I've written about compassion fatigue and vocational awe in libraries before but this is a great summary on the issue and why library staff really should have some of our mental health needs met instead of punished. https://bookriot.com/compassion-fatigue-in-libraries/

I would be fine with a degree of vocational awe if we were treated, financially and more generally, as the service we are expected to be. Library workers in the UK earn around minimum wage in most places and we're either on temporary or zero-hours contracts.

It is hard to be the saviour of society when you don't know whether or not you'll have any shifts next month.

We call it Tech Rage at our branch but rage at refusal to complete tasks such as performing job searches and even fixing broken laptops for library users (for free of course, because aren't we meant to help them access information) come under that bracket.

The thing is, I have gone out of my way to make phonecalls for users with hearing or language processing difficulties. I have broken rules to help regulars fix their phones.

I am then punished for it and to a degree I understand why. We cannot be all things to all people.

And if I do it wrong? What if I break a person's ipad or give out the wrong information? (Information I shouldn't be handling anyway due to privacy laws.)

It's an emotionally taxing tightrope and in an ideal world we would be paid, staffed and empowered to help everyone.

I'm not going into the abuse aspect because if you haven't experienced the unique abuse public library workers can get, you're not going to understand. Some who work in council services might. It's the abuse of people who have nowhere else to go.

I imagine the health workers can understand it to a degree, especially in tax-funded services. Helping someone who is hurling abuse at you and STILL TRYING TO HELP THEM because it's the right thing to do and you are literally the last resort. It's a strange disconnect.

The job is incredibly rewarding once you get past that. Most days it's wonderful. Then you'll get a week where the DWP have gone on a sanctioning spree and a man with serious mental health problems kicks off while you're trying to assist with an everyday task.

The good outweighs the bad for me but it would be a lot easier to say that if I was sure that I'd still have a job or even a branch this time next year.

Use your library and yell at your politicians to keep them funded and I'll keep sneaking out at lunch time to fix phones and help poor young people access abuse helplines and food banks. Deal? Deal.