I have some news for you...and you might be surprised. Sit down.
Ready?
[whispers]I love my job.
Yes, it's true. I truly enjoy the work that I do, and mostly it's because I get to talk to people about their money. It's kind of like driving through a small town at night, and being able to see into people's windows as we go by. Poetically creepy, right?
The thing about right now, though, is that we're down a couple of essential bodies at my particular branch. Which means that those of us that are left are doing our jobs, plus. And I'm getting behind. Really behind. As in "you asked for some money to fix your septic tank two weeks ago and I've only just gotten back to you today" kind of behind.
And I know why: I'm so buried in an avalanche of paperwork - reports to do, people to call, estate files to open or close, transfers in to shepherd, checklists to go who knows where - that even digging out, let alone figuring out what's important yesterday and what can wait another couple of days is next to impossible.
Let's take a minute to role play, shall we? You pretend to be a client with - say - concerns about the value of your investments, or a property you've got your eye on and want to know if you can get a mortgage for, and I'll repeat the preceding whine at you.
Didn't that go well? Don't you feel increased confidence in how much I care about you and your concerns?
Yeah, me neither.
You see, I love my job, when I can do it well. And normally I can do it well. I can knock its socks off. But not recently. And that annoys me.
At home, I'm the it can wait, it'll be fine girl. Most of my seams are crooked, most of my recipes have compromises in them somewhere, and most of my laundry gets as far as folded in the laundry basket before it stalls there until the next weekend, when I really need the basket to be empty again, so I can fill it.
At work, I'm the well-groomed (well, slightly better-groomed, anyway) opposite of the it'll be fine girl I am at home. I do things right. I get back to clients when I say I will, and I get things done that no one else can, because I think I might just be magic.
So this past two weeks has really cheesed me off, because I love my job when I'm doing it well.
I just happen to love being home with my kids better, even when I'm not doing it well.
