Taking a break + jewelry heists + the smiley face

May I recommend

Taking a break.

This is something I’m a big fan of. For more than a year I’ve been in a tough and stressful job. Wait just one second, Amy. You work in an archives. How stressful can it actually be? What, your old books are are getting older? You got in trouble for talking too loud? The paper cuts?

First of all, questions 1 and 2 refer to library, not archival, stereotypes, which just shows your ignorance (though we have really old books and silence IS encouraged in the reading room) and to your third point, paper cuts can be really flipping painful.

At any rate, I do hear you. For most of my career when I got stressed or panicked about work, I would remind myself that the only real archival emergencies were floods and fires, everything else would get sorted out. (ha ha - “sorted out” and I’m an archivist - inadvertent pun). Since May 2020, however, I have been in charge of about 65 people, leading them through the pandemic and trying to get them all back into the offic…