Things come at a price...

My HOD is off for her course already, and wouldn't be back for 4 months. Before she left, she gave each of us in the department a long list of things which she needs us to settle in her absence. I got 2 lists from her, one for duties in the PE department and one for taking charge of Odac in her absence. It was a lengthy meeting then, with me trying hard to take note of the things she mentioned, especially with the accounts.

That was the start of the stress. I hate to have things left undone and waiting to be tied up, so everyday I look at the task list and try to make progress, but I find it hard to finish a proposal or settle a training schedule decisively. There is a multitude of possibilities in these planning, and it is hard to weight all of them, see if they fit into the scheme of things, and also logistically and financially possible. Worse, I loathe to think that my failure to settle them fast might be because I am incapable of making important decisions and the courage to exercise the right to have the final say in things.

I always thought that I am pretty good at handling paperwork because of my impatience to finish things up, but it turns out that settling them might be harder than I thought. I also realised that a leadership position in school requires the appointment holder to be part of many committees, initiatives and taskforces, and the work probably never let up. The workload really goes up with the pay man. It's making me tentative about pursuing the leadership track in MOE already...