Wrongful Termination from the Milpitas Library

One year ago (March 4, 2013), the Deputy County Librarian informed the Circulation Supervisor at Milpitas to terminate all of my hours after the following unfortunate incident occurred a week earlier on Feb. 25th:

I was paging/closing the South Wing at the Milpitas Library while my daughter was doing her homework as usual. At about an hour and a half before we would officially close, a large man became aggressive at the front check out desk with two female clerks who seemed to be at a loss for words and who were in question as to what to do next. I, who at the time was listening to loud hard rock music on my IPOD, since Milpitas allows this, could hear this through my earbuds that were deeply embedded and blasting into my ears. After the 2nd song began, I was still not seeing anything becoming resolved, still no librarian in sight to handle the matter, and now there was clearly a disturbance for everyone in the entire South Wing. Therefore, I decided to take a closer look. I quietly stood alongside the counter where carts to shelve are parked and where RHA (searches volunteers often participate in) reside daily. With the patron hovering above the desk and yelling loudly at the female clerk who was sitting down and at the other female clerk who was next to her on the phone trying to locate the teen librarian who was in charge that night, he turned to me and sternly asked me " AND WHO ARE YOU?!?!" I, having been an extra help page for nearly 5 years and familiar with my job and the system, knew that my interaction should be minimal if at all. In fact, my only intention at this point was to reassure my coworkers that they were not alone until a librarian could be located and to also encourage the patron to perhaps calm down by seeing another male presence. I didn't say anything but looked up at him and acknowledged that I had heard what he had asked. He snapped back loudly' " I SAID AND WHO ARE YOU?!? " Without saying a word I immediately turned around and walked away to the back door that leads into the work room to get someone asap when he snapped again! "THAT'S RIGHT! I'LL HURT YOU!!" That's when I decided that this is where it stopped. The minute anybody is threatened in any public environment the person needs to be removed. Not to mention that the library rules of conduct specifically state that no threatening behavior is allowed. I was done biting my tongue and snapped back "AHH OK! I SEE HOW IT IS!" and turned around and continued to wait for the teen librarian. I figured if he had been deaf to this patron for the last nearly 10 minutes, wherever he was, he must of heard that and would be here in a moment. Yes, it is true. I have a very strong voice that slipped out a little louder than I meant it to. Like when I say "GO TEAM!" at say a sporting event in the bleachers but in all honesty that was the extent of my reaction. Not a word more. He quipped back with "You call this a library! This ain't no library! This library is racist and now you have one of your workers threatening me!!" I quickly corrected him with a quieter but firm "No sir! You are mistaken! You are the one that has threatened me!" as the teen librarian walked up with anticipation and escorted the man outside. He then spent a fair amount of time with the patron in which I can only assume was to hear his side of the story and reassure him in some light. It was now almost 8pm and I had started my closing procedures. The South Wing is the largest area to cover which includes all media,fiction,language, audio books, magazines and newspapers, auditorium, self check out, computers, study rooms etc. and like usual, I was closing by myself. However, I saw the teen librarian had returned so I walked over to touch base with him quickly and asked if there was anything I could offer and to let me know. He snapped at me and said "yeah everything!" Well, I was not able to go into too much detail at that point if I was to close properly but I quickly said, "I heard him yelling and when I went over there to check it out he told me he was going to hurt me. Dude straight up threatened me! That wasn't cool at all and I told him Ahh ok! I see how it is! and that's more or less when you showed up as he was in the middle of insinuating the opposite. That I threatened him. Not true at all." I gave a 1/2 hearted smile, chuckled and told him I have to start closing procedures. He nodded his head and continued writing his report to the Community Librarian in order for her to read it the following morning. The next day I was confronted by the Circulation Supervisor that the issue made it to headquarters and to the County Deputy Librarian and that now my extra help job at the library, despite never having been written up for my entire 4 years and 11 months of employment, was at stake. I was just one month shy of receiving my five years of service award. I was shocked! To this day I don't regret a thing. Extra help or not, staff or patron, friend of mine, acquaintance or stranger, I react more or less the same way. I go see if there is anything I can do to help prevent someone from being harassed, threatened or hurt out of the goodness for humanity. I am not one to get involved unless absolutely necessary and more likely to observe, but I would be damned if I'm going to watch it escalate while twiddling my thumbs just to find out it's too late! Not only was the patron not temporarily banned at the least but also my job was now on the line, which I found to be absurd. I was reminded who was handling the matter, the Deputy County Librarian. Anything was possible at this point and out of my hands. Suddenly, I realized why it had gotten to this point but still couldn't fathom any rationality or common sense in regards to this particular situation.

I was trying to help my coworkers because I was concerned about their safety. No one was nearby to offer them any help. If anything, Don Phillips, the teen librarian, should be held accountable for not being present. He was scheduled to be in the South Wing and was not, which is a common occurrence with him.

I am not the only one that the Deputy County Librarian has screwed over or at least attempted to. A few years ago, Wolfgram decided that in order to cut costs, he would cut several senior clerk positions. The only catch was that he was not going to tell them ahead of time. The plan was to let them come to work one day and say Oh by the way, your position has been cut and you have been demoted to a half time position at some other library. Luckily this information leaked and word started to spread. The union was even contacted. All of a sudden, there was money found so that these positions would not have to be cut after all. Shortly after, he had the audacity to celebrate having been with the library system for a year or two. And yet he was willing to cut people who had been there three times as long, if not longer, than he had. Considering he makes roughly $11,000/month, perhaps he could have volunteered to cut his salary a little rather than try to cut people that actually needed their paychecks in order to survive.

Another example of his callousness towards "unimportant" employees was when a clerk 1 was about to retire. She was very nervous about retiring but at the same time felt that perhaps she could save someone's position if she did. She finally decided to retire. Wolgram was so anxious to abolish her position that he did not bother to ask her age. In one month she would have turned 55 and therefore would have been able to receive her full retirement. Instead of offering for her to stay one more month, he let her go, knowing that she would not receive as much as she could have. He quickly abolished her position and sent her a letter letting her know this. This made her feel as though her retirement was done in vain.

Most recently, it has been decided that certain people can no longer work out of class when their supervisor is not in for the day. Again cutting the little people that could use the extra cents.

Shame on those of you that find me to be the one in the wrong for being vocal and for being extremely disappointed. Disappointed in unjustly losing a job that I loved and disappointed with those who I once considered to be dear friends for turning the other cheek. I may be a lot of things in this world but a liar is not one of them. And I do not turn my back on my friends.

I thank those who have taken the time to read this long post as well as those who have been understanding and supportive over this last year, for I know I am not alone. But most importantly, I hope it can help prevent more careless decisions in the future...

Sincerely,

Tony