Librarian is the new Postal

Feb 5, 2009

{ and tax season is how long? }

-Excellent

Tax season brings out the best in people. It also brings out the people who never come in to the library at any other time of the year, and suddenly swarm in search of free tax help, free tax forms, and (sometimes) free money.

Tax season brings questions such as “I need that form where you put your social security number on it and they give you money for having kids.”

and

Then there was the guy who thoroughly insulted my coworker at the Circulation desk because she tried to explain to him, nicely, that if he hadn’t been employed last year he wasn’t going to have a W2. And then further insulted the reference staff by demanding that we produce a W2 for him anyway. They even got him a sample W2 blank from the IRS website, which he threw back at them because it wasn’t what he wanted.

And for the record: I can’t get you a W2. I can’t get you a 1099, either. Nobody can.

And of course I can’t say ANY of this to the friendly people who come to my desk, because I am forbidden from giving any tax advice. Any at all. Becuase I am not a CPA, and I am not trained .

I probably screwed up my own taxes royally, so you don’t want my advice anyway.

And this rant is even annoying me. We get the same shit every year during tax season. I don't know why it still bothers me.

Labels: tax forms, tax season, taxes, W2

| PermaLink | | |

Jan 31, 2009

{ Tax Season }

-Excellent

Can I just say: I HATE TAX SEASON.

That is all. For now.

Labels: dumbasses, primal scream, tax forms, tax season

| PermaLink | | |

Apr 28, 2008

{ I'm not at my best today }

-Excellent
I’ve had some doozies today. And if anyone makes another comment to me about my inability to “deal with Mondays” I’ll prove them right.

And no. I haven’t had nearly enough coffee. So I admit that the cause of my frustration probably originates in my own head. It’s not a case of the Monday’s; it’s a case of being unable to deal with the teeming masses cheerfully without a significant dose of caffeine.

So when the woman asked me for tax forms from 1906 I just said “O.K.”, despite the fact that Income Tax Filing as we know it didn’t exist until 1918, and the IRS didn’t exist until the 1950s. Sure. Let’s find you a tax form for 1906. An EZ. From 1906.

But when you take the mouse off the mousepad, of course it’s not going to work. “You have to leave the mouse on the pad for the little roller ball to make contact. No. Don’t pick it up. Leave the mouse on the pad. Here, why don’t I do it for you?”

And www dot gov IS NOT a web address. Didn’t they give you anything else to type in? Something in between the www and the gov? No? “Sure. We can try to search for it with Google. But you have to leave the mouse on the mousepad.”

And I think there is a mathematical ratio that determines the amount of help a person is going to need to use the computer and the amount of time that they actually sign up for. So, the person who doesn’t know how to use a mouse is automatically drawn to the Express computer, where they will wait until they have four minutes of time left to call me over (“Miss! This thing aint working!”).

And kindly keep your child off of me while I help you. It’s not that I don’t like children; I help children all day as a normal part of my job. It’s usually fun. But having a sticky four year old climbing all over my lap and fondling my breast while holding a limp, torn, and wet balloon in her mouth just might push me beyond my tipping point.

“Oh. I mean 2006. Why would I want 1906?”

Labels: balloon, children, computers, internet, mouse, mousepad, tax forms, taxes

| PermaLink | | |