#work rant

Nowadays the vast majority of academic research, papers, any highlevel information, is owned and distributed by databases like HeinOnline, WorldCat, Westlaw, etc. and are only accessible to people with institutional access (yes you can get access to some of these databases through your public library or by making an account, but the pay barrier still exists for LLMs).

In order for chat GPT and similar AI programs to have access to those resources, they have to pay for the use rights, which they largely dont at the moment (they’re too busy going bankrupt building data centers).

So asking AI anything is like asking a random man off the street to run a google search for you--it cant replace a doctor or a lawyer with special access to the right answers.

I'm wearing my union gear which should mean something, right?

I can understand and appreciate that you were having a rough day today. You were clearly already in a mood when you walked in, and I imagine me having to tell you I can’t return your non-returnable item didn’t make your day any better (even though I was patient and did offer you an exception in the form of store credit), but there are a few key things I wish you would have taken away from this experience before you stormed out and left a nonsensical Google review (one of many in a string of 1-star reviews, I noticed).

I know you’ll never see this, but for anyone who does, please just keep these things in mind when you are interacting with people in customer service:

We do not make the policies, we are just paid to enforce them. It is not “rude” of us to simply inform you of our policies and why we may be unable to give you what you want.

If you are rude to us, there is basically a 0% chance we will go out of our way to help you.

If you are KIND and patient with us, I can all but PROMISE that we will go above and beyond to try and accommodate you.

If you are having a “terrible” experience everywhere you go, perhaps it is time to reflect upon your own behavior, look inward, and ask if it’s possible YOU are the common denominator.

Sincerely,

Our ticket system and phones went down yesterday afternoon and won't be fixed until at least tomorrow so it's not been a fun weekend BUT someone gave us tiny seals!!!

I’m not getting sick and tired of parents expecting retail workers to parent their kids: I’ve been sick of it. I got approached by a mom (accompanied by her 9-11 y/o son), asking if I would recommend Elle Kennedy for a teen. I told her no, I wouldn’t. I don’t read romance but I just personally don’t like how commonplace it’s becoming for teenagers to read adult-oriented romance but ultimately I’m not even interested in romance so I can’t say I’m comfortable with my recommendation skills in that area. I offered the YA romcoms but she said her daughter “had read them all”.

Goes on to ask of Elle Kennedy had explicit scenes. I explain that most romances do now. The lightest you might get (at least in YA) is fade-to-black.

“What’s fade-to-black?”

….

Ma’am.

I can’t say outright because the kid is there so the furthest I got was saying, “It’s when they cut away with the implication of. Stuff going on.”

“What stuff??”

….M A ‘ A M.

She keeps circling back to whether or not it’s explicit. I don’t know what she wants from me, I told her my opinion, gave her my reasoning, but it’s like she wants me to validate the easiest option, which is saying yeah sure go for it.

But here’s the kicker: While going on about what her daughter’s moved on to, she mentions Colleen Hoover.

Colleen Hoover.

Baby Balls Colleen Hoover. Graphic mature topics not handled in an appropriate-for-younger-ages Colleen Hoover.

At this point, it’s become apparent that this lady has no idea what her daughter is reading, doesn’t interact with anything, and sorta just. Relies on other entities to handle that part of parenting. If her main concern was about Elle Kennedy being explicit, it was too late.

I had to just ultimately go, “Well, you’re the parent. It’s ultimately going to be up to you whether or not Elle Kennedy is appropriate.” I recommend she at least skim the books to get an idea of what’s going on and only then does she walk off, son in tow.

Later on during my break, I googled whether Elle Kennedy’s books are “spicy” just to be sure.

They are.

And all it took was quick use of the pocket-sized computer I know she owned. The annoying part is that this happens all the time: Parents have no clue what they’re kids are getting into but expect everybody else to do the work for them instead of doing the bare minimum on their part of actually just going online to places specifically made to assist them on these things.

I’ve had way too many oblivious parents buy their freshmen daughters Colleen Hoover or Fourth Wing. I’ve heard way too many kids way too young talk about shows they have no business watching while the parents just stand there with no idea.

But most of all? I’m tired of parents asking for an employee’s opinion or recommendations, then completely ignoring them because they don’t align with the easiest option of just validating giving the kid exactly what they want.

(Actually, no: What I’m most pissed off about is that I work in a predominately WASC [white Anglo-Saxon Catholic] area with a loooot of customers having definitely voted for the current shituation. And they have the audacity to inherently assume queerness is sexual or that drag queens are sexualizing/exposing children. Meanwhile they have no goddamn clue what their kid is reading, so long as it appears to be hetero.

The publishing industry has both covertly and overtly been contributing to increasing pressures of making children grow up for no damn reason besides sexually. It’s never maturing in other ways: It’s always romantic and sexual.

But fuck it, it’s too early to get into that shit.)