To hate my new job after three days?

[TheEvilCoin]

Started new job on Monday. Had a meeting with my line manager, explained how I was looking forward to a new and challenging position. He then went on to say I was not going to find it a 'challenge' ...

Three days later I agree. I don't have a proper role, no tasks or duties, and my colleagues are very much the same. They openly admit there isn't enough work to go around, and they're often bored, looking at phones, internet, etc. I've asked for things to do in the past few days, and I'm just met with blank stares! I've exhausted colleagues by asking about their role, shadowing them, etc. And I just don't see that I'm going to between now and Friday.

DH thinks I'm bring dramatic, and it's only the first few days, and as soon as I have stuff to be getting on with I'll be happy. But I'm miserable, bored and fed up already!

Any advice?

Do you think it will be like this at all times or is it just a period of time that will pass? This is important to know, I think.

I'm jealous! Id use the time to write a novel or run an online business! I work 60 hrs a week managing a huge caseload and feel like I'm always firefighting.

If you can't learn anything and have ambition, leave as soon as you financially can, I.e. get a job first. Nothing worse than wasting your life and talent.

I do think, from what I can gather, it's consistently a low workload. It seems to be regarded as an 'easy' department. I'm used to a high workload, being constantly busy, overseeing and developing projects, etc. I'm from a retail and head office management background, which probably isn't the best thing to be comparing it to. I've worked through most of the non mandatory learning now, and just sitting twiddling my thumbs is driving me crazy.

It's a pay cut from all my previous positions. But in terms of hours and benefits is a thousand times better. The only reason I actually applied is because my husband's job moves quite frequently, and I was just getting sick of constantly starting over. The civil service seemed like a slightly more flexible option, and that I'd hopefully be able to climb the ladder.

I just need to make this work somehow. Or at least keep myself busy enough for the next six months until we move again.

If you are pregnant stay put. Won't you get 6 months full paid maternity leave?

Yes, 6 months full pay. And the option of a career break, etc.

Ugh. I'll give it a few more days till I'm well and truly properly late then piss on a stick. I guess that's just another incentive to learn to like this job!

Are you sure you'll get the 6 months full pay OP as a new starter? In my last CS department I am fairly certain you had to have 1 years service by the beginning of your mat leave to qualify.

I was a Civil Servant for 11 years and in that time did 5 diff jobs....Your description of starting sounds very familiar. Although I have left now because my last job did admittedly become dull and I wanted a change, some of the jobs were really interesting . But I couldn't tell that in the first few days....In my experience CS managers always like to ease you in.

So for now I'd stick with it. At least until you're back from mat leave. And while I agree with pp that sometimes you just know when a job isn't for you I don't think that necessarily means you should walk away. There are a lot of benefits within the CS so even if this job doesn't turn out to be for you , I wouldn't walk away without trying a different team and department. There are some hugely stimulating roles out there. You may however need to achieve a certain duration in your current role before you're allowed to apply but the good news is your mat leave will count towards it and it isn't normally more than 2 years.

There's a zillion overworked teams within the civil service that would be delighted to have you! Once you're in, it's much easier to be lent to other teams - try going to every seminar going, meet other managers, say you are looking for work...

Have you had a 1:1 with your new manager or team leader yet? If they don't really need you, they'd probably love to shift you onto another team's budget at least temporariliy. Get talking to people.

Failing that, go on FutureLearn or the OU and get some training!

I once lasted one day in a job before I gave them notice. I knew it wasn't going to get better if I gave it longer, sometimes you can just tell especially if all the longtime coworkers are also just thumb-twiddling and filling time with meaningless busywork - it's not always to do with newness.

DH just left a job after struggling for almost two months in a similar situation re not having a defined role, despite having it clearly outlined at interview. This is in engineering/manufacturing and he's used to working at places where people are, well, working! He's a highly skilled, qualified and experienced worker in his field yet found himself reduced to a glorified button-pusher and then was left hanging as to any other way to fill his time despite repeatedly asking for things to do. They were paying him a lot to do this but it's not always about money.

OP I had a job a bit like that once. I spent the first 6 months muttering and swearing to myself because it was so frustrating, my colleagues must have thought I was unhinged. I ended up staying 5 years and getting promoted. But in hindsight I should have looked for another job in those first 6 months.

The bit of the company I worked for was diysfunctional (hence the hiring someone who had nothing to do for 6 months) and though we managed to improve things somewhat, this stemmed from poor leadership buying and understanding of what we did and could do, and a lack of enthusiasm for our role. So there was little investment and we never really stretched.

While I carved out a good niche within the company, I'm pretty sure I would have had a better career if I'd moved on to something where I was actually developing skills at a faster pace and I think I would have enjoyed it a lot more too. Something to consider if things remain the same for you for much longer. Though if you're pregnant that might complicate things a bit!

Glad to see the civil service is as productive as ever.

Leave please.

I always think it takes about 3 months to stop hating new job. You are working them out and your colleagues are deciding if they like you. Also you have to be on your best behaviour until you know what is acceptable in your office which is tiring. If after a few months you are still not stretched and not being asked to work at least twice your capacity please let me know where these public sector jobs still exist!

Working in the Civil Service you find that it's really different to the Private Sector. Depending on what area you work, you could spend time on CPD, looking up recent news and advancements.

If they don't mind you could always keep a MN tab open then write replies in word, to copy and paste across.

Maybe bring it up with your Line Manager, saying you know it was your first week, do they KPI's or Success Factors? (Things you have to achieve as part of a monthly/quarterly/bi-annual review)

I would also say obviously I want to be proactive, making sure al work is completely well in a timely manner. You found the first week easy, some colleagues made suggestions about how they pass the time. Is there work from other areas you could help with? If not when you find yourself without anything to do, what would your Line Manager suggest?

Hopefully you'll get some clarity, finding out what you can & can't do, avoiding the bad habits of others if ideally you'd be doing something company based.

Good luck

I had this exact same thing happen to me. I left a permanent job that I enjoyed, because I thought the new job had more potential in terms of prospects, and it paid more.
By the end of the first day, I realised I'd made a massive mistake. But by then, my old job had been offered to a guy moving from another part of the company so I had no chance of getting it back.
Plus, one day wasn't enough to make a decision- although I had learned to trust my instincts.
Without being too specific, the job I took simply didn't exist as a job on it's own - the role was funded by some charity grant thing, but every single part of it was already being carried out by other people, and they were doing a good job of it, so didn't take kindly to me coming in and taking over. Plus I couldn't half the time, as it involved using their equipment or expertise and if you don't want someone coming in to do "your job", you are not going to offer things up freely.
The place was staffed entirely by people who'd been there for eons and knew how to work the system to do minimal work for maximum gain, and young apprentice types who were quickly learning from the old timers. By me being there, I was essentially relieving their "workload" - some of the older ones thought I was rendering them dispensable, so that made for lots of jolly japes round the water cooler.
Also, there were various restrictions on what I could do - for example, "design some leaflets, but not have any access to design software, because we have a team of designers who will do the finished product. So just think of some ideas and ask them if they are good or not,"
I went from being so busy it was never ending in my old job, to so bored I could've cried.
I ended up offering to photocopy things for other departments just to give me an excuse to get up and go to the copy room - I was being paid £30 grand a year (!) to do this.
The two colleagues I got on well with openly admitted they were bored stupid most days, but didn't care as long as they got paid. I on the other hand, have hated being bored ever since childhood and can't deal with it.
I gave it three weeks, but when it got to the stage where I had a pre-booked week off, I spent that entire holiday literally hoping I would get ill or worse so I wouldn't have to go back.
So I quit, and never looked back.

I've since found out (one of the colleagues that I liked added me on FB) I was replaced by someone else who also quit because she had nothing to do and the line manager got into trouble because he invented the role, so I think I as better off out of it.

But everything is a learning curve- on this occasion I learned that earning more money doesn't always make a job better, and that I am not cut out for civil service/local government. So, swings and roundabouts and all that.

I hope you get the chance to make the best decision, but we are given instincts for a reason, and I always trust mine.

I don't understand! (I know nothing about the CS) You have just been given an office job and there is no work to be done? Why did they hire someone new? What would you be doing if there was a stack of work? What does your office manager (?) tell you to do all day?
I don't understand how you can have a job where there is no work! Unless you run a shop that never gets a single customer I suppose- in which case, you wouldn't hire in extra staff to help run it...

The civil service is a strange world, detached from reality, in my limited experience.

I honestly too had no idea why they had hired me when there's no work to do. My line manager just shrugs, responses like 'go have a coffee' or 'just do some more training on CSL' have been frequent

However. Yesterday it's been discovered that there's been some confusion with allocating me a position. I've been put in the wrong department for five days! I start properly on Monday so hopefully that'll improve things. I've been given quite an extensive job description for my 'proper' role, so it sounds like I'll actually have something to do!

Thank you all for being so supportive and sharing your stories though. It's really gotten me through a really shitty week.