Halllooo out there!

Hopefully a few of you are still venturing back to check in here now and then in spite of my infrequent posting of late. I’m not sure why, but I seem to have hit a blogging wall where I really don’t feel that I have much to say or anything to write about. If there are things that any of you are curious about related to my life up here in Northern Town (or ManNorth’s), please feel free to ask. You could give me some ideas for future blog posts!

Some of you have been wondering about my new job. I’ve been enjoying it but am not sure just how much I’m ready to blog about it. For now, here’s an introduction to one aspect of it: what do I call it?

My position is an interesting one, in that it is a casual interim position with full time hours filling in for someone who is away and will be so for many months to come...and may or may not come back. No one seems to really know. My predecessor may come back this summer, but if she does, they also know that she has plans to go away again in September, which doesn’t really facilitate her filling a full time job here particularly well. There’s a long story which explains why she can be away and then leave again and still keep her position, but I won’t be telling it now.

I’d love to have this position officially and permanently but until I do, my name is not the one on the door, my files not the ones in the full to bursting enormous office file cabinets and my notes and books not the ones on the office shelves. All of this has meant that I’m not quite sure at times how I really fit in and when it’s appropriate to claim the job as mine. For instance, should I put my position title in my email signature or not? Will people (who know) wonder at my presumption when they know that I’m not the official –ologist on staff? I’ve even felt that I was doing something underhanded when on Monday and with my supervisor’s full approval, I replaced absent -ologist's (AO's) phone message and voice mail with my own message and name.

We been doing an end of the year inventory this week and I’ve needed to determine what equipment is stored in my office. The funny thing is that I don’t even know how to refer to my office. Do I call it mine? Do I call it AO’s? Do I call it by the name of the position we both fill? It’s strange. I’ve been calling it by all three names and feeling either like an imposter or simply awkward and silly as a result. While I debate such inanities with myself however, all the tasks that AO would be doing if AO were here have been given to me and we share the same job title in our job descriptions.

You might advise to just use the title and not worry about it but I've actually found it necessary when I introduce myself and my position, to qualify my stated position by saying that I’m “standing in for” or “here until” or “filling in for” AO until she returns. And yes, this is actually sometimes necessary, given the unusual politics in my workplace. (I’ll explain that later. Maybe.)

In the interest of brevity, which I seem to sorely lack, I’m going to finish with this: I enjoy my job and am thrilled to have it. I just don’t know what to call myself when I’m in it!