It’s that time of the year when the veils are thin between the Otherworlds and ours. Expect strange synchronicities, sudden coincidences, or unusual happenings.

Maybe breakthrough communications?

I’m not a religious person. I am a spiritual person. If I had to name my spirituality, it would be Celtic Pagan Star Wars.

I had a strange day at work yesterday. Maybe connected to the time of the year. Maybe not.

We are taught how to deal with problems we might have with those we supervise. We are not taught how to deal with problems we might have with those who supervise us.

If a project supervisor is notoriously bad at communication, but you are working on a project that you are passionate about how do you achieve desired results without a lot of trial and error?

My technique achieved my desired result of getting the go ahead for website coverage of a special segment of the project I’ve been working on. We made a special “Storytime in the Stacks” video for Star Wars Day on May 4th. We’ve been posting our videos on the library branch’s Facebook page. They don’t currently get many views, because not that many people know about them.

Part of the longer term goal of the project is to get other people in the system (at other branches) to make some as well. None of us have been able to do Storytime. It was the favorite part of my job in the before times. This project is sort of like a personal lifeline to the before times. It might be another year before we can do in person kids programs again. We don’t know….

I had sent the project supervisor an email asking about the next steps for this project over a week ago. I work out of a study room in the back corner of the library. There is no phone in it. In the future I might try a phone call. And that’s a lot more on me…

I didn’t hear anything and I knew that she was at work. I figured that she was too busy to get back. She has lots of things on her plate. And my whole team thought it would be great to get some website coverage for this timely video. What to do?

I reached out to others asking for feedback and tried the provide context for why I was reaching out – seemingly out of the blue. I chose some children’s librarians whom I’d worked with on some other projects and cc’d a few supervisors (including the project supervisor). Within a couple of hours I had gotten two positive comments – one from a children’s librarian and one from someone to whom the email had been forwarded to. She was the one who gave the go ahead to proceed with getting it ready for the website. Mission accomplished!

Except I may have hurt the project supervisor’s feelings in the process, which I didn’t mean to do.

I got a super nice email from her the following morning. She praised me for work I had done in the past and told me how it had helped the organization. She apologized for her poor communication. Her email made me cry. Lots of things make me cry these days. This was really wonderful feedback to hear though.

It made me feel visible.

I’ve been trying to be more visible these days.

So I felt really good – for about twenty minutes.

My direct supervisor called an impromptu meeting with me to talk about the tone I’d used in the email and how it came off as passive aggressive. She doesn’t want to ever have to write me up for disciplinary action/ probation. She reminded me that I could have her check my emails for snark level. And I’m thinking – yeah, if you’re not in a meeting. (At least I didn’t say that out loud).

So most of the rest of the day wasn’t so great. And then I saw the final version of the video my coworker had edited. It’s so good! I am such a Star Wars nerd. And my coworkers are awesome. One of them always comes up with great literary tips that totally tie in with the videos. The other one is a technological wizard. Literally.

Watching the video made me really happy. I hope it really does make it to the library’s website on May 4th. (Or at least the link to the YouTube video). It’s called “Wookie under a Cookie”.