I took my current job with a couple of things in mind. The money was not so good, but it was a job I could do easily, without a lot of angst or effort, and it was a job I wouldn’t need to take home.
During the course of this job I have been sitting on my hands to keep from volunteering to do more, to have more responsibility and authority. I am a mom, it can be really, really difficult to balance all that. I don’t want a job I take home. I don’t want a job I dream about, or worry that there’s something I didn’t do that I should have. I have avoided managerial responsibilities.
And the predictable result is that I’m really bored. It doesn’t help that my circle of coworkers has shrunk down to one and a half (part time person) and that I go for whole days without actually saying anything to anyone other than “Hi” when I come in and “Bye” when I leave. It also doesn’t help that my boss is no longer in the office but back in the New York office, so not much interaction there…we are really out of the loop. Both and a half of us.
Unfortunately, the things that led me to this job work against me. I haven’t developed any new skills. I started off getting great reviews and being told I didn’t have to ramp up, or be trained. I started at top speed. How can you top that? You can’t.
And I’m bored. And the money…
But I hate hate hate looking for jobs. I know I should do it while I’m still employed, if I’m gonna do it. But–what is that law of physics about bodies at rest? Yeah.
Well, now you’ve got something much healthier. Some kind of vegan eggplant thing, with lots of garlic. Zero sum on the carrots. And green tea. And a tiny, tiny slice of semisweet chocolate.
And I’ve got a turkey sammich with cheddar! And some pop! Yayyyyyy!
Hah, I didn’t mean I don’t have work. I do have work. Reading books. (I’m an editor.)
And I like being an editor. I would like to edit something different, or–
ah, who am I kidding? I would like to lie on the beach, read a bestseller, dunk myself in the ocean every once in awhile to stay cool, and drink umbrella drinks. Is there any way I could do that and get money for it?
Oh, I see. When you wrote that you keep sitting on your hands to keep yourself from volunteering for more work, I took that to mean you didn’t have enough.
If I knew how you could make money by lying on the beach, guess what I would be doing right now? Since that isn’t an option, your choices are either to suffer or to find a job editing something you like.