Depth, Porcupines and other Hodgepodge

The other day an employee of mine came to me with a serious personal problem they wanted to talk over and ask some advice about. It was concerning a matter of the heart which at the best of times can be a tricky business. I listened patiently and gave them my honest opinion of the subject, but said ultimately it was there decision to make. Another emotional employee crisis averted, right?

When I took on the role as director I initially realized that I was going to be dealing with things that were beyond my hitherto experience. Learning how to run a business, effective time management (still haven't gotten that down) and coordinating human and physical resources to accomplish goals. What I hadn't anticipated was being a "counselor" for lack of a better term. Since day one though it's been a full time job in and of itself.

I'm am an intensely private person and wouldn't dream of ever talking to my boss about personal problems. Not that he wouldn't listen as a matter of fact he's always getting on me about not talking to him more. But I now realize that between employees, adminitrators, and students they're coming, ready or not. Most people can't function very well in their professional lives when they are having drama in their personal lives (this had not really occured to me until this week, I know I'm slow on the uptake).

At the beginning of this week another employee came to me with a problem of a more serious nature. I felt completely inadequate to the task of assisting so I just listened and suggested they speak with someone with more experience in that area. I also have been slowly finding out that when people's personal lives are haywire they don't compartmentalize like I do (the ever resilient porcupine), but instead their personal lives not only leak into their professional ones they postively flood. If those problems aren't dealt with then they aren't as effective at work which causes even more problems.

I find myself emotionally drained at the end of the day after dealinng with the various and sundry situations shared with me throughout the day. I'm not expecting any solutions to this I just needed to pull a (what they do to me all the time) on my own blog. I guess people do like talking to me when they have a problem (even me).

As always have a good day and enjoy.