New Duty
"Additional duties as assigned."
This is a phrase that can contain lots of things that you never thought you would be doing in your career. It's almost always the last entry in a job description. For me, this means duty of some sort.
I've learned over the years that volunteering for duty makes it less distressing than waiting to be assigned to the duty. If you volunteer, you get more control over what you end up being assigned. So, to that end, I've volunteered for afternoon bus duty.
My reasons for this are many, but one of the reasons is that we need someone to do afternoon bus duty. There weren't any other volunteers. I have another reason as well - I feel that one of the members of morning bus duty does not like me and does everything possible to make my life difficult. One of my conditions for taking over afternoon bus duty was to leave morning bus duty when the fall session starts and this co-worker returns. Folks were so grateful to have a volunteer, that I was able to get out of the other duty without comment. I also don't have to do breakfast duty because I have to do my documentation during breakfast - I won't have the afternoons to do it anymore.
As a music therapy student, I envisioned a life of constant singing, improvisation, and composing in my quiet moments. More often than not, my music therapy life does have those things in it, but there are many more things that are part of being a professional music therapist. Things like cleaning up bodily fluids, writing notes, attending meetings, learning about new curricula, trying to develop policies that have absolutely nothing to do with music therapy, and countless other things - chaperoning during trips, arranging vans for trips, covering classrooms so people can have breaks, etc. I would imagine that, even if you are a contract therapist, you still have to do more than developing and implementing music therapy interventions. Things like documenting mileage, figuring out health insurance, seeking out new contracts, keeping track of materials, and many more things that I don't have any concept of since I have not really ever been a full-time music therapy contractor.
I admit it, these "additional duties as assigned" are the things that frustrate me more than anything else. I get frustrated when I have to sit in yet another IEP training when my facility refuses to allow me to have IEP goals (I do have other treatment goals, but they are not listed on the IEP). Why do I have to go to those trainings? It baffles me, but my administrators require me to attend all of those meetings and trainings. I usually spend my time doodling and developing TMEs and wondering what I am doing there, but it is a duty that I am assigned, so I attend.
Here's how I combat these moments when I am wondering "Why do I have to do this?" I volunteer to do the things that others don't want to do. (By the way, there are six people who are doing morning bus duty - In my opinion, we only need four people, so I'm doing everyone else a favor by ducking out - That's another justification for moving to afternoons). I know that I don't do much that is productive in the afternoon after an entire day of therapy sessions and documentation, so I might as well be the face that students see on their way to the bus. Then I will get to go home and won't simply be sitting staring at the computer screen after my day.
Today is my first day of afternoon bus duty. I'll be doing bus duty this morning as well. Time for something new.
This is a phrase that can contain lots of things that you never thought you would be doing in your career. It's almost always the last entry in a job description. For me, this means duty of some sort.
I've learned over the years that volunteering for duty makes it less distressing than waiting to be assigned to the duty. If you volunteer, you get more control over what you end up being assigned. So, to that end, I've volunteered for afternoon bus duty.
My reasons for this are many, but one of the reasons is that we need someone to do afternoon bus duty. There weren't any other volunteers. I have another reason as well - I feel that one of the members of morning bus duty does not like me and does everything possible to make my life difficult. One of my conditions for taking over afternoon bus duty was to leave morning bus duty when the fall session starts and this co-worker returns. Folks were so grateful to have a volunteer, that I was able to get out of the other duty without comment. I also don't have to do breakfast duty because I have to do my documentation during breakfast - I won't have the afternoons to do it anymore.
As a music therapy student, I envisioned a life of constant singing, improvisation, and composing in my quiet moments. More often than not, my music therapy life does have those things in it, but there are many more things that are part of being a professional music therapist. Things like cleaning up bodily fluids, writing notes, attending meetings, learning about new curricula, trying to develop policies that have absolutely nothing to do with music therapy, and countless other things - chaperoning during trips, arranging vans for trips, covering classrooms so people can have breaks, etc. I would imagine that, even if you are a contract therapist, you still have to do more than developing and implementing music therapy interventions. Things like documenting mileage, figuring out health insurance, seeking out new contracts, keeping track of materials, and many more things that I don't have any concept of since I have not really ever been a full-time music therapy contractor.
I admit it, these "additional duties as assigned" are the things that frustrate me more than anything else. I get frustrated when I have to sit in yet another IEP training when my facility refuses to allow me to have IEP goals (I do have other treatment goals, but they are not listed on the IEP). Why do I have to go to those trainings? It baffles me, but my administrators require me to attend all of those meetings and trainings. I usually spend my time doodling and developing TMEs and wondering what I am doing there, but it is a duty that I am assigned, so I attend.
Here's how I combat these moments when I am wondering "Why do I have to do this?" I volunteer to do the things that others don't want to do. (By the way, there are six people who are doing morning bus duty - In my opinion, we only need four people, so I'm doing everyone else a favor by ducking out - That's another justification for moving to afternoons). I know that I don't do much that is productive in the afternoon after an entire day of therapy sessions and documentation, so I might as well be the face that students see on their way to the bus. Then I will get to go home and won't simply be sitting staring at the computer screen after my day.
Today is my first day of afternoon bus duty. I'll be doing bus duty this morning as well. Time for something new.
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