S/O work- bored at work

[waverly]

I work in a job where the previous person did transactional type work from at least 9-3, three times a week. When she retired, and I started my boss told me he didn't want me doing that.  He wanted me to do more management type stuff.

My workloads is often uneven. I spent months hiring, so I was busy for a while, but it's not something I love to do. I finally have a team in place and can breath a sigh of relief. It is our busy time and next week kicks off about 6 weeks of vacations, so I will be filling in a lot which is both mentally and sometimes physically exhausting.

But then I have these weeks of nothing to do for several days in a row. I mean I try to find things to do because I would rather be busy and have the day go by faster. I like to work efficiently so those tasks that used to take her a long time or even me a long time I am able to do much faster now, leaving more down time.

I have a bit of a fear of committing to tasks though, I think because I am afraid I won't be able to get it done because my schedule is erratic. And probably because I am the sole person responsible for the kids during the week, so I can't commit to anything in the evening pretty much ever.

I think I can do things more project based- things I want to do.  But I am afraid to take on things I won't like doing that I have to do on a regular basis.  Thankless jobs that I will never then get rid of because no one else wants to do them.  We are also a bit siloed, so it is not encouraged that I take on things in other areas, although with me moving offices there has been a bit more collaboration. 

I have done committee work, but I have been on this committee for 4 years, and will not run for re-election after this.  I could do a conference planning committee- I was just waiting to finish this one up first.

My other issue with committing to offsite meetings, is that due to staffing all of a sudden out of my 6 employees a day those days no one will be there, and then for me to go offsite is difficult. It is doable, but something to think about.  I try to do other meetings when I can.  I just always run into the problem of them conflicting with the schedule or other meetings.  We don't have the budget for any out of area conferences and haven't for a few years. 

Any thoughts?  Maybe it is just to make my workload more even.  I feel like I go from filling in for everyone to complete boredom with not a lot in between.  I think I need more project based work that is interesting, but that is hard to find.  Because the projects I come up with are things like database clean-up which is pretty boring. 

ETA- I don't think I want a new job.  Boss lets me set my own hours, gives me any time I want for vacation and sick.  I have good pay and a pension.  I think if I can tweak it just a little bit more than I would be happier.  He is willing for me to do more, but I would rather do it more creatively than what he is thinking which is more assistant director type stuff. 

[186momx]

No help but I will commiserate. My off season is slower but I either have feast or famine depending on the date. Beginning, middle, and end of month are busy with lots of payrolls along with months that quarterly reports are due. The rest is filled in with bookkeeping if I have it and taxes. This summer we have a few clients that are very behind so am hoping I can get them to bring us something so I will have busy work for a good week or two but that is a big maybe. One year after begging all slow season they drop it off in December when we are busy.

[waverly]

Speaking of courses, which ones would you take if you had unlimited access?

We have too many to list between free industry resources, and we have Gale Courses. Just I guess the top 3 things you would like to learn.

[186momx]

Computer networking

I should use my slow time to get the study materials for the Enrolled Agent exam and bite the bullet to take the test.