I have worked fastfood, run kiddie daycare, worked retail as stocker and cashier, cleaned houses, walked dogs, scooped cat poop, wknd/evening manager of distance education programme, worked in admin HR and clerk in Payroll, office manager in a Career Advice Centre, edited and verified US Federal Code, admin in Community Mental Health, admin and officer in Schools Service (specifically for School Governors) and now admin in Heritage and Arts Service. Quite a lot of my work has always been mind numbing. I just get on with it. Bills to pay and all that.

I start by doing the least attractive jobs first. Get the crap over with, then move onto the more challenging/interesting stuff as a sort of reward. Luckily, I can listen to music while I work now more than I could in 2 previous posts. Constant ringing phones = why bother getting the MP3 player out.

I have gotten on well with almost all colleagues. I am something of a clown and not afraid to take time to play and joke around. Good for the soul and keeps everyone from becoming too serious. Had a few run-ins with manager/head of department types over the years. I survived.

re work/life balance and all that, I do bring some stuff home, but it is stuff I want to crack or organise, so is enjoyable.