Concerning My Job

Today I was working on my computer at work, and though I did not feel inspired particularly, decided that it was time to post on my blog again. You may be wondering, "Amanda is at work and has time to post on her blog, how does she manage that?" Thus, I will tell you exactly how I manage it: I am an administrative assistant, I have tasks that I am assigned to do every day, but once I have finished with those, so long as there is not anything additional to assist with, I have free time on my hands. I like to think of my job as being similar to an insurance policy: sometimes it gets used and sometimes it does not, but you want to have it in case you need to use it. At first, it would drive me crazy to have free time on my hands at work, since there was always something to do at my previous jobs, but in the three plus months that I have worked here I have learned to adjust to my down time at work by finding things to keep myself busy. My cubicle stays pretty clean and the storage shelves are relatively organized, all things considered. Though it may sound like a terrible waste of my employer's resources to some, I am at peace with my use of time at my current job since I am accomplishing everything that is expected of me and everyone is content with the quality of work that I am doing. I have received glowing reports on my progress as an employee even.

Although I cannot know for sure yet, since spring has only been giving us peaks of herself so far, I have a suspicion that the most difficult aspect of this job for me is going to be the fact that I work indoors. The other jobs that I have held for any length of time were related to horticulture (well, this job is too, but it is administrative so the link is not as visible), so there was a healthy dose of the outdoors included in my work. I have a feeling that as the weather gets warmer and the sun shows itself more, I will start yearning to spend more time outside and less time inside. At least my job is part time and not strenuous work, two factors which should give me more time to enjoy outside than my previous jobs have allowed.

In other job-related news, J.R. and I are planning on starting a landscape design, installation, consultation, and maintenance business this spring. Landscaping businesses tend to be quite successful in our area, so we are hopeful that ours will be as well. Success should not be a problem considering that we both have horticultural experience, attended Michigan State University, which is one of the top-ranked horticulture colleges in the country, and many people with out horticultural knowledge are able to run lucrative landscaping businesses. Now, I realize that some people are getting concerned probably at the thought of a pregnant lady working in landscaping, but I promise not to do anything that may endanger either my or the baby's safety, and I doubt that J.R. would let me do so anyway. Besides, there is nothing potentially harmful for me when it comes to creating landscape designs or recommendations, so hopefully I will have plenty to keep me busy with those and will be able to help with the less physically-demanding landscaping activities outside sometimes. Additionally, in all likelihood I will still be working part time at my current job until July, so that will be a time-limiting factor when it comes to how much time I have to put into the physically intense jobs that go along with landscaping.