Not enough to do at work

monkey84 · 23 February 2019 at 5:53AM

After many years working in one industry, I recently made the change to a new sector and have had to start at the bottom of the career chain. While I really like the work of my new industry and have very nice colleagues, I'm finding that I regularly don't have enough to do to fill my working day. I did a large amount of research before moving and understood when I took the role that it would be a drop in responsibility and probably wouldn't be the most exciting/challenging (my plan is to gain experience and move up). However, I'm used to working in busy environments and am getting bored. I've proactively been looking for productive things to do - reading more about the industry/clients, looking for other areas of the business to get involved in, asking colleagues for tasks etc, but none have paid off and I'm running out of ideas! I've raised the issue with my manager who has told me that I need to work more slowly and that things will get busier. I know that they will, but most likely not for several months.

I'm feeling undervalued, my brain is stagnating and it's starting to have a negative effect on my mental health.

Any ideas as to what I can do to use my time productively or how I can raise this again with management?

Please no comments telling me that I should enjoy it while it lasts etc. I fully appreciate that many others are massively overworked (I've also been there!), but they're not helpful!

getmore4less · 23 February 2019 at 7:04AM

Does moving up require any new skill or education, kick start those.

A clue to the sector or job type will help with ideas.

pmduk · 23 February 2019 at 8:17AM

If possible, do as much networking within the organisation as you can, it could be very useful in the future.

coffeehound · 23 February 2019 at 10:06AM

If it’s only for a few more months, can you take more holidays in readiness for the busier times ahead? Put together a report for your manager on how the business processes could be improved? Brush up on MS Excel? Tetris?

EnterUserName · 23 February 2019 at 10:21AM

In the brief spell this happened to me, I had two screens open. One on whatever needed doing and the second on a random topic that I wanted to be able to explain in loose terms by the end of the day.

Having an objective made the reading have purpose. It was low level, like using wikipedia to then explain the effects of time dilation on satellite clocks (or anything else equally as random).

Yeah didn't help the job but kept questioning the meaning of life at bay long enough until 5pm rolled around :T

Nicki · 23 February 2019 at 10:58AM

There are lots of free online training courses out there so why not google in areas of interest to you and complete a few? If you can make these relevant to your new role even better.

When I handed my notice in at my last job, my workload tailed off quite quickly. By the time I left, I’d done a course on project management, advanced excel and PowerPoint and a couple of management modules. I think I only paid for one of these and even then not very much

[Deleted User] · 23 February 2019 at 11:05AM

Add more layers to your processes? Suggest a change to shift patterns which leaves 1 person on their own for then half of the time and see how the work builds up. We were 3 people anyone time when my job role used to be office hours, since making it all day/evening it flipped to over whelming.

My current place we have the slowest computers apparently in a mega busy industry, it is said when we get new computers, they expect productivity to go up further. We're at the verge of overtime required as well.

A mass walk out of the company recently helps aswell, if we were not so busy, I'm sure we'd have been learning a new role. As one person walked, the rest of a department followed.

jonnygee2 · 23 February 2019 at 11:45AM

This happened to me when I moved from a reactive environment where people came to me all day every day and I was problem solving/firefighting, to an office role whoch was just naturally slower. The problem is, in that situation it doesn't matter how much you find to do in a day, the lack of pressure makes it feel boring.

A career drop is another issue. Lots of people enjoy a switch but also starting at the bottom is hard when you have the skills to do a lot more.

I guess in the end I got used to it 😁. I started to finish in time, go swimming before work and have time after work. At work, I just create some pressure by keeping a really ordered task list that I try to finish each day, and when things are slow I add everything I can think of to it (watch this seminar, remake this excel sheet etc).

Also if you build up relationships with people around you they start coming to you for stuff, eventually you'll be overwhelmed!

One thing, I wouldn't keep raising it with management, they may take it the wrong way. They've set the department up with a certain number of people in certain roles, it's potentially a challenge to them to essentially say you are overstaffed.

TELLIT01 · 23 February 2019 at 12:42PM

monkey84 wrote: »

I've raised the issue with my manager who has told me that I need to work more slowly and that things will get busier. I know that they will, but most likely not for several months.

I'm feeling undervalued, my brain is stagnating and it's starting to have a negative effect on my mental health.

Any ideas as to what I can do to use my time productively or how I can raise this again with management?

Please no comments telling me that I should enjoy it while it lasts etc. I fully appreciate that many others are massively overworked (I've also been there!), but they're not helpful!

I'm really not sure what you expect people to suggest. You have said that you are proactively looking for things to do, have spoken to your manager, and are doing any training you can. There not really anything else, other than suggesting a drop in hours so that your time is better filled.
If the work simply isn't there at present nobody can 'magic it up'. You probably won't be the only person feeling under employed, and if your manager did pass additional work to you it could cause bad feeling with those who have been there longer and are also twiddling their thumbs more than they would like.
I do appreciate that people have a speed they like to work at, but in this instance I agree with your manager that you need to pace your work better.

shortcrust · 23 February 2019 at 1:23PM

First off, don't nag your manager. There's nothing more annoying than people moaning about not having stuff to do. You end up giving them 'busy work' to keep them quiet, wasting everyone's time. Appraisals, performance reviews etc are the place for those conversations.

I've never started a new job without seeing a load of ways things can be done better, and the good thing about the first few months in a new job is that you've got time to make those improvements and get noticed. In my field (at the time - data analysis/designing IT systems) it was usually things like automating tasks and improving the reports and information people got from me. You need to know what happens before and after your input, so spend time shadowing people in your own and other teams. Ask people if they're happy with the way x, y and z work. What's a pain in bum for them. What could you do to make their life a bit easier. People are almost certain to have a load of stuff to say, but you need to ask the questions.

monkey84 · 23 February 2019 at 8:34PM

Thanks all. Some good advice to take on board.

Not enough to do at work

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