measi's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Musings about work Now that I�ve survived yesterday, let me preface this by saying that my first view of my boss this morning was a scowl. Something big is going down between our Bigger Boss and the President of the entire corporation, and from the expression on Linda�s face this morning, it gets classified under Not Good. I�m already preparing for the downhill shit spill of unknown origin or content. I mean, honestly�I know it�s coming. Even if I haven�t done anything. It�s just that being the admin and all, it tends to run through the department until it finally pools on the floor of my cubicle. Sometimes it�s one of those agonizingly slow things, too. I see everyone else frantic and upset, yet my workload is pretty routine. And then after a couple weeks or so, when they�ve moved on to a new crisis, the first one finally smacks me. And then no one comprehends why I�m overwhelmed. Yeesh. Yesterday was a combination of honest chaos caused by bringing a new employee into the department (nothing new�it�s one of those This Happens Every Single Time routines) and a bunch of primadonnas who need to stop whining about how imperfect everything is with their desks, and how could I possibly put said new person in their general area. Apparently they assume they have a monopoly on cubicle space that has sat empty for a couple months. Joy. I kept getting plastered with the bullshit all day. Six p.m. really couldn�t come fast enough�as soon as I could leave, I did. The weird thing is, I know I bitch about my job a lot. And I definitely give it a skewed perspective in here. It definitely is more stressful now than it was at this point last year, and I�d be lying if I said that I haven�t entertained the idea of looking for a new job once or twice. But then again, when things get really shitty, who doesn�t entertain them�even if the thoughts really have no support behind them. Most of my thoughts about a new job are venting stress from this one. I know I�m in a good position. I know that I, unlike a lot of my college counterparts, am in the industry where I wanted to pursue my career. Do I want to spend my career as an administrative assistant? Not particularly. I don�t mind it. But it�s not exactly the most stimulating thing for me. But then again, if it gives me the opportunity to leave work at work most of the time and gives me the freedom to pursue freelance writing projects or work on a novel, then I really can�t complain, either. I think the underlying problem right now at work is that we all have been working so hard for so long, and there�s been no real between-project downtime. There used to be a good week or two so people could breathe, get the paperwork sorted through, finalize any email contacts, and get the desk and ideas prepped for the next one. Now we�re working on so many books at once that from day to day, people are yanked from one project to another because everything depends on what is in a deeper crisis that day. And I don�t think all of the stress is caused by the increasingly slowing � for my industry anyway � economy for sales. In a lot of ways, I really enjoy administrative work. I get to work on my own most of the time, which is perfect. I despise working in groups. Absolutely hate it. I was the kid in school who everyone knew was smart, so they�d drop it on me to finish on my own anyway when we had to get into little clusters in class. I�ve never seen the point of group work. Maybe I missed something�but to this day, I�d prefer to work alone on nearly any project, work or personal. A plus about this particular administrative job�no damn phone work. Every other administrative job I�ve had wound up turning into not much more than a glorified phone receptionist job. So badly that I hardly wound up doing anything BUT answer phones. I hated talking on the phone before those jobs�having to face it every day did nothing more than reinforce that hatred. For the most part, my phone stays silent now. I occasionally get calls from vendors checking on the status of their payments or one of my coworkers letting me know why they�re out for the day, but the majority of my phone calls come from either Linda needing something or Erich calling me to see how things are going. Another plus about this job�I really call the shots when it comes to what I do. So many adminstrative assistants seem to have to �serve� their managers. To the point that it�s almost like mothering them. Thankfully Linda doesn�t want that, and nor do I. On the rare occasion that she gives me busywork like photocopying, she even apologizes for it. Really�how many managers do that? Unless there�s a serious crisis going down, I�m left on my own to make the judgment calls about what has the largest priority, when to do things, how to do things, etc. Granted�that can be a double-edged sword. LGM and I talked about this as we drove to Braintree last night to pick Erich up at the T� most people work just enough to keep their jobs. I�m one of those people who wants to do my job well and as efficient as possible. I�ll admit�a good portion of the reasoning behind it is because I want to have the opportunity to slack off. But I�d rather do things once than ten times, and when I have to do the same job over and over again because someone else is fucking up, I get pretty annoyed. I do want to find the most efficient, fast way to do things so I can get stuff done, walk away at the end of the day, and not worry about it. Efficiency to me equals less stress and the ability to have a more relaxed pace�even with a heavy workload, because I feel like I�m not losing control of what I have to get done. Unfortunately, I work for a lot of people that not only want to ignore any chance of efficiency, but seem to take a direct attempt to make things work as slowly and clunky as possible. I don�t get it. In any case, my job�s not as bad as I make it out to be in here. It�s tough, and it�s stressful. But I am thankful for what I have here, and I do know that I�m in a good position for a lot of great things� ~ Mel. 10:21 a.m. - 17 June 2003 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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