I do nothing all day at work and it’s draining the life and soul out of me

[ZombieWorker]

Hi all. Posting here for traffic. This will be long so I apologise. The TLDR is the title.

I graduated 7 years ago and this is my third job since then.

My first job I did nothing. I didn’t mind because I was a young graduate on a big team of people my age, and spent the day talking on the instant messager and having long lunches. When I left I said to my boyfriend (now DH) ‘finally, the real work begins’.

My second job I did a little more, but still vast amounts of nothing- think 1-2 days of work a week max. I was in a corner with my PC facing the wall behind me, and wasn’t being overlooked, so I used my downtime to write a book and do some online courses- learnt a bit of coding, French and some advanced Excel. This suited me very well, but I was still chomping at the bit to leave by the end, as the monotomy of doing nothing for 5 years was really starting to build up.

My third job I started 18 months ago. I was over the moon to get it, and AGAIN said to DH ‘it will be nice to finally start doing real work’. The first 8 weeks were a whirlwind of being taught things, but after that I was told ‘we work responsively’ and ‘you’ll be trained ad hoc as and when things show up’. Clearly, they don’t show up much- I am less busy than I was at job 2.

I’ve mentioned this before in other mumsnet chats before and the answers are always ‘talk to your boss, create your own work, get a new job, fill your day with other things’. So to address those points;

I have talked to my boss many times, always asking for things to do, and about two weeks ago it came to a head as I was nearly in tears telling her that I feel useless, that I don’t know anything more than when I started. He seems to be trying to address it and has mentioned more training, but nothing has materialised yet. I suppose it might over the next few weeks, but I can’t be confident, and it doesn’t help where I am now.

I’ve created so much work at this stage that I keep getting commended for my efforts- why nobody can see this is happening because I have NOTHING ELSE TO DO I have no idea. I’ve gone back through old folders and tidied them up, created new projects to work on, created filing systems, procedural documents- it all gets me through a few days then it’s done and I have nothing to do. I am at the point where I can’t think of a single thing to do myself. I spend a lot of time filing my emails, of which I came in this morning to a grand total of zero, triggering this post.

I could of course get a new job, this seems the logical solution, but this one is very close to my home, with a walking commute. It’s also a good wage, and I have a mortgage to pay. I like my boss, even if nobody is overly friendly here. I don’t know how I could find anything on this wage nearby. Plus, this is my third job that has been like this, so I have no faith jumping ship would leave me in a different spot.

Filling my day with other things is how I have spent my entire career to this point. This worked brilliantly at previous jobs, but I am very overlooked here and don’t feel it’s possible. We are all sat very close together in an open plan. I can listen to podcasts, and get through hours of them a day, but that still leaves me the issue of what to do with my hands. Yesterday I genuinely stared at a blank excel page for about an hour. It’s soul destroying.

My DH tries to help but what can he do. He gets upset with seeing how drained I am on coming home, and how miserable I am getting ready in the morning. He has been looking for jobs for me and sends me links but it doesn’t help that he has no idea what I do, what I’m qualified for- all the links he sends me are either not enough money or vastly past my knowledge grade. I work in a very niche area of planning regulation which I kind of stumbled into, and have no idea what my transferable skills are.

I feel stuck and it’s affecting my quality of life. I’ve gained two stone as I buy large quantities of food on my lunch to eat all afternoon. I know this is boredom but I can’t stop myself- I’m working on this now as I know a bad diet will be effecting my mental health too. I feel like a zombie trudging through the same routine every day, eating to give myself comfort, and it’s shameful. I’m at breaking point here and am really hoping somebody can magic up the answer. Thanks for reading this far.

I'm reading this open mouthed. I'm not saying it's good, but everyone I know is stressed with the sheer amount of work they are expected to do. So different to my experience of work.

PP saying they stay in a job because they don't to travel 30 mins to work...really?

I have the same thing, do pretty much nothing all day long. Just respond to 2-3 support calls.
Have planned holidays, kitchens, buying a house.... all on company time.
It's boring sometimes, but great as I do loads of household admin. I also am studying for a degree part-time, so use work hours for that... means I don't have to do it at home

I tell them I have nothing to. I ask for work. I come up with ideas.... nada.

So, what can you do?

Morning. I feel your pain - I've had those jobs.

As you're in planning (I thought about moving into that as I have an MSc in Housing), would it be possible for you to freelance as planning consultant or something similar? If you need additional professional qualifications to move into that in the longer term, your current employer might pay for them and you could use some of your slack time to do the studying. A couple of people on my Masters were in the same boat in council planning and housing departments.

Good luck

Sounds like your job shouldn’t exist. Actually I’m a little upset that it does. I work in the NHS where everybody is busy. Some days I don’t have time to eat anything at all - or drink water - which is just as well because I don’t have time to go to the loo. Where does the funding for your job come from and why aren’t you being paid to work in the NHS instead??

I’ve had jobs like this, and jobs where I’ve been so busy I don’t have time to go to the loo. I much prefer the latter so I really feel for you.

I would retrain. My sil was a town planner throughout her twenties; she did a law conversion in her early thirties and is now a barrister specialising in planning and construction.
I think you’d be well placed to retrain in a lot of different areas.

Oh God, I had a temp job like this, for six months, it drove me bonkers. I went through all the files in the place and organised them properly, that took all of two days, then sat with a book for the rest of the time. It was before t'internet so I didn't even have that to fall back on.

I long for your job OP. A quiet corner desk where I'm paid a salary to write my own book and study online courses. I am sick with envy.

Seriously - how do I find a job like this?

Same here OP really. I got so bored I went through all the old database files and cleaned them up.

On the plus side I spoke with my boss about it and it's now become an accepted thing that I can do what I want on the internet between things 'popping up' that I can deal with. So despite being rather overlooked in an openplan office I am allowed to write, read, create what I want so long as I'm doing it on the computer. Sadly if I was allowed to sit here and knit I'd be much happier :D (also looking for a new less soul destroying job. Solidarity)

I've been there too. It's soul destroying.

I'm now self employed, and the work never stops. Have a think...

@Idontwanttotalk I left my job at a University for the same reasons. Social life was great but the "work" was boring and very little to do like others. I stuck it out cos was getting a mortgage and needed a permanent job for a while. Then one day it struck me same as OP I came in and didn't have one email in my inbox and had literally nothing to do and had to sit there all day again browsing the internet. I left the University and people thought I was mad as I had loads of friends. I just couldn't take it anymore. I felt useless and it really made no difference if I was there or not. I was bored to tears so just got a new job. Its learning new skills, busy but I am enjoying learning new things. Time to have a serious think about where you want to go with our career OP as carrying on like this will get you down.

I work in the NHS too, in an admin role, and I am so busy. In fact I have taken a couple of days AL just now and feel a bit icky at all that I will have to get through tomorrow.

Do you work for a local authority op? if you have nothing to do, why does your job even exist? Could you look for an admin role elsewhere - NHS is a good shout, no one there is doing nothing as far as I can see.

Or do a PGCE and become a teacher - you'll NEVER be bored and will have plenty to do.

I had a few months with nothing to do at work and that was fairly soul destroying. I did all my Christmas shopping online and mumsnetted a lot. It was because my job ended and i was a few months away from maternity leave so I wasn't assigned to a new team. In hindsight I should have insisted on being assigned to a team but I was given some small projects that amounted to basically nothing. I am so much happier with real work to do now. So YANBU but you may need to leave the role in order to fix it. In the meantime how about some e-learning or e-books?

If you do work in local government, is there capacity to move into the private sector?

I would imagine there are consultancy roles for construction firms looking to minimise their regulatory risk. Could you find something like that? Consultancy work tends to be quite busy (at least when you are on site!)

I feel for you. I had a job many years ago in which I did not have enough to do and felt quite desolate; I had a word with my boss and he gave me some new responsibilities and it built up well so I was happy

You don't like your job op, why not look for something in a different field? You're young and can change direction. Being fulfilled at work is very important.

Is anybody else angry that their tax money is going towards paying people to do nothing?

I think jobs like this are common in the public service - i suggest you get out into the real world as quickly as possible as the private sector dont like employing people from the public sector as they have a completely different work ethic - as you are finding!

Can you work from home OP?

I have a lot of time where I've got nothing on but as I'm at home I can knit, draw, yoga, garden, do the washing, get dinner on etc..

One thing I would say is to watch out for deskilling.. You don't want to decide to move on only to realise you've been left behind..

OP you don't know how lucky you are. You get paid money to sit around and don't even have to work hard!
Maybe take on a low paid, menial job and do that for six months.
You'll never moan again!

Not rtft so apologies if this has been suggested, but if you want to stay within building regulation, you could try training as a chartered surveyor?

In the meantime, can you WFH one day a week?

If you like those senior jobs your BF is sending over, you could research what experience etc you need to get to that level then start looking at what you could do in your current position to start totting up those requirements?

I get what you mean though, I ended up in audit randomly having graduated 6 years ago and some days/weeks I am bored to tears. I also sit in a very exposed position and my manager doesn't like headphones so those days are a draaaaaaag.

I'm in exactly the same situation - absolutely nothing to do all day. Yet people with the exact same role sitting next to me bleat on all day about how busy they are. I've moved jobs and it's always the same. Yet I can't move fields because everyone wants industry specific experience and transferable skills don't cut it anymore. I have no suggestions, but you are not alone.

I have worked in offices and it sounds like most jobs.

The only thing I can recommend is if you have loads of time on your hands and a salary is to start your own business or you could try investing in the stock market or match betting or something else.

Could you hire yourself out as a planning consultant and keep your job until you get a big enough reputation that you don’t need to go into your day job.

Others will be along to give a few more ideas of what to do in the meantime whilst you are sat at your desk.

It isn’t true to say there’s a different work ethic in the public sector. My eight months of very well paid idleness was in the private sector. When I worked in the NHS I worked like a blue arsed fly.

I feel for you, it’s horrible. I had a job like this at the beginning of the year, lasted about 12/13 weeks. Come in to no emails in the morning, an empty in tray. Sat next to my manager so couldn’t browse online. My job was scanning and filing (they bumped it up majorly on the job description). So even when I had stuff to do, it was still boring as hell. Commute was 5 mins tho and it was next door to DD nursery so very handy.

I got out. Took a 10k a year pay cut, went part time. My role now is a brand new one, no one has did it before but it was badly needed. So I’m still in teething stages but absolutely love it so far. 30 mile each way commute, takes just under an hour with traffic. Flex time, wfh whenever I want etc so only really do the commute once a week, wfh the other 2 days mostly.

Get out of there OP.