Busy Bee
When I left my previous job and London behind I swore I would never cancel something important again because of work. There were a number of times in the three London years that I let people down because I was too busy, too tired or both.
Unfortunately it seems I underestimated what summer means in the life of a university support department. Back in May I was happily agreeing to all sorts of projects and bits of work thinking that June through to September would be months of chilled out yet productive bliss. Without undergraduates to disturb us, and many academics off doing research, I imagined the university would be a place of calm and tranquility.
How wrong was I? I should know better really. Five years ago I was Vice President in SUBU and have done all of this before. The summer was filled with training and preparation for the academic year ahead. Somewhere along the line my brain had been wiped of this insider knowledge and I have been bobbing along in blissful ignorance completely unaware that from June onwards things only get busier.
So here I am, one more week before the Freshers arrive working from home on my “day off”, tragically behind because my naïvety about my workload mean there is not a chance that everything people want done for the 5th October is going to be finished. Over the past couple of weeks I have been doing damage control and using the words “sorry but that isn’t going to happen until the end of October” a lot.
In the end this week I have been absolutely shattered. So exhausted that I knew going to London this weekend as planned would just leave me even further behind and possibly in bed with a migraine by the middle of next week, neither of which I can deal with happening. The greatest sadness is that I was due to go and see off my friends El & Mark as they head of on an adventure to live and work in Sydney for the next couple of years. For missing that I am very sorry.
My lesson has been learned though.
Summer = Busy.
By the end of the year I will hopefully have ploughed through most of the projects I over-promised and have so far under-delivered on. And then in January I will start preparing for 2010/11. Next summer isn’t going to catch me out… And by the end of next September I’ll be a graceful swan when it comes to navigating the demands of the new academic year. Well I can dream!
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