“Remoted” Workday 196 / Day 297 (Thursday)

The department pace of two speeds – busy and busier – is still the norm, and the “slow period” that we hear other departments mention never seems to visit our team for more than a half hour. I won’t even try to pretend I’m not a little bit jealous of the idea of a temporary slow pace.

Then again, while doing not much of anything in the off-time is one of my favorite pastimes, I like to stay busy at work. It can be exhilarating juggling multiple projects and roles. The word “specialist” in my job title doesn’t mean I do one specialized thing all day every day. There are many roles and hats. For example, today included being an account manager coordinating with our “clients” from other departments to determine the scope of a request … production manager coordinating with vendors … editor developing topics for an upcoming newsletter and compiling content revisions on another project … and project manager tracking statuses and relaying updates. Earlier this week there was media planning and writing news articles for the website.

Soup! It's efficient.

Sometimes the idea creeps in that it would be nice to do one role/task, but then I wake up and accept that isn’t how I’m wired. The buffet of work with a range of options is preferable to the same thing day after day. A mental block on one thing just means bouncing over to something different, and half the time, the solution to Project A's problem comes when working on Project B. Or maybe Project C or D. When the buffet of work is full it’s all good, and when the buffet gets a little lean, nervousness sets in.

The funny part is, with work I love the variety, but with food, days of the same lunch or dinner are perfectly acceptable. Pizza for lunch every day for a week isn't monotonous, it's energy efficient. Ditto for a kettle of soup that lasts for days of ongoing dining without ongoing planning. The soups are a lot like the workday – a variety of “stuff” coming together. In a model of domestic planning, most meals prepared are large enough for several encores. The weekly mini buffet of soup and leftovers has enough variety to to keep it from being boring. Again, it’s efficient, so it’s all good.