More of a 'Am I Being A Thief'...

[AIBAthief]

I've been in a job for 10 months which I am paid to work 38 hrs a week.

Using advanced excel and basic organisation I can now do the job in roughly 10 hours a week. Outcome is better than it has ever been before so results are not suffering.

Boss has been told this (evidenced), on the past 4 occasions i have told him I don't have enough work to do, i've got a vague 'yes i'll have a think and get back to you' reply. On the last occasion I spoke to him on the phone and followed with a email setting out the exact process and way of working which meant I was now only working 10 hrs a week. No reply.

So now I work 10 hours on a Monday and spend the rest of the week doing what i want to do. Have been working from home since March so no requirement to be in the office. I don't hear from boss from one month to the next.

It has occured to me I could just take on another job and work it during the rest of the week when I am supposed to be doing this job. Friend said it's basically theft. I disagree as i'm salaried not paid by the hour.

So am I being a thief? Or no?

You’ve tried to make your boss aware on numerous occasions. I would relax, clean your house, watch Netflix, do a home workout, whatever you want... I wouldn’t be begging and stressing for more work.

I had two public sector jobs in my life and realised that they are utterly useless.

They suit loads of people who enjoy pissing around doing bugger-all and pretending to be busy and very important. If you're quite efficient and actually enjoy getting stuff done then you're in the wrong role. I'd carry it on for the moment though given the state of the job-market.

(I'm not being entirely fair, as most private-sector jobs are largely involved with make-work too. I've just spent three weeks in meetings at the start of a new project. A week of onboarding followed by a protracted argument regarding minutiae. I really couldn't give a shit as I'm paid a daily rate, but I've been brought in to get this product out and I've been subject to three weeks of inconsequential nonsense. It would have been as effective to pay me for a month and I could have spent it reading a few good books and then just popped in at the end to see what they've decided, and then get on with it).