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.

What about looking into being a virtual PA? Could start off from your desk.

Feel sorry for OP because whilst many posters have made caring suggestions, this is actually quite a tricky thing to change.

One of my daughters was a regional planner. She was bored, now she is a teacher, she’s not bored.

I tried to RTFT, not sure if this was already suggested, but could you explore pro bono/charity activities for your company, and run a programme along those lines, or join and develop what they're already doing?

There are so many good causes out there just begging for support from businesses, who likewise are looking for ways to look charitable and improve their CSR. What's often missing is a champion within the company to liaise with the charity, rally support, organise company charity days etc, because nobody has the time.

I had a quiet period at work a while ago and it was shit!

To start with it was amazing. I did personal admin, left on time, went to the gym st lunch. Caught up on general internet crap.

Then it got extremely wearing - why am I not busy, why are there no projects to do, am I useless, what’s the point of even coming in?! It was very hard to motivate myself out of the lethargy.

Anyway luckily the quiet patch ended but I think it would be horrible to be in a job like that long term.

I came out of uni into a job like this. I managed a few months before i started to break down, i need to be busy. I totally changed career path.

Sorry if someone else has suggested this already but what happened to the book you wrote? Did you try to get an agent for it? Have you considered selling it? Or did it kill off any desire to write at all?

Would your qualifications and skill set be transferable to some sort of liability claims handling? With your law degree you might be able to work as a solicitor or at an insurer/tpa. Or given your attention to detail something like underwriting? I appreciate it might not be feasible if the starter wage would be a big drop.

I’d look at joining a planning consultancy at JLL, CBRE, Savills etc. By nature they are slightly understaffed and you will definitely work hard and learn a lot! They will also help you become RICS qualified if you want.

I had a job in the public sector (after many years in the private sector) whilst working part time towards my degree (mature student), it was awful. I didn't have a computer for 2 months and had to wait until the other person who worked part time went home! I have never felt more demotivated or worthless it was a horrible time...and I made way too many brews!
The upside being when I did eventually get a computer I spent most of my time doing my dissertation! So my first class degree was down to them & their complete lack of organisation and management. I left after 18months (to work for myself).
I feel your pain OP i dreaded Sunday nights. Please, please look for something else it's really not worth it for your MH.

HoppyHop the OP works in the private sector, as has been pointed out numerous times on the thread.
I used to work in the public sector and I worked very hard. As other public sector posters have said there sometimes wasn't even time to go to the loo all day.

OP I could have written your post. In fact, I did have a post on here a month or so back asking for suggestions of things I could do at work because I was so utterly bored.

I left teaching to start a job in the third sector. It was incredibly competitive, over 60 applicants for the position, all my teacher pals very jealous that I was ‘escaping’... off I waltzed and within a few weeks I was bored out of my mind. I did all the induction, got myself all set up with the IT, made and drank endless cups of tea. I too am finding that some people are very good at shouting about how busy they are but having come from a job where I didn’t have enough time to pee, I get the work done and am twiddling my thumbs. I also find that they don’t want to share workload or expertise because it will expose them and also it gives them security, if they are the only people who know certain things then they can’t be let go.

YY to work creation, I am now going down the road of making my own work. And as hard and stressful as teaching is, I do miss it. Because at least there I felt capable and respected, I was master of my classes, i was needed. The tiny consolation of my current job is that at least the end goal is that some people get helped by it. But it’s a charity spending unbelievable amounts of money to employ people who help very few. Something is definitely wrong with the balance of a lot of jobs and workload.
Ultimately it is soul destroying to feel useless in your work, I totally understand.

OP take comfort in knowledge that you are not the only one. I too had a job like that..Private fts100 company. It was hard as over time it erodes your confidence..you start to doubt your capabilities. For me it was also the "higher" and better payed I got the worse it got..
Everyone around me complained how busy they are..I complained too-felt I should and not to be found out- while spending whole days on my phone..
Had high scores at annual appraisals too..

When I got stuff to do I took weeks even though I could have had it done in two days. I was considered efficient:/.

I'm now moving on and really hoping new job is different and that I will rediscover that I actually can and enjoy delivering high quality work.

Can you afford the fees to do a meaty qualification eg masters, postgraduate diploma, mba, to either get a substantial promotion or a new direction? A serious career changing course will be more satisfying than futurelearn etc and many can be done remotely, so you could wfh and focus on studying (or agree with your manager that you study in office if vaguely relevant). Take annual leave for occasionall contact days.

If the fees are at all affordable, this is what I would do. If a qualification would genuinely get you into a good new career/ promotion, I would take out a loan for it - the main cost of postgraduate studies is the unpaid time off work rather than the fees, so if you can study on work time that would be a bargain.

Also op if you are planning to have kids in the near future? Our career aspirations really changed after having kids. A job where you can wfh, wfh and not do much if child too unwell for school, and potentially work part time would be a dream. Previously I loved busy roles.

Hello, I don't think I can help you with your problem but I would like to comfort you and say that I have the same problem. Nothing to do all day long and it's now about 5 years that is like that for me. I think you should be patient and enjoy other stuff in life that are not related to work. Look at the job as something you have to do to get money for other stuff. Even sitting on chair for hours is tipe of work right? I'm also sometimes very zombie-like but try to hold on. Bye!

I feel your pain. I have spent a lot of time doing not much over the years and I always felt shattered by the time I got home, far more so than after a busy day. It's not good for the mind or the soul.

A few years ago, I had a job like this. It was a promotion and the role was completely new. However, it turned out that the practicalities of the role had not been thought out and the demands for the service had been grossly over-estimated.

I could not continue working in the job, especially because colleagues seemed to have so much to do. I used the role as a platform to move to another company.

My OH has this. It's making him depressed. They just have nothing to give him but need him there for when it goes wrong.

Zombie thread, people. Though it would be interesting to know if things have improved for OP since June.

this thread is 6m old the op has gone

This thread is from June last year so with a bit of luck the OP has a new job now.

Be nice to have an update.

Not your fault op but this thread makes me so cross. I work for the nhs and literally don’t stop for a minute. The bosses seem to think we are machines and continually try to squeeze more work out of us in time that doesn’t exist. I go home exhausted every day. While in other public sectors there are jobs for the sake of jobs and people with nothing to do. Think the government needs funnel the money from local authorities and give it to the nhs! Problems solved.

While in other public sectors there are jobs for the sake of jobs and people with nothing to do

The OP is in the private sector.