Today I celebrate my one-year anniversary at the Alumni House with one thing that has become more and more my domain: Boredom.
I will admit, my job has a very sinusoidal workload (nods to Berney for that one). Before Christmas, and at the start of June, every monkey with a job in Alumni and Development Programs is on a trip, and they all want me to arrange those trips. That's fine; I mean, I'm paid to do that sort of thing. More to the point, that is all I'm paid to do. I don't fundraise, I don't organize events, I'm the Cris Carter of appointment scheduling. And I'm fine with that.
The problem, and here's where the bitchfest starts, is that after that first week of June, I have nothing to do. I've tried to drag my workload out a bit, which I guess can be construed to be a good thing. I mean, I don't want to feel like I'm taking from the University without giving anything in return*. I don't want to sound overly pithy, but I like to at least do some work every now and then.
But, alas, I've been too good for my own good. Some of the directors have actually asked me to stop arranging appointments. You might as well ask a politician to stop fundraising, or ask Al Gore to stop being an inveterate prick. If I stop arranging appointments, then I will have no purpose, no reason to exist. "Sorry guys, David asked me to stop working, so I'm going to cease being in about 5...4...3...2...1...[pop]"
So now I have to go ask the boss what exactly I should do with myself. I'm absolutely terrified that she's going to ask me to stuff envelopes or something. Now, I do recognize that I'm basically a glorified secretary, but that glorification protects me from having to do the menial tasks that are generally assigned to secretaries of the non-glorified varieties.
I'll post an update when I know more, but for now, I think I'm going to push the office furniture together into some sort of fort. And hide there.
*Some of the readership might say that in my four years of education, the University took about $130,000 from me. True. But let's, for the moment, pretend that I'm capable of compartmentalizing my various times here, and can keep my employee and student experiences separate.
I will admit, my job has a very sinusoidal workload (nods to Berney for that one). Before Christmas, and at the start of June, every monkey with a job in Alumni and Development Programs is on a trip, and they all want me to arrange those trips. That's fine; I mean, I'm paid to do that sort of thing. More to the point, that is all I'm paid to do. I don't fundraise, I don't organize events, I'm the Cris Carter of appointment scheduling. And I'm fine with that.
The problem, and here's where the bitchfest starts, is that after that first week of June, I have nothing to do. I've tried to drag my workload out a bit, which I guess can be construed to be a good thing. I mean, I don't want to feel like I'm taking from the University without giving anything in return*. I don't want to sound overly pithy, but I like to at least do some work every now and then.
But, alas, I've been too good for my own good. Some of the directors have actually asked me to stop arranging appointments. You might as well ask a politician to stop fundraising, or ask Al Gore to stop being an inveterate prick. If I stop arranging appointments, then I will have no purpose, no reason to exist. "Sorry guys, David asked me to stop working, so I'm going to cease being in about 5...4...3...2...1...[pop]"
So now I have to go ask the boss what exactly I should do with myself. I'm absolutely terrified that she's going to ask me to stuff envelopes or something. Now, I do recognize that I'm basically a glorified secretary, but that glorification protects me from having to do the menial tasks that are generally assigned to secretaries of the non-glorified varieties.
I'll post an update when I know more, but for now, I think I'm going to push the office furniture together into some sort of fort. And hide there.
*Some of the readership might say that in my four years of education, the University took about $130,000 from me. True. But let's, for the moment, pretend that I'm capable of compartmentalizing my various times here, and can keep my employee and student experiences separate.
posted by Brian at 10:18 AM
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