I can't believe that you 'get' to be the scribe instead of an admin while he brings someone else in for idea generation. And you *can't* record the meetings? Seriously??

What is with these people? I learned from the HR director I rode with the other day that my company also frowns on hiring admin types. They want to hire professionals and have them do admin work. It makes no sense to me. Maybe you don't need a college degree to ship packaged to Fedex, but it's still a skill. Someone who does it a lot is going to be better at it than someone who does it once every three months. My company would rather spend 2x as much money in wasted time and postage having 'professionals' ship packages rather than focus on their core duties. (For "shipping packages" read "a task usually done by an entry level employee.") I guess your company subscribes to the same philosophy.

I think the mental breakdown thing came in because the company has no structure and no admin. You can kind of get by for a while working in a chaotic environment... but then you grow to a certain point where that just doesn't make sense. If you have some crazy, convoluted non-process for payroll with 10 employees, fine. If it's 100, you start to head into nervous breakdown territory.

I think this company got by for a long time with employees taking on operational and administrative tasks that were really outside of their realm of expertise. Big stuff, like Finance, IT, Ops.

And, yeah, every place is dysfunctional - but some types are better than others. If you can get yourself to appreciate the good aspects of your job vs. the crappy ones, maybe it's better to stay... but based on your description, I think you can do better. There's a tipping point.

I really like working for myself. I am really surprised at *how* much I like it, despite knowing I would like it. It's totally worth the time I spent this weekend trying to sort out my payroll tax

You have a great excuse to avoid your mother. Work beckons! And if she is bringing a friend, isn't it reasonable to assume she wants to see your city with her friend rather than visit you specifically?

I am so tired of some of my volunteer engagements. I just feel really stressed and pressed for time lately. I spent this evening disengaged, reading old comic books. I should probably actually do some work for that committee that didn't meet last week!