My job is so dull

[Goforthenorth]

Does anyone else find their job so boring, a lot of the time?

I’m public sector and have good holidays, pension, flexible working and work life balance as I WFH with only a small number of office days. I’m also well paid (in the £50k’s which in my part of the UK, i.e. not the south east, goes far).

But it’s so dull! And the people I work with are painfully dull and actually think they’re “swamped” with work, when in reality nothing gets done. I don’t know if they believe it or what.

I could have written your post. Private sector, not public sector, otherwise it’s the same. Tediously dull.

I’m 53 and can’t see myself earning as well somewhere else, so I think I’m stuck until I can afford to retire. I try and be thankful I’ve got a secure(ish) job but I worry about it a lot 😔

Any chance to move sideways into a new role? Or into a new career? Honestly I would rather be on less money and less perks than bored all day.

I've done my fair share of boring jobs over the years and just get depressed. I get bored to tears very easily and the only thing that keeps me going is learning, a bit of autonomy, diversity of project / tasks and creativity within the role. I honestly would rather retrain or go self employed!

Same @Windowsdontshut ! I know how lucky I am to have all of the benefits I do, and a secure job, it’s undemanding so while I’m occasionally busy and work longer hours, generally I don’t and it’s so flexible around my DC and their after school activities. I have friends who work such long hours and worry about work on the weekends, so I try to be thankful that I don’t have that problem.

I’m having a particularly boring week though!

Trust me at times "dull" is good if everything else is good, EG, fleix hours, flexi hours hols, long service hols, often free parking depends on job, secure job

I recall someone working for a housing association and another company took over - most of the staff could not keep pace

Public sector can be very laid back and you don't often relaise until you experience similar work in the private sector

my work was dull at times and I could do it very quickly ie target caseloads - but then I had plenty of time to natter with other staff and my some of the nicer clients I would spend two hours listening to their stories etc - this was only possible as I found the job only at times dull and easy

however, as I got older nearer to my 50's I found it hard to learn the compete grogamn, procedures processes difficult to digest - thankfully I was able to retire at just over the age of 50as did my OH

There are challenging jobs in the public sector but some are only challenging as the member of staff is not up to it

You are lucky OP - my work/HQ was 15 min drive up as I often left home just after 8 and almost always home by 4pm and often 2 hour lucn breaks - its what you make out of your job

My job is like this a lot of the time. I currently spend a large part of my day copying & pasting info from one document to another! It's only because you have to understand what you need to copy/paste (and if anything is missing) that it requires someone at my level.

But I wfh full time (which I like), decent pay, no stress, super flexible. I'm in my 50s though and mostly appreciate the slower pace after years of stress and being busy all the time.

Oh this all over! I think I’m more senior and better paid than the tasks involve, and to be honest I don’t understand some of it but I managed to get to this level so maybe it’s a bit of imposter syndrome.

@DistinguishedSocialCommentator you’re absolutely right, I am so lucky. Because I’m WFH most of the time I can do laundry, cleaning and sorting in between (dull) meetings. It works around family life and the salary also enables us to have a nice life!

@mopopo yes I will look to move sideways into a more interesting area at some point. It’s the politics of working that I find dull too, people trying to prove how busy they are etc (when I know they’re not really!). The pace of the public sector is definitely something you adjust to though and I would probably keel over at the pace in a private company!