I'm sitting here at work and now I have somehow acquired two candy bowls!!! I swear, I'm in hell. lol
From time to time people will ask me what I do for a living. I usually tell them I'm "just" a secretary or if I feel fancy an administrative assistant. I find it entertaining when people feel the need to defend my job by telling me just how important a secretary is, as if somehow I will feel better about my job.
I do like what I do. It does involve some skills. Obviously people who do my job can run the gamut of "what the hell?!" to "she walks on water" with experience and skills. There are college degrees and certificate programs now for being support staff. (another important sounding way to describe what I do) I think I fall somewhere in between both extremes and I've learned all my skills through the school of hard knocks.
So what does this have to do with my multiplying candy problem?
The other way I describe my job to people is "office mom". While any person can be a secretary, it takes a person with some highly developed people skills to achieve office mom status. You must learn to walk the fine line between realizing that you do report to other people and not shirking from the task of letting even the boss know he's a putz.
For me it involves medical consults (take this sudafed before you make all of us sick!), personal trainer (did you take the elevator instead of the stairs?!!), advice columnist (plan on sleeping on the couch if THAT is your wife's anniversary present!) and nutritionist (give me your bowl of candy before you self implode!).
All in all I am "mom" to seven people. I know their spouses names, how many children they have and in which grades, their birthdays and what their favorite candies are. All this for the bargain basement price of a secretary.
So I don't save lives (at least directly), design rocket ships or affect public government policy ...... anyone can do THAT kind of stuff. I make a difference in the tone of the lives of 7 people. I figure with the ripple effect I touch the lives of at least 50 people daily.
However, it's not going to help me with this candy problem :)
