To do almost nothing at work

[TooInvested]

I finished uni a couple of years ago and am going back in September to do a further course relevant to the industry I want to work in. I have done an admin temp job for a year and a bit and just started a new one. In both, but especially the one I’ve just started, there seems to be almost nothing for me to do-the first role was office based so I helped other colleagues and managed to find just about enough stuff to do to fill the time, but I did spend quite a lot of time pretending to look busy. I told my boss regularly I could do with more work and he would give me a task that would take maybe 30 mins. I didn’t want to mention I wasn’t busy too much though so I didn’t lose the job. When I started wfh due to covid I did less and less and spent a lot of time watching tv with my laptop.
The job I’ve just started is a mix of office and home work and I honestly don’t know why they’ve hired me. I was in the office for the last 2 weeks and was fairly busy but I’m fairly sure I completed the task they hired me to do which was supposed to take at least 3 months. It seems my job now is just to email 3 people occasionally to remind them to do part of their job/fill in some forms that I can’t fill in. I’ve been working from home this week and have done embarrassingly little-but there seems to be almost nothing for me to do. I’ve messaged my manager and another colleague saying “I’m doing this at the moment and nearly done is there anything else you’d like me to do” and they either haven’t replied or have told me to do something that they must know takes about 10 mins. I have to go into the office for the rest of the week and I have no clue what I’ll do-I’m saving a small task I could do today so I can do it there slowly and look busy. I’m sat in my garden in the lovely sun now and feel quite guilty-but also isn’t it my manager’s responsibility to give me work to do (especially if I specifically ask for more work) and to check I’m being productive? I’m not interested in this industry and I doubt I’ll need a reference from them and am leaving in August-I wouldn’t mind that much if the contract was cut short as I’m just here for some extra money. So is it unreasonable to avoid mentioning to them how little I have to do and coast along till August? I would actually prefer to be busier but I’m worried if I keep pointing out that there’s not much to do they’ll just get rid of me.
Since I’ve found both temp office jobs I’ve done to have a very light workload-I was wondering-is it normal for office juniors/admin people to have very little to do and is there actually tons of people in offices everywhere all pretending to be busy? (Genuine question and no offence meant to any people who do work in admin and have busy roles). At my last company, there seemed to be far too many admin people all not doing a great deal.

I am now retired but during my working life I have seen how the introduction of computers has altered the content and activity level of many admin jobs, Companies and organisations could not just shed huge amounts of staff so levels of staff have gone down gradually through re-structuring etc, but just think about the number of organisations that no longer exist.
Just be glad that you still have a job, if you were full out busy for 7/8 solid hours without a breather you would have something to complain about.
The busiest admin jobs I have ever had have always involved dealing with the public, pehaps you should consider something along these lines in the future.

I am in a job like that at the moment and have been for 18 months.

I work for a highly strung micro manager who takes on the work of the whole team and refuses to delegate.

I asked to move internally to another team six months ago and was told by my manager that I wasn't allowed to move as our team was so busy.

I do about four hours work a week on a "busy" week. The rest of the time I potter about at home, take long lunches, finish early. The way I see it is that I am ready and willing to work, my manager just refuses to give me anything to do.

I had an office based job like that when I was doing my Ph.d. I used to take my students' essays in and mark them in the gaps between customers. I put them in a folder and if anyone came past it just looked as though I was reading the company literature!

In my first university appointment (research fellow) we only had to go into the office 2 days a week. There was also not enough to do so I ran my Ebay shop from work. Everyone else did their shopping, booked holidays, or played online games. People took two hour lunches and endless coffee breaks. No one seemed to mind so long as the work we were given was done on time and to the required standard.

I used to say I was "going to the library" and as you were not allowed to have phones on in there I used to just go shopping or go home. The job lasted 2 years.

To be honest I never felt guilty or bothered by it. That was the culture.

It’s ridiculous that jobs like this exist, but they do. I had one once where I had about 2 hours work a day, and 5 hours trying to look busy. I kept asking for more work, but never got it.

It's good to have a job where I’m busy all day now. It does mean I can no longer use work time to organise my life, pay bills, write my shopping list etc though!

I couldn't do something so mind numbing. Have you started looking for other jobs? I'd be concerned about job security if there is no tasks for you to do. You mention it's a 3 month temp, how long is left?

I had a job like this. I worked a few hours each day and then sat around trying to look busy. I asked for more work and didn't get any and when another team wanted me to work with them (which I wanted to do as it would have given me experience in a different role) my boss wouldn't let me! I was called into the office one day and I was certain they were going to make me redundant and I was given a pay rise!!

This was a role for which I had passed professional exams and was well qualified. I left in the end as I was so bored and getting little experience, but if I had been at a different point in my life I would've stayed forever! .

I had a job like that for abut 3 years. I hated it but I lived abroad where I didn't speak the language so this was one of the very few jobs I could get and I had bills to pay. I wrote a book (not a very good one), whilst working. It kept me entertained.

Don't worry, just enjoy it. Is there any way you could explain the situation to your department at uni, and ask for a reading list, stuff to get knowledgeable on, before you start the course?

Perhaps the role you are doing is much busier in normal times, and they don't want to lose the role, then have to justify it being reinstated when things get back to normal.

My job was like this from August last year until April this year. People think it would be great but it did make me feel really worthless and depressed.

My first three jobs were like this! It's only now in my fourth that I'm actually busy. It was soul destroying at times, knowing I was commuting on busy London public transport for an hour, to sit at a desk and do nothing. I came to see 'being available in case work came up' was in itself part of my role...

I'm not sure I'd mind it too much now that I'm working from home, I'd just sit in the garden and keep an eye on my phone for any emails. I do feel your pain though, it does mess with your sense of self a bit.

The relative busyness I have now is sometimes stressful but it's good to feel like you're getting things done.

I wouldn’t worry too much, I’ve done a job like this. I was a PA to a very wealthy couple. I didn’t always have stuff to do, I just needed to be available to them if they needed something doing. On my part I was paid £25 an hour to surf the internet 75% of the time, I didn’t complain once 😂

In my first job, I read an entire public enquiry (years of oral evidence) because my micromanaging boss wouldn’t give me enough to do. Now I manage people and if they don’t have enough to do I encourage training, shorter hours temporarily, helping out another team (I help with finding opportunities), corporate stuff like helping with interviews, organising the filing system etc

YANBU to do nothing but YABU to complain about being bored if you're still working from home. Time to write that novel! or watch TV lol.

My friend is in the same situation, she's started selling stuff on ebay just to pass the time.

I’ve managed to land myself such a job - it’s bliss! Don’t complain - you are being paid and there is plenty of other stuff you can do. Pp have suggested training / tv / propping for your next bout of education etc. The company would soon get rid of you if they wanted.

I would like a job like this. Perimenopause is causing my brain to be unfocused over long periods so I would like something where I can just focus in short bursts and don’t have much to remember (or time to write it down if I do!).

I can see how jobs might end up like this if a long term employee’s workload gets less and less but the employer doesn’t want to make them redundant, but to hire a temp and give them nothing to do? That’s insane. It would not get budget in my organisation.

Not your problem though OP, you have done everything right. Enjoy it.

If it ends in August anyway I wouldn't worry too much OP.

My first graduate job was like this. I would say considering you're leaving in a few months anyway, just enjoy it! Wfh as much as you can possibly get away with as then you can relax in the hours you're not needed, whereas in the office you'll have to pretend to look busy for your whole shift. And try not to feel guilty - easier said than done, but you've asked for more work, you've done your bit. Sit in the garden, read a book, go for a walk, and enjoy it!

If it was longer term I would suggest finding a new one as sitting in an office for 8 hours a day with only 1-2 hours work is soul destroying. I did it for 3 years in my first job and it's given me a resentful attitude towards work that I'm still struggling to shake off 5 years later.

My job can be a bit like this. Feast or famine.

I never worry about having too little to do. I'd rather take it easy than do pointless 'busywork' just to keep up appearances.

As others have said, I'm being paid (handsomely) to keep myself available for 7 hours a day. If they don't want to take advantage of that - it's their loss. The work I do in the busy times means that they'll keep me on in the quiet ones.

I'm the same and it truly stresses me out. I feel like I'm getting slow and when I do have work I struggle (imagine 2 very busy weeks and 4 weeks of nothing) also feel like I'm gonna get in trouble.
Even working from home I can't relax and just watch telly or anything because I feel like I should be working.

Funny thing is we are chronically understaffed.

I'll just leave this here...

www.thelocal.de/20120411/41879/

Public sector used to be like that years ago but its increasingly hard what with lots of cuts and fewer people, lots of redundancies. Maybe private sector is more likely to have this..

Could you ask for some training instead? It might come in useful for you in the future, or for personal use? Maybe Fire Safety or First Aid or similar?

Some organisations have shit management I have had THREE (permanent) roles in the a large public sector organisation where I had very little to do. It was really demoralising.

I was involved in a disciplinary of a manager. His whole team had pretty much nothing to do for two years as their work was taken over by another agency. His manager knew this, everyone knew this, but they were left to sit there. He was on disciplinary for watching films on his computer all day but no case was found against him (I had a lot to do with that!) as he literally had nothing to do and it wasn't the sort of role where he could create work or anythign useful to do. HIS manager should have been sacked though, but wasn't..

Some managers like to gather staff as an ego stroke and aren't really interested in whether they have work to do.