New job - not enough work

Pineapple88

Hi everyone. I started a new job a few months ago but it feels like there’s not a full time job for me here and I’m finding it quite demoralising. Other new people in the team are in the same position and we’re trying to generate work but how long that will take is a “how long is a piece of string” situation. The people who’ve already been here for a while have enough work for themselves and aren’t interested in sharing work or generating more work. 

I’ve come to the conclusion that if things don’t improve at some point I’ll have to leave, but I wondered whether anyone else has been in this position before, and if so how long you stayed in the job before moving on? 

Grumpy_chap

Companies don't just employee people for the sake of paying their wages, so is there some reason why a number of new starters are on board but not yet fully utilised?
Is this linked to a new contract award that has not yet reached proper start?
Is there some other obvious reason?

Saver73

Hi @Pineapple88 I can empathise with your situation, I have been in the same situation before. I was taken on to replace a member of staff who had left and it became obvious really quickly that there wasn't enough work.  I was told that the job role has peaks and lows but that wasn't true, It had big gaps with no work to do! Like you I tried to generate work, and I always offered to help others but other team members rarely shared work. I felt there were too many staff and not enough work. I also felt the likely outcome would be job cuts.  I left just before 6 months in the role as by then it was really having a negative impact.  The problem is it's hard to tell in advance what the workflow will be like even if you have done the same job before with a different company. In a previous role I worked 2 hours a day extra on my three home working days and usually for an hour over the weekend, so moving from a role that was mega busy to a role that was very quiet was awful. 

Have you talked to your line manager? Are there opportunities to work in a different team in your company? 

Pineapple88

Grumpy_chap said:

Companies don't just employee people for the sake of paying their wages, so is there some reason why a number of new starters are on board but not yet fully utilised?
Is this linked to a new contract award that has not yet reached proper start?
Is there some other obvious reason?

They’ve been recruiting to replace people who left, and also because they were concerned that the existing team was taking on too much. They just seem to have overestimated the amount of work that they have. 

Pineapple88

Saver73 said:

Hi @Pineapple88 I can empathise with your situation, I have been in the same situation before. I was taken on to replace a member of staff who had left and it became obvious really quickly that there wasn't enough work.  I was told that the job role has peaks and lows but that wasn't true, It had big gaps with no work to do! Like you I tried to generate work, and I always offered to help others but other team members rarely shared work. I felt there were too many staff and not enough work. I also felt the likely outcome would be job cuts.  I left just before 6 months in the role as by then it was really having a negative impact.  The problem is it's hard to tell in advance what the workflow will be like even if you have done the same job before with a different company. In a previous role I worked 2 hours a day extra on my three home working days and usually for an hour over the weekend, so moving from a role that was mega busy to a role that was very quiet was awful. 

Have you talked to your line manager? Are there opportunities to work in a different team in your company? 

Thanks Saver. It’s good to hear from people who have been in a similar situation, even if it doesn’t change things.

My line manager is relatively new themselves so they’re in a similar situation. They’re being proactive in trying to generate work and have got some new work but, understandably, anything that comes in they’re keeping for themselves. 

Savvy_Sue

Two of us landed in this situation some years ago: a manager was supposed to be implementing a new IT project, but was just too busy to do so. We both moved on within a year.

josephine82

I also had a similar situation where I was recruited into a job advertised as a senior post but the actual work was quite junior and I completed it very quickly. 

Whilst asking for additional work and other duties, courses and training etc, I took the opportunity to improve my skills, for example teaching myself more advanced Excel skills and doing some LinkedIn learning courses. 

It isn’t ideal and of course keep making it clear to your line manager that you need more work, but perhaps the time could benefit you and your future career in the short term? It isn’t often we get time to focus on career and personal development. 

lincroft1710

I would start looking for another job.


Senior management may realise there is not enough work to go round and soon some of the new recruits will be let go

StevenB12

Ironically I've just posted on something similar to this. 

I've been at my place about 16 months now..maybe a bit more. The company employed us to take on a 5 year contract, (4 years left) however the work has been sketchy at best. Sometimes we can go 6 or 7 weeks with no work, then we can get 4 or 5 jobs come in at once. 

Its been noticed at my place that the work isn't coming in as much as they had hoped. I'll probably hold out but it's hard to say what's happening at mo.

Luckily the company I'm at is a great place to work, however we have also tried to generate more work, but none of it has been taking up by the powers that be. 

I hope it works out good for us both lol