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June 24, 2002
I still haven't reached the point where I feel comfortable posting while I'm at work (or really write about work, for that matter). In the last year I've gone from a .org to a .edu and now that I'm (temporarily) at a .gov I know The Man is watching. Or at least he could watch, if he wanted to. Whatever, the idea of posting to my personal site from a Federal Government office makes me very nervous.
Today that was a good thing because if I had felt comfortable enough to write something you all would have been treated to a world class, A-list pity party. Here's the situation: there is a tremendous amount of work being done in my department. Things change quickly, requests for Congressional testimony come at the last minute, and everybody is frantically trying to keep up. Except for me.
I have tried to make it clear that I am ready, willing, and able to take on some of the burden. I can write, research, make copies, proof-read, fact-check, whatever. I can stay late -- hell, I like staying late if the work is important, interesting, or on a real deadline. And yet the whirling dervish of activity spins around me while I watch the clock tick. I know that they are busy, and that at times like this even the act of stopping to explain a task to somebody new can cost precious time. I don't want them to pull me into their activities because they like me, or because they feel sorry for leaving me out -- I want them to pull me in because they are desperately understaffed and need help that I can provide.
And I don't mean in the "can-you-get-me-some-lunch?" way, either.
Posted by shannon at June 24, 2002 10:55 PM | For related posts: