Dealing with other people....

Sometimes, dealing with people is difficult. Sometimes, all you can do is laugh.

My favourite amusing library encounter took place many years ago, when I was working in stacks. I was holding an armful of heavy journals, shifting them a few bays over and I was in the middle of a row of shelving. A library user approached me and asked,

"Where do you keep the books?"

Somehow, I managed to control myself and neither laugh in his face nor call him names. Instead, I asked him if he meant novels. "Yeah," he said, "regular books." I started to explain the way fiction was catalogued in a Library of Congress system, but, faced with a blank stare, instead directed him to the reference desk. Naturally, he went the opposite direction and I suspect spent some time wandering the stacks until frustration overtook him.

***

Want to read about other people dealing with difficult people? Read through the tales at Clientcopia and CustomersSuck.

Feel like listening instead? Go download Neil Gaiman's award-winning short story, How to Talk to Girls at Parties (read by the author).
.