I think you should have understood early on that they obviously didn’t know why. Sure they could have said it but wasn’t it clear enough without them doing so?
Perhaps the policy doesn’t make sense on slow days but sometimes the policy that prevents abuse also gets in the way. If there wasn’t a policy about limits that occasionally had to be enforced then you might have a few people on the computers for hours rather than have them available to more people who only needed them for an hour. In practice it’s easier to enforce a blanket policy that applies to everyone rather than try to use discretion on a per case basis.
Maybe the policy is outdated and your inquiry will get it changed.
I used to have a coffee mug that said “Me Boss You Not”. I’ve found I sometimes have to resort to that as an explanation for what I am telling someone to do.
I got a call from a guy who was trying to contact my boss for some other business deal they supposedly had going. I told him I couldn’t give out his number but I’d take a number and message and call my boss with the message.
“I do a lot of business with him and need to talk to him. It’s pretty important. I don’t understand why you can’t give me his number.”
“Because he signs my paycheck and asked me not to do that. Is that a good enough reason?”
The fact is, Stoid, that in this particular case there is no explanation that would have satisfied you. Whether the librarians did not know why the policy is what it is is irrelevant. If they had explained, “Because XYZ” you would have protested that despite that reason you had not been told about the rule before, that you had told the librarian that you would be back and they didn’t say anything about not being able to use the computers further, and that, besides, all the computers were not in use, so what’s the problem, couldn’t they make an exception.
You have proven to us, even at this distance, that you simply refuse to let go of something when you don’t understand it or don’t agree with it. Perhaps your librarian buddies know this and were just refusing to engage you. Perhaps they genuinely didn’t know beyond the fact that it’s a policy they are required to enforce. Doesn’t matter, because there is no explanation in this situation that would have satisfied you.
On the surface, it sounds like a stupid policy. Why can’t you spend all day on the freakin internet if the place is totally empty. And maybe if you’re dealing with an experienced employee who knows the OP, they might be cool and let shit slide.
But the library may have a reason for the policy. Maybe they don’t want people camped out there all day playing Halo or whatever. Who knows the reason? But whatever the reason, it’s the employee’s job to enforce policy, not cater to the Stoid 's special needs. He doesn’t need to be cool with you. He needs to be cool with the people who pay his salary.
Stoid doesn’t really want to know the reason for the policy. She wants to badger the employee until he gives in and lets her use the computer all day.
You beat me to it. Why do you all think that the librarian doesn’t actually know the reason behind the policy? He or she might have a good reason why they don’t want to tell someone the real rationale for it. It could simply be so that people don’t camp out there all day. I can imagine the following scenario:
Librarian 1 complaining to Librarian 2: I can’t stand that woman who’s here for hours and hours every day! She drives me nuts.
Passing supervisor: What does this lady do?
Librarian 1: She stays on the computer all day and asks us a million questions and leaves her stuff everywhere and annoys other patrons.
Supervisor: Well, you know that we do have a rule limiting people to 2 hours a day.
Librarian 2: Oh yeah…we do, don’t we? You know that we never enforce it.
Supervisor: So, start enforcing it.
Librarians 1 and 2 in unison,“PROFIT!”
Although I have asked them for information a few times, and they’ve been very informative: without them, I would never have known that all the law reviews were set aside in a large, eerie, low-ceilinged room behind the front desk. Nor would I have known that briefs were stored upstairs in an area off limits to patrons, meaning I would have to request them from a librarian. I also credit the librarians for showing me how to find the table of contents listings for Witkin on West’s.
I worked in a library and my job consisted largely of helping people find historical resources as well as their genealogy. I never found it annoying to have someone ask me for help finding resources. It was my job and most of them were grateful for the help. I had regulars like Stoid and they never bothered me one bit.
Be honest, if he had said “I don’t know”, would you have said “oh, ok” and dropped the issue?
I’ve learned a long time ago never to utter those words, because the next words out of the customer’s mouth are invariably something like “Oh so you don’t know how to do your job is that what you’re saying? Well what am I talking to you for, WHERE’S YOUR SUPERVISOR?” No one ever accepts “I don’t know” for an answer. Never happens.
And oddly, most people do not, but there couldn’t be any possible reason for that. There is that adage about doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result.
It must really be a thrill for the people charged with enforcing policies that in addition to not likely having the authority to make exceptions to said rules, they must face inquisitions to the background of the origins to an increasingly hostile audience who is expecting someone else to take responsibility for possibly alleviating her frustration and unhappiness at dealing with a world that doesn’t match her arbitrary standards.
My guess is that the reason for the black and white policy is to make it easy on enforcement. Otherwise it becomes a value judgment-
How busy is too busy? What if three computers were free, one, ten?
What if some just started their third hour and bunch of people come in and have to wait- do kick the original person off now, or they get to finish their third hour?
So, having a black and white policy eliminates debates with people when you decide to give a person a third hour one day and a not on another.
If you’re with someone REALLY belligerent (I don’t recommend this unless you KNOW that the situation will escalate regardless of what you do), another good tactic is to turn it back on them.
“Our policy is such-and-such”
“Why?!”
“Why do you need to know? I’ve explained our policy. It’s such and such.”
At that point, they’re either on the defensive and have to explain why they want to know (and it’s 100% invariably because they think they’re a unique buttercup who deserves something other than the policy in question) or they fall back on “I just want the info to satisfy this deep internal craving I have.”, in which case, you give them the corporate 1-800 number and let them navigate the phone-maze until they find someone who’s going to answer.
Really, when a customer asks “Why” to a policy, what they’re really saying is “I want to find a loophole.” and frankly, back when I was in customer service, I didn’t want to get caught up in a half-hour debate with a me-monkey over an issue I couldn’t change even if I wanted to (and often, I didn’t want to) when I could be helping real customers.