A little bit of everything

I was a little insulted when I described my previous editing job as hideously boring and my social work as a variety of interesting activities--and my psychologist was surprised. I suppose her believing I needed predictability, routine, and no stress was what insulted me.

I get bored quickly. I need variety. But it's true that I sometimes revel in the office-y parts of my job. Things were slow last week, so I decided to streamline the way we gather and record our data. Before that, I spent several months soliciting for books and created a library for our clients.

It's been a slow six months or so.

I don't know how to strike a happy medium. For the first six months to a year at my job, I was slightly panicked every day, trying to keep my head above water. Somewhere around September, that eased up, and I had the happy realization that I basically knew what I was doing. It was around that time that I started to get bored with things.

I can't think of a job I'd rather have, but it's true I'm not as excited as I used to be about this one. Is it burnout? What does that say for my future in social work, anyway?

I think if I could specially tailor a job to my liking, I'd spend four days a week as a social worker, and one as an editor. As much as the last three years or so of being an editor were mind-numbingly dull, there were parts about it that I really, really loved. Once a week should just about satisfy my need to hold a little red pencil again.