Job dilemma

[minnie1994]

I've been in this job for nearly 3 years and I'm SOOOOOOOOO bored. I think it's a general downturn in secretarial work, since bossie types all her own stuff, mostly emails, all I get to do is the boring filing!!  and then she wonders why I'm lacking motivation in my work....
Part of the "trouble" is that the pay here is well above the average, and I'd be hard put to find the same salary elsewhere. But meanwhile I can feel my brain cells dying off day by day!!  I'm the main earner so we need my job to pay our mortgage and I can't really take a pay cut to find something more interesting.
I was just about to start seriously looking for something new, when ! SURPRISE, I find I'm expecting our 2nd child. So job hunting is off the agenda until after my maternity leave.
Then what? I thought I'd start sending out my CV near the end of maternity leave, but now I realise that I could ask to do a 4-day week if I stayed on here.  Maybe I'd find a new employer who would agree to a 4day week but that's a bit optimistic!  Financially I think we'd just about manage it.
BUT what about the boredom factor? that would tie me in to this brain-dead job for the foreseeable future!! maybe having one day less a week to cope with would probably help, but I've got another 20 yrs to cope till retirement... eek!!
Are there still interesting PA jobs out there? I'm starting to think maybe the whole assistant's role as we knew it is something of the past.
In any case, job satisfaction does NOT seem to be something that management care about here, no efforts are made to help us expand our responsibilities.  Reviews are very one sided, with the bosses giving their opinion on your year's performance, no opportunity to give your views or suggestions on how things could be improved.
Do you think I should plan on sticking around here to be able to reduce my hours, or should I make plans to switch jobs when the baby has arrived?
Thanks for listening anyway
Minnie

[blufire21]

I have another option you might want to consider.  It has been a big challenge to me.  Mary Kay.  Now I'm not recuriting (unless you're interested, and PM me if you are), but I was in a situation like yours.  I'm the only bread winner, job was getting boring, and the job prospects are slim.  A friend came by and gave me a facial.  We were talking about what she does, and I realized that I could do more part time at this that I ever could accomplish in the job I'm at.  

I'm doing MK part time, but it's already begining to pay off.  I should have my car in no time at all.  Plus my earning potential is never capped, so I know I can go very far!


Ellen in TX

[queenoftheworld]

I think you may be right when you say that the PA role has changed.  I hardly have any paper post any more as most communication is done via email.  However, that doesn't seem like a reason not to be involved in the work.  If you drafted correspondence, why can't you draft email replies?  Or, better still, have enough authority to answer some questions outright?

I think it's as much about attitude and company culture as anything else. I am bored witless in my post, too.  Some weeks have been interminable.  I saw my line manager (who is a different person from my boss) and she went and talked to the woman I worked for to encourage her to delegate more to me.  It's changed a little bit but nowhere near enough.  Could you go and see your HR department and ask for their help and intervention in revamping your job?

The way I cope with the boring work hours are to make sure my social time is stimulating. I write, I act, I walk in the nearby countryside with a group and I have a couple of short courses at local colleges lined up for later this year. I also drew up a list of fun things I wanted to achieve by the end of 2004.  

I don't know what your interests are and I know you have two small children to cope with but it may be one way of getting through the immediate future.  Otherwise, you'll be understimulated at work and maybe by your domestic routine as well or you'll end up pouring so much of your creativity into raising your children, you'll expect back more than is reasonable from them.  There's so many ways of all us can fall into that trap or wanting something external to plug the gap.

Have you sat down and talked with your partner/husband about how you can rejuggle your finances so that you can take a more interesting albeit lowe paid job?

Good luck - it's the eternal struggle!

[spitfire78]

I also feel the role of the secretary/PA has changed (at least at my company).  I started here in 1981, and at that time we did EVERYTHING for the bosses.  Now that technology has improved so much, there is an awful lot that they do themselves now.  I feel that the secretarial portion of my job has turned into a strictly mechanical position.  I'm now mostly a telephone answerer and letter printer.  Even the letters are typed by most of the bosses and only e-mailed to me to format, print, and mail.  The bosses do all of their own presentations now - I haven't used PowerPoint in so long, I'd probably need a refresher course!  If the bulk of my job didn't now consist of purchasing and reimbursements, I would be going out of my skull with boredom or probably would have tried to find another job by now.

[elkiedee]

How about doing both? - ask to work 4 days a week and return when the baby has arrived, then look for a new job. Which country are  you in? My employer has a good maternity leave scheme but we have to return for 6 months after the baby is born. Luci

[minnie1994]

Thanks for your input, all!  
My boss here either writes drafts by hand (rare) or types her own emails. At the firm I was in before, I didnt draft stuff myself but my boss dictated onto cassettes and I had a steady turnover of audio typing all day long.  Would love to be in a job where I could draft correspondence / mails but in legal circles they're not too keen on that!
I'm fortunate in that I have quite a lot of outside interests.  Very insightful comment that working mums who are bored can pour so much energy into their children's upbringing that we can expect too much of them! will have to watch I don't fall into that trap but I can see it's easily done.
There was a surprise announcement recently that an admin secretary here is leaving so I have sent a mail indicating I could be interested in taking over that role. Some of it is rather humdrum but at least the work is very varied, and it could be a useful way to step over to the HR side of things.
Otherwise, I think I will try & get my 4 day week but still keep an eye out for something more interesting. There are no conditions about how long you have to stay after maternity leave so at least that won't be an added complication.

I would never have believed how quickly the secretarial role has changed, bosses becoming ever more independent with their use of emails.  One of my previous bosses even did his own Powerpoint documents "because he didn't want to lose the knack" - I thought "well what about me then??!!"  I'm sure the bosses are less effective and productive with the time they spend on their two-finger typing, even tho most of them claim they think as they type and it's easier than dictating.