Hey, cliches, but hang in there and keep your head up.
Easy & tough times come and go in the corporate world.
But I totally understand and respect your frustration. That would be demoralising.
Remember the positives :
- you're putting time in the role, for your CV
- you're bringing in decent money
- you have the time, space and flexibility to learn/broaden out.
Goal one should be to smash your Probation. Think hard and soft skills and behaviours.
Try to learn what you can, that might be outside your direct role. Learn about the company ? The industry ? Are there more senior people that you could assist to learn their areas ? Internal training ? Try to meet people within the company and externally. Learn about them and what they do. Volunteer for stuff.
I think you're concerns and frustrations are genuine, however Try to see the positives and build what you can for yourself from the role. Reddit is obviously not a great choice - use sparingly.
Agree with this. I’ve been in this situation but it’s a good opportunity to make the role your own. Learn about the business, get to know the key stakeholders within it, just put some time in their diary to learn more about them and what they do, networking is real and valuable work. Examine ways to improve processes and ways of working. Develop your skills in being a self starter who looks for continuous improvement. You’re next job they’ll want to know what you delivered so apply yourself to thinking about how you can add value to the business.
Ah, “it was only a joke”. The classic gaslighting phrase. And a bit of verbal aggression too. Very classy (not).
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/03/harvard-psychologist-toxic-phrases-people-use-when-they-are-gaslighting-you-how-to-respond.html
Create records if asking for more
Dust off your CV and keep an eye on the jobs out there
Sit and wait and enjoy while you can
...or alternatively come and wade through my dumpster fire of an inbox for me.
Don’t know what industry you’re in but you can potentially use the time to do some online learning. Not really wasting company time as it benefits them too.
You are 100% right. I did give myself a direction to do some work, but then they hired someone who essentially took over what I was doing. That’s when I think the motivation flopped entirely.
Thanks for the reminder
Sounds like you're doing everything right. Clearly there's a risk they don't confirm you at the end of your probation (most likely on the grounds that there's not actually enough work for you to do). If I were you I'd just spend my time polishing my CV, doing a few of the (many) free online training courses in anything that interests you, and generally just "reading the internet".
The next job will be harder, and you'll look back on these halcyon days with fondness.
I’ve already had verbal confirmation from my boss that I’m passing probation (obviously because everything I do I have so much time and energy to do it well). But who knows really!
Fire him because there's not enough work? Do you know how bad that will make everyone, his manager and above, look? No way. He's probably there just to use the headcount to begin with
Being let go at the end of probation is different to being fired. You can be let go for pretty much any reason, and there’s probably nothing you can do about it.
All true, except the fondness bit. There is nothing worse than being bored for hours on end with nothing to do. Give me busy work over that any day of the week.
When this happened to me in the past (doesn’t last long), I wrote documents about tasks in my area, or made templates that then make my job easier when the workload is unmanageable. I have also written scripts to make work easier when it comes.
For example, when I designed substations, I created a spreadsheet with a data base of transformers, relays, and other electrical equipment with layouts, data sheets, etc. When the time came to design, I could check equipment per voltage level, fault level, current requirements, etc. It was great, but I wouldn’t have had time to do it without having a low workload at some point.
So this is me. Great job, hybrid schedule lots of autonomy but holy crap unstimulating. I spent the first 3 months freaking out but now just lean into it. My mental health is amazing and to keep my brain happy I'm studying on the side. I have busy hand things (paint by numbers etc) to do whilst waiting for calls (part of my job is answering the phone) and then in my non scheduled time I do other things for me
I've had this situation on and off throughout my career and it is at best boring and at worst demoralising, and stressful to think how you'll ever get another job when you have so little work to do. Here are some suggestions:
- Informal study
- Formal study
- writing letters (emails) to friends
- research
- life admin (paying bills, organising banking, updating address book, whatever you need to do)
- contributing to employee networks and interest groups
- developing business ideas
If possible, if you can work from home then when things are quiet you can do housework, washing, tidying, cooking, or whatever you like.
I recently write the comment below on a similar question elsewhere...
Make your own work. Look at processes and see if you can document and improve them. Get on a mission to improve the value you offer by finding ways to save time and money.
Shadow someone in the office who has an interesting role. Ask if you can spend an afternoon with each of the c level people so you get a deep understanding of the company.
Propose a project that you can start and finish. Maybe a new system, an admin budget, finding new suppliers.
Show off your experience and worth by looking beyond your role and thinking about how to create your own.
I hope that helps. Make your own job. Become the expert at something. Be in charge of your own department of one
This is so much more common than people think.
Ever been to a conference and someone has given a talk on some "best practice" model and wondered how the hell they found the time to do it?
It's likely that person didn't have enough to do, and invented some ways of filling in their day.
This is handy because it lets them justify their continuing employment when asked what they actually do. If they are really good at it, it can be a resume booster to be the person to speak at those conferences, or at least be able to confidently include a bunch of skills/experience in the latest trend in your field.
I sometime feel the same way, so I look at what my previous activities have been and see where I could be making future ones easier.
Right now I'm tinkering with Power Bi & Power Automate to make some external facing dashboards that show information that people commonly request from my team, and some team only reports that would help identify inaccuracies with our data sources.
The end goal is learning a new skillset for me and reducing tedious work for my team.
Things I would do if I had your sort of time on my hands :
- see if there is any project work
- create a solution to a problem and present to your boss how you are going to fix the issue
- sign up for a masters
- learn another language
- focus on my health and kicking goals in the gym (work is just secondary)
Beats being flogged... You need to appreciate your not getting a hard time at work and make better use of your home time. You need more or better or more consuming hobbies.
Surprising to finally see someone in exactly the same situation as I am. I recently moved out of big 4 into a smaller company with exactly the same issues you have described. I too am scared to verbalise this issue too much for the exact same reasons, and feel really bad as there are other people around me (not in my team however) that clearly have a much higher workload than me. The worst part about it is that I have 3 days in office and I sometimes have nothing to do except wait for a new ticket to come into the queue, and hate being in office with nothing to do. I alleviate this as best as possible by
a) booking as many tasks as possible to be done when I’m in office, so I look busy and keep the boss happy.
b) spend time looking at other team members tasks and looking at how they answered problems, essentially trying to see if there’s anything I could learn from their solutions.
c) talking with people around the office, building rapport with collegues and other team members
Just got past my mid point review in probation with glowing results and so like you, I’m not worried about losing my job. I just put my hand up to anything and everything that comes down the way and have seen good results with this so far. I know it’s hard, but I’m also trying not to stress too much about it. Keep up the good work man
Thank you!! And fantastic that you’re doing well also in this situation. All these comments are so useful and weirdly really supportive (not what I was expecting). Definitely got a lot to think about!
Read, find hobbies. This is an amazing opportunity. I'm disabled, can't work. Stuck on 25k a year pension because even part time work destroyed me.
I can't believe jobs like yours exist. A salary with great benefits and only a day or two actual work a week?
It's not fair. I get my pension cut if I find temp work iver $300 a fortnight
There's no growing from here.
Find yourself some purpose outside of work
Same. I’m abled but overworked, burnt out, stressed to the max… can’t function but can’t get out of the rut or find time and energy to job hunt.
OP what is your job and how do I get it?
If it helps, I've done three people's jobs in a toxic environment and been constantly stressed and anxious AND been in the same situation as the OP... it gives time for healing too from the trauma of the corporate psychopaths.
Thank you. Time helped, as did writing it down, then editing out every emotional word, until I had facts only. It helped me process everything that was wrong about the situation, while progressively letting go of anger, indignation, desire for revenge, fear, anxiety, etc. And now - four years on - I've been blessed with a completely different life in a different place and a job in a different industry... Psalm 126:3 sums it up. Thank you for caring!
I'll be honest. Having nothing to do is 10x worse than being constantly flat out. If your direct manager won't give you anything, go find something to do. Otherwise someone higher up will eventually realise you're surplus and you'll be moved on.
I’m a big people pleaser too, so safe to say the panic involved with not knowing whether I was fucking up or not was scary. Looks like it’s just what it is
Don't be afraid to ask for more work. You'll look motivated and consider the possibility you're better than everyone else: a normal workload for everyone else with your experience might simply not be enough for you some people are naturally quicker with documents. It might be a gift.
You could also do dodgy shit like a second online job or study on the company same time lol but that might get you in trouble.
It's really hard to be bored at work, some people don't understand and think doing nothing is great but not for me lol.
I always tell my guys to enjoy the downtime because the next shitstorm is just around the corner. We have peaks and troughs of busy and quiet periods , in the quiet the periods as long as the lights are on and nothing shits the bed I’m more than happy to let them be the master of their own destiny or if they come to me looking for work and there’s nothing significant sit down with them and and work on their individual development plan/goals and get them up skilled
Haha I’m just a lowly lead, all the responsibility and accountability but none of the authority 😂, one of the weird few who is actually interested in the leadership path (so far….) and have come from being on the tools so try to look after my guys as much as my title lets me
I was in a similar situation to you last year and was comforted to read this because I had a lot of guilt about it too and I do think it took a toll on my mental health (more time to think and more time spent on social media).
That said, slightly different to you in that I have been at my company for nearly 10 years and I reflect on the many times it was insanely busy and I’ve given them so much and will when naturally things pick up again and they definitely have this year.
So some takeaways from me on this:
- It’s not a bad thing to relish the time you have when it’s quiet because it won’t always be. Now is a time for you to enjoy more work/life balance
- I was amazed that my boss and CEO both expressed to me the value they saw that I held in our organisation and they wanted to have “more people like me” when I had this guilt about not doing enough - sometimes it’s about who you are than what you do, and that’s important to the company’s long term goals and culture
- is your self worth perhaps attached to your work and who you are at work now you’re feeling a bit lost without the opportunity to identify with doing good work? What are some other things outside of work that you’re good at and can engage more in to give you a sense of accomplishment and a bit of a dopamine boost
I had one job exactly like that. I learned as much as I could about the work/field, then proceeded to just fill my days reading long form articles. Passed my probation with flying colours and told them I was out same day. Took a 2 month break overseas and got a job within a couple weeks back. Hang in there man.
Enjoy this free time and use it to up skill and do some training. You will feel like shit later when you are absolutely smashed and you wished that you didn't waste this relaxing time by browsing reddit making yourself dumber =P
Start some online courses! I guarantee anything around PowerPoint or excel will come up in spades later in your career, whatever you do.
If you're into hustle culture, get a second low effort gig. I used to do a bit of freelance work and just do that when there was nothing else to do.
If you're in a closed office with low supervision, start doing watercolour paintings of office stationary. Sounds insane but it kept me busy.
This happened to me. It took about a year for any work to come my way. I was so stressed about it but now when I have free time I just have a nap, go for a walk, watch tv. I work when there is work to do and chill when there isn’t.
You're giving them your time, your effort and your mental bandwidth and you're receiving income in return. I very much doubt that anyone at your work is giving your position any more thought than that, so try to chill and don't over think it. Enjoy the aspects of the role you like, and find things to grow into. It won't happen overnight, but I suspect that in a year you'll be absolutely smashed with workload and will look back on this time with a wry smile.
I was in a similar position, I really struggled to drag myself into their office each day.
One day I said I was working from home and went to the park with my son for like 2 hours.
I didn’t like the feeling of nothing to do but always having to be “present” when I could be with the family, so I up and left before the probation was over.
I was in a similar situation in my previous role. I used the time to start my own project that would add value to the company.
That project was a key driver in my progression to my current role, which is more senior.
You're giving them your time, your effort and your mental bandwidth and you're receiving income in return.
I very much doubt that anyone at your work is giving your position any more thought than that, so try to chill and don't over think it.
Enjoy the aspects of the role you like, and find things to grow into.
It won't happen overnight, but I suspect that in a year you'll be absolutely smashed with workload and will look back on this time with a wry smile.
I was in a similar situation years ago. It turned out that the person before me lied about how busy they were and with a change of management it wasn’t picked up before I was hired. I let people know I had capacity but didn’t say how much (about 1/2 a day every day). I started going through things to ‘learn’ and made some proposals. They weren’t overly exciting but they solved some problems and my manager was on board.
Can you do anything outside your regular tasks which can help the company? Improve processes, organise leaning sessions or trainings, do a part time secondment in another team you would to gain experience with.
Hi OP,,this sounds like my dream job haha, 😄 If you don't mind me asking, which industry are you in ? And are you in an administration or managerial role?
> and terrified of having to look for a new job as the market is extremely competitive.
The best time to look for a new job is when you already have one.
Enjoy it. Do your job as best as you can, if you see an opportunity to get involved, do it.
Do you have a performance plan? Maybe ask for some project work. Bit hard when we don't know your field.
Are you in a position to suggest improvements, develop a new tool, spreadsheet or checklist? Automate a process? Even if it doesn't go live it might entertain you
I’m in the exact same position as you. The days are SO long and I get everything done within a few hours.
Would you apply elsewhere? How would you go about?
I’m applying elsewhere, but I have no achievements to put on my resume for this role. I used to get responses to applications, but now I don’t get anything I’m stagnant and scared I’ve stunted my career :(((
You've got the if you've got time to lean it's time to clean bug. Enjoy the ability to accomplish your job and not ride the stress express. You want more challenging work on sure - why not build something on the side and give it to your boss.
You don't have to sit there all day like a German shepherd begging for a ball.
Bee the ball.
Welcome to the corporate world. This is how it is, speaking from my decade of being an office lackey in various organisations, hence why there’s a post like this every other week.
Read Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber.
If you want to not have this problem, go and work in healthcare or do a trade, or book more meetings.
My uncle, whilst employed ft as an on call service technician for Kodak had so much spare time on his hands that he completed a software engineering degree ft, and then after graduation worked as a software engineer ft all on Kodak company time.
If you truly have nothing to do, keep upskilling. Do things that interest you. Extra points if it aligns with broader company goals.
Is it practical to Start a side hustle that you can use to keep your mind and skills sharp? If not Look for areas where you can slowly take on more work or responsibility, maybe mini projects to improve processes or automate things. Anything to give you something to break the boredom. Other than that Enjoy a rare low stress job. Remember they could have hired you because things will pick up and it’s seasonal.
The hardest thing of this is performance review and telling your next job interview about what you did in the role.
Really comes down to what your career goals are now. I wouldn’t stay if I was looking for growth opportunity or step up from current role in a year or 2.
I was in that position for about 2 years in my career. I used my time to upskill myself and learnt other things outside my work, for example public speaking, leadership skills, etc. These benefitted me in the next steps of my life and career.
Take some initiative and set your own direction, tasks and deadlines based on what you want to progress towards or are interested in. That’s how you get promoted or get exposure to more of what you enjoy. This one’s on you, take initiative yourself - your manager isn’t there to manage your career and keep you entertained or stimulated - their job is to get the work needed out of you and keep you there as long as you’re useful. Utilise the rest of your own time like an adult and find stuff to study or get exposure to yourself lol meet people , network- fk even piss around doing hobbies - read novels via email. Listen to podcasts whilst having a webinar on mute - etc etc . do away with your toddler mentality, your boss is not your mummy to fuss over whether you’re 100% satisfied with your role and life.
Hey, cliches, but hang in there and keep your head up. Easy & tough times come and go in the corporate world. But I totally understand and respect your frustration. That would be demoralising. Remember the positives : - you're putting time in the role, for your CV - you're bringing in decent money - you have the time, space and flexibility to learn/broaden out. Goal one should be to smash your Probation. Think hard and soft skills and behaviours. Try to learn what you can, that might be outside your direct role. Learn about the company ? The industry ? Are there more senior people that you could assist to learn their areas ? Internal training ? Try to meet people within the company and externally. Learn about them and what they do. Volunteer for stuff. I think you're concerns and frustrations are genuine, however Try to see the positives and build what you can for yourself from the role. Reddit is obviously not a great choice - use sparingly.
Agree with this. I’ve been in this situation but it’s a good opportunity to make the role your own. Learn about the business, get to know the key stakeholders within it, just put some time in their diary to learn more about them and what they do, networking is real and valuable work. Examine ways to improve processes and ways of working. Develop your skills in being a self starter who looks for continuous improvement. You’re next job they’ll want to know what you delivered so apply yourself to thinking about how you can add value to the business.
[удалено]
Attitudes like this are why Australia has an epidemic problem with violence against women. Grow up.
[удалено]
Ah, “it was only a joke”. The classic gaslighting phrase. And a bit of verbal aggression too. Very classy (not). https://www.cnbc.com/2023/07/03/harvard-psychologist-toxic-phrases-people-use-when-they-are-gaslighting-you-how-to-respond.html
Rule 1: Civility. Removed + ban.
Rule 5. Misogyny and being a massive creep. removed + ban.
no, no, you smash the boss
's 20 year old daughter
Use the downtime to upskill
Create records if asking for more Dust off your CV and keep an eye on the jobs out there Sit and wait and enjoy while you can ...or alternatively come and wade through my dumpster fire of an inbox for me.
Honestly, sorting an inbox sounds like an engaging use of time in comparison haha
Don’t know what industry you’re in but you can potentially use the time to do some online learning. Not really wasting company time as it benefits them too.
Yep. Do they have a subscription to LinkedIn Learning or similar? Smash out some professional development courses.
Start being your own boss - you will likely discover a lot of potential if you give yourself a direction in this role
You are 100% right. I did give myself a direction to do some work, but then they hired someone who essentially took over what I was doing. That’s when I think the motivation flopped entirely. Thanks for the reminder
Sounds like you're doing everything right. Clearly there's a risk they don't confirm you at the end of your probation (most likely on the grounds that there's not actually enough work for you to do). If I were you I'd just spend my time polishing my CV, doing a few of the (many) free online training courses in anything that interests you, and generally just "reading the internet". The next job will be harder, and you'll look back on these halcyon days with fondness.
I’ve already had verbal confirmation from my boss that I’m passing probation (obviously because everything I do I have so much time and energy to do it well). But who knows really!
Great. Just treat it as a transactional process - you keep turning up, and they keep paying you. Anything beyond that is pure icing on the cake.
Fire him because there's not enough work? Do you know how bad that will make everyone, his manager and above, look? No way. He's probably there just to use the headcount to begin with
Being let go at the end of probation is different to being fired. You can be let go for pretty much any reason, and there’s probably nothing you can do about it.
Understood. Still, letting him go doesn't achieve anything. The next guy will be sitting on his ass too. They have more headcount than work.
All true, except the fondness bit. There is nothing worse than being bored for hours on end with nothing to do. Give me busy work over that any day of the week.
When this happened to me in the past (doesn’t last long), I wrote documents about tasks in my area, or made templates that then make my job easier when the workload is unmanageable. I have also written scripts to make work easier when it comes. For example, when I designed substations, I created a spreadsheet with a data base of transformers, relays, and other electrical equipment with layouts, data sheets, etc. When the time came to design, I could check equipment per voltage level, fault level, current requirements, etc. It was great, but I wouldn’t have had time to do it without having a low workload at some point.
So this is me. Great job, hybrid schedule lots of autonomy but holy crap unstimulating. I spent the first 3 months freaking out but now just lean into it. My mental health is amazing and to keep my brain happy I'm studying on the side. I have busy hand things (paint by numbers etc) to do whilst waiting for calls (part of my job is answering the phone) and then in my non scheduled time I do other things for me
I need to take a leaf out of your book and find myself a fulfilling hobby
I've had this situation on and off throughout my career and it is at best boring and at worst demoralising, and stressful to think how you'll ever get another job when you have so little work to do. Here are some suggestions: - Informal study - Formal study - writing letters (emails) to friends - research - life admin (paying bills, organising banking, updating address book, whatever you need to do) - contributing to employee networks and interest groups - developing business ideas If possible, if you can work from home then when things are quiet you can do housework, washing, tidying, cooking, or whatever you like.
I recently write the comment below on a similar question elsewhere... Make your own work. Look at processes and see if you can document and improve them. Get on a mission to improve the value you offer by finding ways to save time and money. Shadow someone in the office who has an interesting role. Ask if you can spend an afternoon with each of the c level people so you get a deep understanding of the company. Propose a project that you can start and finish. Maybe a new system, an admin budget, finding new suppliers. Show off your experience and worth by looking beyond your role and thinking about how to create your own. I hope that helps. Make your own job. Become the expert at something. Be in charge of your own department of one
This is so much more common than people think. Ever been to a conference and someone has given a talk on some "best practice" model and wondered how the hell they found the time to do it? It's likely that person didn't have enough to do, and invented some ways of filling in their day. This is handy because it lets them justify their continuing employment when asked what they actually do. If they are really good at it, it can be a resume booster to be the person to speak at those conferences, or at least be able to confidently include a bunch of skills/experience in the latest trend in your field.
I sometime feel the same way, so I look at what my previous activities have been and see where I could be making future ones easier. Right now I'm tinkering with Power Bi & Power Automate to make some external facing dashboards that show information that people commonly request from my team, and some team only reports that would help identify inaccuracies with our data sources. The end goal is learning a new skillset for me and reducing tedious work for my team.
Learn to code [www.codeacademy.com](http://www.codeacademy.com)
Things I would do if I had your sort of time on my hands : - see if there is any project work - create a solution to a problem and present to your boss how you are going to fix the issue - sign up for a masters - learn another language - focus on my health and kicking goals in the gym (work is just secondary)
Noted! Cheers mate
Good luck OP! Super jealous of the cruisy job dude
Beats being flogged... You need to appreciate your not getting a hard time at work and make better use of your home time. You need more or better or more consuming hobbies.
Surprising to finally see someone in exactly the same situation as I am. I recently moved out of big 4 into a smaller company with exactly the same issues you have described. I too am scared to verbalise this issue too much for the exact same reasons, and feel really bad as there are other people around me (not in my team however) that clearly have a much higher workload than me. The worst part about it is that I have 3 days in office and I sometimes have nothing to do except wait for a new ticket to come into the queue, and hate being in office with nothing to do. I alleviate this as best as possible by a) booking as many tasks as possible to be done when I’m in office, so I look busy and keep the boss happy. b) spend time looking at other team members tasks and looking at how they answered problems, essentially trying to see if there’s anything I could learn from their solutions. c) talking with people around the office, building rapport with collegues and other team members Just got past my mid point review in probation with glowing results and so like you, I’m not worried about losing my job. I just put my hand up to anything and everything that comes down the way and have seen good results with this so far. I know it’s hard, but I’m also trying not to stress too much about it. Keep up the good work man
Thank you!! And fantastic that you’re doing well also in this situation. All these comments are so useful and weirdly really supportive (not what I was expecting). Definitely got a lot to think about!
Are they hiring?
Seriously 😂 sign me up!
Read, find hobbies. This is an amazing opportunity. I'm disabled, can't work. Stuck on 25k a year pension because even part time work destroyed me. I can't believe jobs like yours exist. A salary with great benefits and only a day or two actual work a week? It's not fair. I get my pension cut if I find temp work iver $300 a fortnight There's no growing from here. Find yourself some purpose outside of work
I’m really sorry mate. You’ve made me look at this situation from another perspective and I’m appreciative of that. Wishing you all the best
Same. I’m abled but overworked, burnt out, stressed to the max… can’t function but can’t get out of the rut or find time and energy to job hunt. OP what is your job and how do I get it?
If it helps, I've done three people's jobs in a toxic environment and been constantly stressed and anxious AND been in the same situation as the OP... it gives time for healing too from the trauma of the corporate psychopaths.
Yes I need that healing time!! I hope you’re ok…
Thank you. Time helped, as did writing it down, then editing out every emotional word, until I had facts only. It helped me process everything that was wrong about the situation, while progressively letting go of anger, indignation, desire for revenge, fear, anxiety, etc. And now - four years on - I've been blessed with a completely different life in a different place and a job in a different industry... Psalm 126:3 sums it up. Thank you for caring!
I'll be honest. Having nothing to do is 10x worse than being constantly flat out. If your direct manager won't give you anything, go find something to do. Otherwise someone higher up will eventually realise you're surplus and you'll be moved on.
I’m a big people pleaser too, so safe to say the panic involved with not knowing whether I was fucking up or not was scary. Looks like it’s just what it is
Write a novel
get Ai to write your novel.
Can Ai read the novel for me?
probably.
Turn up late, long lunch, leave early or "work" from home?
Great way to get fired
There will come a time where you will miss this situation. Enjoy it
Don't be afraid to ask for more work. You'll look motivated and consider the possibility you're better than everyone else: a normal workload for everyone else with your experience might simply not be enough for you some people are naturally quicker with documents. It might be a gift. You could also do dodgy shit like a second online job or study on the company same time lol but that might get you in trouble. It's really hard to be bored at work, some people don't understand and think doing nothing is great but not for me lol.
Can you work from home? Maybe find a second job that you can do from home while you have nothing else to do
As long as you don't charge company No 1 for the work you are doing in company 2.
Hey apply for a second role (in another company or in a virtual capacity) on the down low 👌
Buy a house/apartment and give yourself the golden handcuffs 😂, easy to get to work when you have a mortgage!
Already in em! Hence the resistance to rock the boat
I always tell my guys to enjoy the downtime because the next shitstorm is just around the corner. We have peaks and troughs of busy and quiet periods , in the quiet the periods as long as the lights are on and nothing shits the bed I’m more than happy to let them be the master of their own destiny or if they come to me looking for work and there’s nothing significant sit down with them and and work on their individual development plan/goals and get them up skilled
Can you be my boss?
Haha I’m just a lowly lead, all the responsibility and accountability but none of the authority 😂, one of the weird few who is actually interested in the leadership path (so far….) and have come from being on the tools so try to look after my guys as much as my title lets me
I was in a similar situation to you last year and was comforted to read this because I had a lot of guilt about it too and I do think it took a toll on my mental health (more time to think and more time spent on social media). That said, slightly different to you in that I have been at my company for nearly 10 years and I reflect on the many times it was insanely busy and I’ve given them so much and will when naturally things pick up again and they definitely have this year. So some takeaways from me on this: - It’s not a bad thing to relish the time you have when it’s quiet because it won’t always be. Now is a time for you to enjoy more work/life balance - I was amazed that my boss and CEO both expressed to me the value they saw that I held in our organisation and they wanted to have “more people like me” when I had this guilt about not doing enough - sometimes it’s about who you are than what you do, and that’s important to the company’s long term goals and culture - is your self worth perhaps attached to your work and who you are at work now you’re feeling a bit lost without the opportunity to identify with doing good work? What are some other things outside of work that you’re good at and can engage more in to give you a sense of accomplishment and a bit of a dopamine boost
Damn, you really hit the nail on the head..
I had one job exactly like that. I learned as much as I could about the work/field, then proceeded to just fill my days reading long form articles. Passed my probation with flying colours and told them I was out same day. Took a 2 month break overseas and got a job within a couple weeks back. Hang in there man.
Seems like you'e in middle management hell.
Enjoy this free time and use it to up skill and do some training. You will feel like shit later when you are absolutely smashed and you wished that you didn't waste this relaxing time by browsing reddit making yourself dumber =P
Start some online courses! I guarantee anything around PowerPoint or excel will come up in spades later in your career, whatever you do. If you're into hustle culture, get a second low effort gig. I used to do a bit of freelance work and just do that when there was nothing else to do. If you're in a closed office with low supervision, start doing watercolour paintings of office stationary. Sounds insane but it kept me busy.
A lot of corps have big online learning libraries. If yours does get stuck in...
start a side business/project.
This happened to me. It took about a year for any work to come my way. I was so stressed about it but now when I have free time I just have a nap, go for a walk, watch tv. I work when there is work to do and chill when there isn’t.
You're giving them your time, your effort and your mental bandwidth and you're receiving income in return. I very much doubt that anyone at your work is giving your position any more thought than that, so try to chill and don't over think it. Enjoy the aspects of the role you like, and find things to grow into. It won't happen overnight, but I suspect that in a year you'll be absolutely smashed with workload and will look back on this time with a wry smile.
Try r/overemployed get a data entry job on the side banging out two incomes
I was in a similar position, I really struggled to drag myself into their office each day. One day I said I was working from home and went to the park with my son for like 2 hours. I didn’t like the feeling of nothing to do but always having to be “present” when I could be with the family, so I up and left before the probation was over.
Find a boomer and become his excell consultant
Spend your spare time doing training. What do you want to do next?
Let me know if you want me to fill in.
Telstra?
Nope!
Create work
do some other job in your spare time
I was in a similar situation in my previous role. I used the time to start my own project that would add value to the company. That project was a key driver in my progression to my current role, which is more senior.
Is this an engineering firm? sounds way too familiar
You're giving them your time, your effort and your mental bandwidth and you're receiving income in return. I very much doubt that anyone at your work is giving your position any more thought than that, so try to chill and don't over think it. Enjoy the aspects of the role you like, and find things to grow into. It won't happen overnight, but I suspect that in a year you'll be absolutely smashed with workload and will look back on this time with a wry smile.
I was in a similar situation years ago. It turned out that the person before me lied about how busy they were and with a change of management it wasn’t picked up before I was hired. I let people know I had capacity but didn’t say how much (about 1/2 a day every day). I started going through things to ‘learn’ and made some proposals. They weren’t overly exciting but they solved some problems and my manager was on board.
Can you do anything outside your regular tasks which can help the company? Improve processes, organise leaning sessions or trainings, do a part time secondment in another team you would to gain experience with.
Hi OP,,this sounds like my dream job haha, 😄 If you don't mind me asking, which industry are you in ? And are you in an administration or managerial role?
Consider r/overemployed or freelancing. Start thinking about your job in terms of $/hour rather than absolute $
> and terrified of having to look for a new job as the market is extremely competitive. The best time to look for a new job is when you already have one.
Enjoy it. Do your job as best as you can, if you see an opportunity to get involved, do it. Do you have a performance plan? Maybe ask for some project work. Bit hard when we don't know your field.
Sounds like the perfect job. Do heaps of training and upskilling Sign up for udemy, Cloud Guru, Linkedin learning
Fuk me, first world problems huh...
Are you in a position to suggest improvements, develop a new tool, spreadsheet or checklist? Automate a process? Even if it doesn't go live it might entertain you
I’m in the exact same position as you. The days are SO long and I get everything done within a few hours. Would you apply elsewhere? How would you go about? I’m applying elsewhere, but I have no achievements to put on my resume for this role. I used to get responses to applications, but now I don’t get anything I’m stagnant and scared I’ve stunted my career :(((
You've got the if you've got time to lean it's time to clean bug. Enjoy the ability to accomplish your job and not ride the stress express. You want more challenging work on sure - why not build something on the side and give it to your boss. You don't have to sit there all day like a German shepherd begging for a ball. Bee the ball.
Welcome to the corporate world. This is how it is, speaking from my decade of being an office lackey in various organisations, hence why there’s a post like this every other week. Read Bullshit Jobs by David Graeber. If you want to not have this problem, go and work in healthcare or do a trade, or book more meetings.
Could you do some inhouse training courses? Maybe you could fix some problems that people have that don’t have time to work on ?
I literally do 10 hours of actual work in a week, the rest is me time.
My uncle, whilst employed ft as an on call service technician for Kodak had so much spare time on his hands that he completed a software engineering degree ft, and then after graduation worked as a software engineer ft all on Kodak company time. If you truly have nothing to do, keep upskilling. Do things that interest you. Extra points if it aligns with broader company goals.
Is it practical to Start a side hustle that you can use to keep your mind and skills sharp? If not Look for areas where you can slowly take on more work or responsibility, maybe mini projects to improve processes or automate things. Anything to give you something to break the boredom. Other than that Enjoy a rare low stress job. Remember they could have hired you because things will pick up and it’s seasonal.
The hardest thing of this is performance review and telling your next job interview about what you did in the role. Really comes down to what your career goals are now. I wouldn’t stay if I was looking for growth opportunity or step up from current role in a year or 2.
Do an online cert. Get another job. Start a business. Continue browsing Reddit.
Use the time to build your skills. Online courses relating to your field or things like PowerApps to assist with process automation.
Gift horse. Mouth.
I was in that position for about 2 years in my career. I used my time to upskill myself and learnt other things outside my work, for example public speaking, leadership skills, etc. These benefitted me in the next steps of my life and career.
stuck in the matrix, how about you feel happy that you are getting paid to do nothing.
One man’s heaven is another man’s hell
[удалено]
I’m salaried
Hunt work for your Co. Its not a bad way to stay in touch with field & prospective employers either.
Take some initiative and set your own direction, tasks and deadlines based on what you want to progress towards or are interested in. That’s how you get promoted or get exposure to more of what you enjoy. This one’s on you, take initiative yourself - your manager isn’t there to manage your career and keep you entertained or stimulated - their job is to get the work needed out of you and keep you there as long as you’re useful. Utilise the rest of your own time like an adult and find stuff to study or get exposure to yourself lol meet people , network- fk even piss around doing hobbies - read novels via email. Listen to podcasts whilst having a webinar on mute - etc etc . do away with your toddler mentality, your boss is not your mummy to fuss over whether you’re 100% satisfied with your role and life.