I earn £50k and barely do any work - AIBU?

[lexjoey]

I competed my MSc in 2020, managed to get onto a very good grad scheme and landed a role where my current line manager and his "right hand" woman barely have time to share work with me. TBF I would not have accepted this scenario if it had not been for Covid, I was just grateful to have a job but honestly I do about 15 hours worth of work per week and just waste time for the rest. I will say I complete one ouptut which the team hates.

It makes me feel like a great big lump of useless space and I plan to move jobs in the near-ish future. I've witnessed my sister go from being a wet blanket to the ultimate professional which has only highlighted the fact I have reached a dead end with this corp/team.

I'm really not gloating, just curious if anyone has found themselves in this position. On the one hand, I am lucky but it's only a ST solution and I really DO want to develop and I'm just stagnating.

The 2 people above me are very possessive with their work and don't have the time to upskill me.

AIBU?

I once did, I was paid £50,000 as an Estate Manager and PA. It was a small estate so little to do on that front. I also did bits of PA work, walked their dogs, organised bits for them. Most of the day I made things up for myself or went on the internet. I suppose I was paid to be available whenever they wanted! I left and didn’t return once I’d had children, it was so boring!

Use your free time in the day to do some online courses to keep your skills up to date ( or find a new direction).
Then start looking for a new job.

I feel exactly the same. I know it's an idle brag, but I got stuck in a job for a few years, supporting 1000s of users across a couple of apps I'd built, by the end I could do the job standing on my head, and was bored silly. When they finally let me go, it was a real struggle to get up to speed elsewhere. I honestly wish I'd spent all the spare time I had writing a novel or something....

But yeah, fill your time with upskilling somehow or other, you'll go mad!!!!

Of course you will. You can say your work load didn't fill up all your time so you used this time to learn X y z skills.

Yes, but more than £50K. It was a few years ago in the civil service. Half the department seemed to be stressed and overworked and the rest were doing fuck all, drifting in at 1030 and leaving around 1500. I didn’t last long.

I’ve been in a similar situation and it was horrible - certainly only a ‘gift’ if you have no ambition or drive which isn’t me and doesn’t sound like you either.

I wouldn’t worry too much about what you will have to say in an interview- just make sure to record ALL of your achievements (however small they seem to you) as well as anecdotal stuff like how you immediately saw how you could change processes etc for the better when you first started, and so you did x y and z. You do need to leave soon though, be a there’s only so far you can stretch that given your opportunity to achieve is reducing. You can apply for jobs while staying logged onto Teams and appearing busy so I would just focus on that and get a new job asap.

Definitely look to move on @lexjoey, for your MH and your own career development.

I was in a job like this for 5 years. I only earned £30k but honestly I did nothing. My entire day’s work was done by 10am and I had literally nothing else to do. It really became noticeable during the pandemic when I started WFH, I felt like a fraud. The job was also very low skilled so I wasn’t really gaining any new skills or experience.

It made it difficult to leave - in interviews I had to lie and make my job sound much more complex than it was. If you have ‘X years experience’ on your CV most potential employers will expect a certain level of skills and competence, which you’re just not developing in this sort of job.

I completely understand how you feel. It is soul destroying and makes the prospect of getting another job feel quite daunting (it did for me, anyway).

I moved on and I’m glad I did. I’m now in a job where I’m building loads of new skills and I’m kept busy throughout the day. My MH and my confidence have improved so much. I would definitely recommend brushing up your CV, listing ALL the great things you’ve improved and achieved in this job, and get the hell out of there! 😆

I genuinely look forward to the end of the month when I have few extra outputs

I went from private sector to public sector I was actually told to slow down when I was already bored until death. Stuck it out for maternity leave. I never went back it's soul destroying

makes the prospect of getting another job feel quite daunting

100%

That's not how competency based interviews work! Its based on ' Tell us about a time you....'

@lexjoey could you use your time to do non-role related work?

I'm thinking corporate social responsibility stuff which higher ups LOVE, especially at a big firm like yours.

It would help fill the time usefully without needing to pester your line manager for more tasks.

What was your MSc in?

I think you might have a few examples of how not to do things. Can you extrapolate from there what you would have done instead.

Absolutely understand you you have got got a great position here. My advice would be to force yourself to spend some time each day at your laptop looking for your next role.

Have you already been round anyone else in the organisation asking them if they have any projects that you may be able to support. I get that this is trickier to do virtually than just to chat to someone over a coffee but it's worth a try. Run it past your boss, first, of course. If they don't say no, you are all good.

Good luck.

Oh, and do look up imposter syndrome. Pretty much everyone I know who is good has at least a touch of it. I

OP, you said you did good work at the start - you can use that in an interview. You really only need a few good examples to use at interview. Make sure you have thought about them in detail. Start looking now and keep going till you find another job. The longer you stay where you are, the harder it will be to move.

And its fine to say your current job isn't challenging you enough or that you feel you have more to contribute and that's why you want another role.

Been there, done that. Used the time to get my house ready to sell and look at new ones but my god was it brutal, tedious, soul destroying and confidence damaging. I managed 5 months then jumped to a London legal firm. Instantly massively busy with demanding work, but it was so much better than boredom whilst feeling like I needed to be present. My confidence and energy came up, I've unskilled and when it came time to log off I felt no guilt in doing so and felt genuinely off the clock whereas before it all blurred into one "never busy, always present" grey amorphous mass.

Definitely start looking around for new jobs. Attend webinars. Do training. Make sure you're preparing for the next role. You'll feel better about yourself almost immediately.

But you will miss the spare time and regret not making better use of it 😏🙄
Such is life!

Hmm, I do a similar job to you except I've worked my way up and now manage a team of data scientists (different sector). Similarly to you, I spend half of my time, making sure I still appear available on teams, another quarter moving things around on a kanban board and only really feel like I'm genuinely contributing for the remaining quarter of my time. Started out enjoying the freedom but now it's just soul destroying, deadly dull and I feel like a fraud for earning what I do for so little work.

To be honest, I'm just marking time until DS is a little older and I can go back to full time hours and apply for new roles. I'll try to stay in the same organisation but move to another area I think.

I was in a similar situation and I let it go on for far too long. It was eating away at my confidence and it was also really boring. I was so worried about looking elsewhere as how could I give examples of my achievements?
I did eventually reach a tipping point though when I had to leave, and it coincided with a great job being forwarded to me by a contact. I applied, got it, and now I do what I had trained and worked for and feel far more fulfilled too.
I struggled with imposter syndrome for a bit at first, but am over that now as I really feel like I'm contributing.
I hope you can move on to something will use your skills better. It's a horrible situation to be in, and it's difficult to talk about it as the response is so often 'lucky you!'. When it's not lucky at all, it's awful.

@CharlieAndTooManyCharacters

Thank you, you saved me a post.

What MSc did you do? And where?

MSc Data Science - LSE

Use your time to find another job ASAP. This is REALLY bad for you (another person in another circumstance maybe not; but from the tone of your post -- you definitely need to get out).

I have similar, and it's driving me nuts, and so have just handed my notice in. Previously I worked freelance and although was earning similar for similar work time but it was COMPLETELY different because if I was working I was working and earning really well; and when I wasn't working I wasn't working and didn't feel guilty about it (or was doing "non-chargeable work").

A healthy work situation is one with colleagues who value your work, to value your work yourself, and to feel that what you earn is something you "earn."

all blurred into one "never busy, always present" grey amorphous mass

Perfect description

DH is also in data. Works about 16 hours a week and earns about 70k a year.

Whilst I'm frontline NHS, 37.5 hours a week plus overtime for less than half that.

The difference is I love my job and it brings me a lot of satisfaction, even in the current climate. DH does what he does for the money and finds his job very boring. The fact he is available to do school runs, take the dc to clubs etc is also a bonus.

OP I get where you're coming from. I am on 100k and generally do about 2 hours a day of actual work. my colleagues are constantly moaning about how busy and snowed under they are. I try asking for more work but just get the odd discrete task which adds maybe an hour or two of work, rather than being allocated a consistent ongoing workstream.

I think the difference is that I'm seven years qualified and (other than the mild fear of being 'found out') really am very happy to coast at this point. I'd probably feel very different early on where I was thinking a lot more about getting to the top of my game and gaining new skills or experience, if only to have something meaningful to talk about in interviews for my next role.

I think all you can do is keep asking for more work and trying to gain more CPD/upskill yourself in your own time. No real advice but you have my sympathies!