One of the reasons I've been so inactive on this journal over the last month, and, I have to admit, so apathetic about my writing over the last couple of weeks, is that I've been feeling pretty fed up with work. I know I've complained about this before, but I'm going to again. If you don't like complaints, skip this entry.

Being an administrator in a university has a lot of benefits, at least in theory. Good holiday, pension, all that stuff. But in contrast to academics who have a well-defined work load model so they don't have to do too much, it's pretty much assumed that support staff have infinitely expandable capacity. At the moment I'm: keeping an enormous website up to date; planning, costing and managing courses; negotiating contracts; planning and doing marketing; arranging meetings and minuting them; monitoring accounts; invoicing and purchasing; editing and publishing a newsletter; designing a new, dynamic website with an enormous amount of functionality; sorting out random problems of academics; dealing with queries; and so on ad infinitum. And there's always another project that needs sorting, always another web update that had to be done yesterday, always another person who needs their extra payments made.

I feel like I'm trying to juggle a hundred balls, and not only can't I drop any of them (haven't done that yet) but every single person wants their ball to be tossed up next and for it to be tossed up now. Ever since Christmas I've been thinking that I just want to walk away and let them all come thudding down to the ground. I'm not paid enough for this, and it's not satisfying at all the way it is.

So:
Anyone want to give a job to someone who wants a short hours, a large salary and plenty of free time? No? Sigh.