As an Assistant Principal, there are duties that I am bound to perform in accordance with my job description. I don't know how it is in other professions, but in education the "job description" is totally malleable, extremely porous, and pliable to the point of collapse. If you add to it that I work at a 7th-12th grade campus but hold the title of Middle School Assistant Principal, my job description becomes even more nebulous.
I was asked the other day why I was doing certain things that pertain to the high school, and the person who asked was surprised to learn that about 70% of what I do is isolated in the high school grades. It wasn't anything shocking to me, and THAT shocked me. (It's worth noting here that my campus has only four administrators, a principal and an AP for each of the middle and high schools. If the high school campus stood alone, it wouldn't function with only one AP, but a combined campus with our enrollment can't afford a fifth administrator. We use the term "catch-22" around here a lot, and that's one of the reasons.)
I've also recently come to the conclusion that some of the duties that now live on my desk have less to do with my job description and far more to do with the kind of person that I am (thorough? dedicated? knowledgable in certain areas?) and the kind of results I tend to achieve. If it's true that "no good deed goes unpunished," then I am indeed a do-gooder, and these tasks will continue to land on my desk and breed as long as I do a good job. Again, I embody Joseph Heller's title. (It also reminds me of a time early in my first marriage, when I turned all of my wife's undergarments green by including a dark sweater in the hot water load of the washer. Laundry duties immediately came off my list of responsibilities, and I will forever hold my peace as to whether this was accidental or intentional. My point is this: I'd get canned if I tried this at work.)
Either there are too many tasks for the current administration's size, or too much is being given to me because others are unable or unwilling to accomplish the tasks. Moreover, I suspect that duties are being assigned not to the office, but to the person in it, and I think that's the wrong way to go about doing it.
And I'm getting a little sick and tired of being the only guy who can stand the heat in the kitchen.
Helpful hints, position essays, and useless blather from the Assistant Principal of a high school in Southern California. Posts here do not necessarily reflect the positions or views of the school or district with which he is employed.
So there.
So there.
Two words: Atlas Shrugged.