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!
You may be overinflating the risk of asking for more work. I wouldn’t assume your administrators find your offers of help annoying. In fact, I bet they respect your industriousness. That said, you may need to help them utilize you more productively. If they’re underwater, they may not have time to figure out appropriate tasks to hand off to you. Or they may worry it would take more time to explain a project than to do it themselves.
In other words, do more than ask how you can help. Survey the scene and identify what work needs to be done. Are there projects that have been sidelined for years? Can you spot any ineffective systems that have been in place for so long that no one questions them anymore? Files that need to be digitized, relabeled, inventoried, or purged? Manuals that need updating? Cabinets that need emptying? Could you offer to take notes at meetings, then follow up on the action items those meetings generate? When you approach these administrators, propose a specific plan or idea. They might be bad at delegating but feel grateful for concrete offers of help that don’t require hand-holding.
You also could use this time to expand your skill set. If you bolster your technology skills, for example, could you assume responsibility for a broader range of projects? Look beyond the administrators in the front office, too. Are there department chairs who could use help pulling materials together or distributing them to students? Counselors or teachers who need assistance reaching students? A financial specialist who would appreciate organizational help?
Finally, you’re right that this is temporary, but there’s no harm in thinking about your long-term aspirations. If you think it’s possible that you’ve outgrown your position, start networking. Talk to other people doing work that appeals to you. If you think you might want to pivot to an area that requires additional credentials, take a course or two. If nothing else, you will have used this slower time to pick up additional competencies and explore your professional goals.
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ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Phyllis L. Fagell
Phyllis L. Fagell is the school counselor at Landon School in Washington, D.C., a therapist at the Chrysalis Group in Bethesda, Md., and the author of the Career Confidential blog. She is also the author of Middle School Matters and Middle School Superpowers, available at https://amzn.to/3Pw0pcu.
