Dear Jewish Fairy Godmother:

I left my job as a school counselor at the end of last year because the
stress of 20 years of non-stop crises had finally driven me crazy. I
know part of the problem was my own exaggerated sense of
responsibility, to the point of working double time (and most of
summers) and still feeling behind all the time. I&'m a lot calmer and
happier without that job, but I haven&'t found one that pays well and
that I&'m good at. I subbed for a counselor friend who was on
pregnancy leave, and now the school has asked me to come back for
the last 10 weeks of spring term because a different counselor will be
out having her baby. Spring is the worst time of the year for
counselors as it involves scheduling next year for each student. In my
case it also means mastering software I don&'t know. I need the money
but I don&'t want to spend all summer recovering again, especially
when I need to find a real job. What should I do?

On the Fence

 
Dear On the Fence:

Remember you&'re not obligated to say Yes, but you do need to take
good care of both your finances and your mental health. I would ask
the school, perhaps starting with the counseling team, if there&'s a way
for you to take care of the traditional counseling responsibilities for
more than the usual caseload of students and relieve the other
counselors of those chores while they handle the scheduling for all the
students in the system, given they know the school and the software
that you do not. It could be win-win for everyone. If they decline your
out-of- the-box thinking you still have the option of saying Yes or No.
The bigger issue is identifying a career you will not stress over that
utilizes your skill set. Human resources seems like a good fit, if you
can get a foot in the door, perhaps in the public or non-profit sector
where they will recognize your cross-over skills.