A school secretary bemoans lack of work during pandemic

Q: I see that you write back mostly to teachers and administrators, but I hope you’ll answer a question from a school secretary. I work in the front office of a school that’s now operating remotely. During regular times, my job responsibilities are pretty predictable and I keep busy. At the start of this school year, for instance, I was keeping track of newly enrolled (and unenrolled) students and changes of addresses and vaccinations and the usual start-of-year administrative responsibilities. Then I was kept busy for a while helping to get the school ready for students to return, making sure we had sanitizer and signs and plexiglass and things of that sort. But now that there’s a rise in COVID cases, it’s unclear when students will be returning. We’re already prepared for whenever the school reopens, so I don’t really have much to do these days.

I work for a few administrators who are busy and don’t have much time to give me odds and ends to do throughout the day. They’re nice when I ask how I can help, but I don’t want to bother them, and besides, I’m not sure how much work they think they could hand over to me. The few times I’ve said something, the principal or assistant principals have given me small projects that don’t take long at all. Honestly, I can do a lot more, and more challenging, work, and I feel like I’m losing my mind out of boredom, but I don’t want to be annoying. Also, I know there are people who have lost their jobs this year and this may seem like a dumb thing to complain about, but I don’t like feeling useless. It’s embarrassing and depressing to get to the end of a day and realize I’ve done little, if anything. I know the pandemic won’t last forever and our office will be busy again when things go back to normal, but how should I handle this time so I feel more productive and good about my job? Or, do you think I’ve outgrown my job and this is a sign that I should think about moving on?

A: Thank you for writing; I’m always happy to field a question from a school secretary!