranted since Fitz was completely curled up in a ball in the sunbeam. “I don’t know if replies from neutral parties aren’t biased. I think our experiences have a tendency to color how we respond, even if we don’t want them to.”
I frowned. “I’m sorry—what are you saying? I thought perhaps Luna and I could even take turns responding to the Ask Fitz questions.” I was sincerely hoping this was the case. “You’d mentioned earlier that responding could even be a group effort at the morning meetings.”
Wilson sighed. “And now I’ve reconsidered that idea. It’s just that Luna’s experiences aren’t exactly in the small-town realm.”
Luna’s eyebrows shot up. “But I grew up here!”
“And immediately left and spent most of your adult life in a big city with big city problems. I’m just not convinced you’re the best person for this job,” said Wilson. His voice didn’t sound unconvinced at all—it sounded certain he didn’t want Luna to have anything to do with it.
Luna looked as if she’d been slapped, although no one had been anywhere near her. “But having a lot of experiences is good for this kind of job. It helps me deal with different types of people. Even in a small town, there’s not such a thing as a cookie cutter problem.”
Wilson cleared his throat and stood, actions I knew indicated the discussion was over. “I’m afraid I don’t see it quite the same way. Let’s start out with Ann responding to the columns, for now anyway. If that needs to change, I’ll re-evaluate. Ann, if you need anyone to consult with, you can feel free to ask Luna her opinion, but I want you to be the person behind this program.”
As soon as he’d closed the door behind him, I quickly said, “I’m sorry about this, Luna. Wilson has been in a funny mood lately. Believe me, I don’t want to be the person behind Ask Fitz. I’m with you—life experiences are key for dispensing advice and my life experiences are fairly minimal and random.”
But Luna would hear nothing of it. She said, “You’re completely wrong, Ann. You have more common sense in your little finger than most people have in their whole bodies. That’s what you’re bringing to the table—your brain. Maybe you haven’t had as many life experiences as I have, but that’s a good thing. Wilson is right: this column is intended for a particular audience. And the audience doesn’t necessarily understand a New York state of mind.”
I shook my head. I could tell Luna was still hurt, as she should be. It seemed like Wilson had stood in her way a lot lately, and I really couldn’t figure out why. First there was the pay raise thing, which Luna had asked for and which hadn’t gone well. Then he hadn’t been at all flexible with Luna’s hours when she’d asked him for some extra time to take her mom to appointments . . . causing Luna’s mom to have to switch around some appointments. It was as if Wilson was determined to stand in her way, no matter what the issue was.
But Luna apparently read my features and the next thing I knew, she was rolling her eyes. “Please, Ann. Do you think I’m going to completely shy away from offering you advice for the advice column? Does that really sound like me? As soon as I get the chance, I’m going to be glancing through some of those entries to see what’s on people’s minds.”
I still must have looked troubled because she said, “Besides, I’ve got a great idea for something, myself. You know how I’ve wanted to get more teens involved in the library?”
I nodded, happy to be getting on a slightly different subject. “Sure. For a good reason—historically, we haven’t been able to lure as many teens here. It’s tough to come up with a really good program for them. They’re not exactly excited to come to the library for an art program and there hasn’t been too much participation when we’ve tried book clubs.”
Luna looked like she was warming to her subject. “Exactly! I want the library to be a fun place for these kids to come. But they don’t have a lot of time. When I’ve talked to the teens who’ve come in, they’re really strapped for time between school, jobs, sports, and trying to keep up with their friends. So I just casually started asking them what kind of program they’d like. What they’d find useful. They were saying they don’t have study hall in school anymore. I mean, can you imagine?”
I didn’t say I hadn’t had study hall at Whitby High either. Apparently, it had been abolished at some point in the 80s.
“So I asked them if it would be helpful to have a study room set up, especially during exam weeks. We could have snacks and soft drinks and maybe even some music. Maybe we could even have a couple of off-duty teachers,” said Luna, tilting her head to one side, thoughtfully.
I grinned at her. “Is there such a thing as an off-duty teacher? They’re not exactly like off-duty cops.”
She grinned back, but looked distracted. “So, what do you think?”
Luna was so eager that at first I couldn’t bear to tell her it sounded a lot like our ill-fated study buddy program at the library a few years ago. After our youth librarian had stepped out of the (then-quiet) room, a food fight had erupted. When Wilson had seen the damage, he’d vowed to never host anything like that again. But maybe she needed to be clued in so she could avoid some of the issues we’d had last time.
I said slowly, “I think it sounds good. We had something slightly similar years ago, but it wasn’t handled well. When you ask Wilson about it, make sure to tell him you plan on it being completely supervised by adults and the kids themselves requested it.”
Luna beamed at me. “Good tips. I’ll do that.” Then she looked a little deflated. “Although getting it past Wilson is the big thing. He’s turned into Dr. No lately, when it comes to me.”
I had a feeling I knew why, too. Luna was a very industrious worker while she was at the library. And I knew Wilson has admired the rapport she has with the kids and their parents. She also was quite creative when it comes to program ideas. The only problem with Luna was that she had a habit of coming in late and needing to unexpectedly ask for time off. Wilson had always been a real stickler when it came to punctuality. I’d seen him make note of her lateness with pursed lips and an eye on the clock. I knew a lot of her lapses had to do with making sure her mom was settled in the mornings, but some of it had to do with Luna herself—and her laid-back approach to time and life.
I hesitated. The last thing I wanted to do right now was to point out what seemed obvious to me, but I also wanted Luna to get past this rough patch with our boss. I said, “You probably don’t know this, but Wilson is super-strict about punctuality. Maybe you could try leaving a little earlier to get here? You might be doing this anyway if you’re thinking about biking to work.”
Luna’s eyes opened wide as if she was hearing a revelation from above. “You mean the times I’ve been a little late? I haven’t even been running that far behind.”
It depended on what you called behind. To Luna, fifteen minutes was nothing. To Wilson, it was a huge deal. It hadn’t created any problems because the times it had happened, I’d just floated between the children’s section and the circulation desk. But it could have created problems.
Luna frowned. “But he hasn’t said anything to me about it.”
I nodded. “That’s Wilson’s way. He won’t say anything . . . he just takes notes.”
There was a determined jut to Luna’s chin now. “Got it. Okay, so I’ll come in early now. On my bike, once I get one. Now I’m motivated! I can make this happen.” She looked at her watch. “Better run. Operation Perfect Employee is now underway.” She saluted me and then scurried out of the breakroom.