Change in the air

I'm thinking about taking a biiiiiig step, one I have only taken once before in my life.

I'm considering a job change.

I've loved my job for the last five years, especially the last two. I work with a wonderful woman in a wonderful school (and I haven't had to work directly with kids), but there's change in the air and it scares me. I've been a teaching assistant for 26 years; the last four or five I've been more a secretary than anything else. I've loved it. It can be stressful at times, but my boss has made it bearable, even enjoyable.

Well. She's going to be doing something else next year (not something she wants to do, either), something that won't require my assistance as much. The woman who will take over some of her duties is not as easy to work with and I don't know that I want to stay in my present position (which, right now, includes trying to type with my shoulder seizing up from tension). I definitely do not want to be put back in a classroom, and since I'm an instructional assistant, I'm fairly certain that I'd end up there for at least part of the day. I no longer have the patience I once had.

I'll lose the use of the laptop, I know that right off the bat, but that can be remedied. I'd still have access to a desktop that no one else uses. I want to be classified as a secretary.

Yep, a real secretary. In our school system, secretaries are on a higher pay scale than teaching assistants. I'm on step 28, while on the secretary's scale I'd need to be on step 12 to make the same amount of money. (There are 30 steps on both scales.) The first step on the secretary's scale is $8000 more than the assistant's salary, and the top step is $18,000 more. Not that I expect to be around that long. I'll be happy to come out even. An increase would be welcome, but in the current climate I don't think that'll happen.

The job? Copy room secretary. Making copies. Three copiers going full blast at once, especially at the beginning, end of the 1st semester and end of the year. Rude people pushing papers at the secretary, not preparing in advance as they're told to do time and time again, sending kids to the office in the middle of class for copies that they need right now, expecting the secretary to stop the other jobs she's doing and take theirs, right now.

Compared to what I'm doing now, piece of cake. Show me how to use the three machines and turn me loose. I'm already trained to sit in for the main office secretary and do so every day during the school year during her lunch breaks. I'm working "as" her today and probably tomorrow since she's taking vacation days. I'll sit in for her the week before the faculty and staff come back in August. Since the copy secretary also sits in when needed, I've already had plenty of experience with that.

Actually, I've sat in for the copy secretary when she's on vacation, so I know what the job entails and the stress it can induce. I still think it's less than I've experienced in my current job. Copying pretty much is the same thing day in, day out, and I like that. I don't handle change well. (Ask Tom. I'm awful with money.)

I think this will be a good change. Wish me luck. I still have to tell my boss that I want to change jobs.