I forgot what to do

Here I am at work, doing my normal work thing. What’s different today (and for the past three months or so) is that I don’t know what to work on when I sit at my desk.

Without getting too detailed: I have a stack of paperwork sitting next to me that would take a full day’s work to get through. That’s for one project. I have about a month’s worth of work that needs to get done for another project. I have daily work too: questions from people, files to post online, equipment to look after…and I try to do a little reading and research too.

I have no interest in doing any of it. It’s not that the work is overwhelming…actually a lot of it a monkey could do, but it’s annoying. What’s annoying? My work. I hate it. Life is tough and you are not always going to have the best projects and the best deadlines; you need to work -that’s why they call it work. I know that, but this work SUCKS!!

I feel like I am constantly putting our fires, vs planning for fire prevention. I’ve tried three different task management strategies…I’ve read project management books…organization books…motivation books…so you think you’re stuck books. Nothing is working. Why? Because you can’t make these methodologies work if you can’t do some parts. What do I mean?

[for example]

• I have little to no power in terms of delegation.
• I have little to no power over my workload.

-pause-
Yes I know I could be an adult and say “Hey Mr. Employer; I’m buried. Please stop.” or “Hey Mr. Employer, could we try a different approach?” I could do that…oh wait, I have. No luck.
-resume-

• 90% of my tasks are emergency or high priority, so I can’t put them off without people knocking on my door…which is the next one.
• When I shut my door, people knock all day
• If I put my phone on DND, the operator calls and asks why it’s on DND…and I still get calls put through
• When I take a break or a vacation, I get calls because we don’t have enough things documented…oops add that to the list of projects

There is just a never ending stream of crap that seems to flow right into my office. I used to not say “no” enough, now I do say “no” and sometimes that doesn’t work. I tend to be the “go to guy” for A TON of odd questions…the fax machine isn’t working so maybe I can fix it (which it’s usually some jammed piece of paper), the copier is broken (oh it says add paper), I can’t log into X website (oh your password is incorrect), the printer is out of paper (well why don’t you fill it?), the printer is out of toner (well why don’t you replace it?), I can’t spell my name (well why don;t you go back to kindergarten?), the toilet is plugged (yup, got that one before), where are the light bulbs, can you print this for me…OMG it’s never ending.

I’ve been doing this type of work for over 10 years and it never changes: I.T. is the end all for every question under the sun. Why does it have to be like this? I appreciate the fact people think I know some of this stuff, but wow…is there anything you want to do on your own?

This is why I have no time and I am totally drained, I feel like I am babysitting for a classroom of 5 year olds -and I don’t want kids…so you can see where my attitude is going.

Actually…I feel better for just yelling all that. Thanks blog for letting me type [walk] all over you.

“There are two ways of meeting difficulties: you alter the difficulties or you alter yourself meeting them.”
– Phyllis Bottome