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 was in a very similar situation a few years ago - although more like 40k. Sounds great and it was at first but after a couple of year I got very bored and whilst it may suit some, for me I need a sense of purpose at work and to feel like I am actually doing something. I had zero progression and was becoming actually de-skilled but it was hard to leave a job like that especially when my kids were small. I did eventually leave and sometimes miss it but then I think back to that sense of ennui and uselessness and I realise that it really wasn't great. Not for me anyway as I like to be busy, i'm now in a much busier job and progressed my career and I don't feel like a waste of space every day.

In my situation, it reflects badly on my boss, that this new project has not materialised yet. He should be driving it.

Sounds great to me! Why can’t you use the time to read and learn more about your subject, or even other subjects? Does your value as a person come only from work?

I had an experience like this once and it is absolutely soul destroying I concur. Its the feeling that you are somehow a fraud and that you're going to be found out. Plus the brain atrophy.

I had a situation like this a few years ago when, due to internal turmoil and an impending set of redudancies, I literally had about four hours' work a week and was being paid comfortably over £50k. I had a small child so in some ways that served me quite well at the time because I was able to bunk off a lot but the fear of being found out was horrendous.

I do think you should be trying to find something else. If nothing else because your organisation is clearly not well managed.

Where do you work?! There's a very exhausted but highly numerate nurse with over 25 years' experience in this household (not me) who's never earned within £10K of that salary who's seriously thinking about retraining as some kind of data/records manager, I'd love to be able to point her in the right direction!

I came close to your situation (without the salary) as a temp in my twenties (early 1990s recession). To help make me more employable and get through the days when I'd finished my work for the shift, I filled my time by learning as much as I could in every company i was sent to about various IT packages. It all helped tremendously once I did get into a permanent job.

These days I'd probably do something similar but from an elearning perspective, or get involved with in-company policy groups, or join the local union branch, if I felt I wanted to contribute to the life of the organisation as a whole and not, you know, write my world-changing novel or something. ;)

Back in the days when graduate training schemes were structured, I think things were a little different, but now we pretty much all have to make it up as we go along. If you're in the (modern) public sector, I wouldn't worry about being bored for too long - I'm sure there'll be another restructure/reshuffle/rearrangement of the deckchairs on the Titanic along any day now...

This sounds utterly shit. Don’t let this situation continue. It won’t change given the comment about how colleagues don’t want to share their work, whereas your qualifications and success at getting on the scheme show you’re more than capable of doing well in a different environment.

It’s all very well for some posters to say how good it is to coast and have time for your hobbies, but not so soon after completing a masters and getting onto a good grad scheme. You don’t do these things in the first place if you want to coast in your 20s.

If the op doesn’t resolve this soon, how is she ever meant to move up a gear? Much longer, and the next employer will be expecting someone with solid experience, which the op won’t have, making her more useless and sap her confidence further. I’m sure we’ve all worked with people who have great experience and skills on paper but turn out to be lacking basic knowledge and skill in their job. You can certainly make a whole career out of coasting, but personally I’d hate to be the person everyone thinks is crap at their work and a bit of a joke.

What MSc did you do? And where?
MSc Data Science - LSE

Could you go back to uni and do PhD? One of my DD's is a post doctoral Data Scientist. She did supervised projects through the PhD and then supervised others for 3 years beyond. She is just now leaving to move out of academia.

I have been in a similar situation for my whole career - nearly 15 years. I have stuck with it because it's flexible and gives me loads of time to pursue hobbies outside of work, and now I have DC it fits around them.

I do hate my job though. It has definitely made me feel useless and like I'm afraid of being found out, even though I TELL people I have nothing to do and don't hide it!

I've found it worth it in exchange for my lifestyle but not by a huge margin. I'd get out before you get too settled!

Same here OP. £55k salary and enough work to fill max 3 hours a day.
Husband on 6 figures working at below 50% capacity. I don’t think the standard 40-hour week applies nowadays, with modern tech we are able to get the same job done in half the time.

The year I had too little to do was the worst of my career and like the OP I developed anxiety.

Primatrying - are you a data scientist too?

Some people have very low capacity/expectations of themselves, which they project onto their reports. Does your boss also complete one or two small tasks a day, while considering his or herself to be working at capacity?

I worked for someone like this - we were a pretty big team, with nowhere near enough work (imo) to go around. The boss wanted bums on seats, and was not keen on interaction with other departments, so training/getting experience that way was limited. She had very low expectations of us as a department. I was getting 35k to type documents incredibly slowly and try not to fall asleep at my desk. It was crushing and set me back professionally and personally. I left after six months.

I don't think people are saying just stay and coast most comments say well if your new in your career and young then its best to move, if you've done 10/20 yrs or have kids might be okay for a little to not be stressed out etc. for a little while but eventually people will move. So it depends

Because there is no incentive for them to make sure you have enough to do. No-one above them notices they are shit at managing, and the work they are responsible for showing their manager is still getting done. Plus they get the status that comes from the volume of staff they have.

And they are selfish fucks who don't stop to think or care about the impact on you.

This is terrible advice. If you let this continue for years you will be deskilled and trapped and your only hope of getting a job will be if you go for a massive demotion.

googles data science roles near me

Oh to be good at IT 😩

ilyx · Today 15:51
googles data science roles near me
Oh to be good at IT 😩

😂Data Science is not IT.

I don't think it's helpful for people to be saying that the OP should be grateful, people are worse off etc etc. I agree that there should be an element of 'reading the room' but it's not that the OP is moaning about their salary being too low - I agree that posts complaining that their six figure salaries aren't enough are annoying in the current climate. The OP is anxious to the point of being on meds and is concerned at not gaining the experience they need. These are perfectly valid worries.

I completely agree with this. I’ve been in this position too (albeit much less well paid) and was really unhappy compared to when I moved on to something which actually challenged me and developed my skills.

My first job was exactly like that. I even had an office to myself where I used to take naps. I lasted ten months because I found it soul destroying.

The upside is that you have plenty of time to look for a new job and prepare well!

I earn almost double what you do and maybe work 25 hours a week. I don’t feel bad. I do an excellent job, I am just very efficient. I WFH so use the time to keep the house running, go for a run, do some sewing/knitting etc. my work place is very flexible though so no one expects me to be sitting in front of my computer at set times.

why do you think my manager lets me get away with it? Always wondered this

Well they're probably swinging the lead too?

I agree with the poster suggesting NHS nursing job. Half the money for twice the work & you definitely wouldn't be bored.

When I worked for a firm that was for sale so with a similar scenario, I spent the time I wasn’t working doing an additional qualification to keep my brain alive and improve my CV. Can you do similar?

Have you seen that some people have taken 2 jobs whilst working from home?

overemployed.com/12-rules-for-working-remote-wfh/

Just saying OP...

@lexjoey

Your boss probably just wants an easy life, and is selfish. And it's empire building, why say you have a team of five when you can have a team of six?

Sound like you should move on asap. Can you do any training on the side whilst looking?

Or Industry events? See if there is a relevant Standards agency and if they have working groups.

This was exactly me last year, £50k doing fuck all because no one would share work, terrified I’d be found out even though I’d done nothing wrong. I now earn more doing a similar role on paper but one where I actually have work and I love it, I feel motivated and valued. Get out of there, it will sap every ounce of confidence you have.