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As I was slogging my way through the payroll today, it occurred to me that I was actually enjoying it. It’s almost fun, doing something I’m good at. It would be better if it were real fun, like playing in a band or hitting home runs, but I’m not good at those things. There’s no spotlight on doing spreadsheets, no cheers or applause, but you take what you can get. I think I could keep doing this job for at least another ten years, maybe even twenty, under the right conditions.
First of all, I have to get paid for it, and getting paid a little more than I’m getting paid right now would be a welcome bonus. But I could probably do it for less, as long as I had enough to pay my rent and my satellite TV bill. And come to think of it, I could probably live in a trailer on the beach, as long as it had a dish on the roof.
Also, I’d want it always to be one of those days like today, when there were no interruptions. I even took the phone off the hook for about half an hour during the most intense time, when I was trying to jump back and forth from the payroll program on the computer to the checkbook on the desk.
This was one of those complicated weeks when we had guys working at two different pay levels on two different projects, with overtime on both their standard pay and their enhanced pay. In other words, I had to figure paychecks based on four different pay rates for most of the thirteen employees. It was a kind of a minor nightmare.
But I could do it forever, as long as I had the luxury of being able to concentrate. I’m pretty good at doing one thing at a time. I’m not so great at trying to do everything at once. When I try to do that, nothing gets accomplished and I sort of melt into a beige-ish puddle of glop. That’s where I was 24 hours ago, but I’m okay now. |
