AIBU to look for a new job? I do nothing at work..

[Vanillalattee]

I work in HR but I seem to cover a very quiet area where not much is happening compared to my coworkers. I have days where I have nothing to do but send an email or 2 and then another week where I’m jam packed. But it is mainly very quiet!

I hate to complain as it gives me time to get stuff done at home. But I’d rather be busy and not just waiting for my day to end.

I get paid well but my weeks and days are just dragged out.

AIBU to start looking? Or am I mad? DH seems to think I should be grateful I’m not busy all the time.

Are you WFH? Can you compress your hours, or even reduce them, then have a day or half a day away from your computer to try out volunteering/freelance/studying/shadowing of various kinds until you find something that grabs you? It does sound like an enviable situation if you can work out how to use it!

As a stopgap I would definitely be brushing up or learning a useful language in the downtime. Keep your brain running, get some dopamine, and opens up many possibilities!

I think a lot of people are failing to realise how depressing/unmotivating it can be to have no work to do. It zaps your energy more than being busy.

I had it in my last job and it took such a long time to pick myself up.

Tbh, OP I would leave if only to preserve your mental health.

This is soo true. My last job I had the same issues as you, very little to do and it made me depressed, 1, because I didn't feel like I was having aj

Oops - making an impact, and 2, because I had too much time to think and I started feeling really low.

Definitely move!

If you get stuck in underemployment like this, not only do you get demotivated and depressed, but it gets more and more difficult to move on. Most recruitment uses competency based interviews now, and if you aren’t doing anything, you aren’t building up a decent set of examples you can use in them. Either get stuck in NOW, and put all your energy into increasing the scope of your role, or look for something else. Otherwise you’ll stagnate very quickly.

Why do you have to be on your computer all day? I have more quiet days and I’m trying to be quite conscious about them, so go to Pilates at lunch or get a proper dog walk in (booked out in calendar). I’m always available for work but if there is nothing to do then you’re not benefiting anyone just staring at your computer. Be organised and available for calls but if you’re having genuine downtime then actively do something in that time. Get really fit, read a book a week, do some additional training. If you’re in HR you could also support with events and engagement - especially around DEI etc!

I remember a thread a while back when posters were incredulous that some people in well-paid professional jobs only worked a few hours a week. But it absolutely can happen and is certainly not uncommon.

The non-client facing staff at my workplace can work as little as 10-15 hours a week (on a FT contract). They’re not taking the piss, that’s just the nature of the job. They’re all lovely, and most are parents juggling childcare, so I don’t begrudge them at all.

My job is very similar although a different field. Most of the time I'm sat doing nothing, and I work in the office so I can't even get up to put a wash on or hoover up for 10 minutes. I'm looking for a new job, I can't bear it.

Sounds awful! At least I can suffer in silence at home. Hope you find something new x

Absolutely. It's horrendous. I'm looking at jobs £10-£15k less just to get out of this job.

And may I respectfully ask all those who are replying with what they'd do if they were in the same position. Did you do all those things while you were on furlough?

It grinds you down. And if you're on teams with that constant green light. Double the stress!!

My DH had this in a council job. Decent pay and he only got it with a decade of industry experience but he couldn't last more than 6 months. There was literally blocks of 3/4 days with no incoming emails, absolutely nothing to do. There was no job satisfaction, no motivation to be productive. He spent the time getting his CV sorted and got a new job pronto.

I do think people get used to the pace though, his colleagues were stressed to the max but they were on similar size contracts. I remember working a shift in a private hospital and all the nurses were fraught but the ratios were excellent, no one was unwell and mostly independent patients..I was bored out of my mind.

I completely understand this and I’m starting to feel the same. It sounds like a dream until it drags and you feel useless

I'm the same. Sometimes very busy but most of the time very quiet with not much to do. It is very boring and I don't think I'm going to stay here long term. I'd like to be really busy and manageably stressed which I'm sure sounds weird to most people.

I can move though and get paid quite a bit more so it is worth it. Just waiting for youngest to go to uni and will then get a much more full on job and throw myself into it until retirement in 2030.

I think until you’ve been in this situation, it’s really difficult to understand how soul destroying it is to sit at work for days on end with nothing to do. This was me for a couple of years. It made me question my own value, I felt like a fraud in front of other colleagues, like I wasn’t doing my bit, didn’t have any right to share in success of the business etc. it’s really really tough. And it’s not that easy to just pick up a new hobby to pass the time, as you’ve said OP your workload can pick up suddenly from one week to the next, so you can’t “check out” completely.

When this was happening to me I was honestly too ashamed to admit it. Now I realise that this goes on a lot. It needs to be talked about. A good manager should have a good idea of their direct reports’ workloads and be taking action if it’s too much or too little. It sounds like there is work that you could feasibly do in the company, so I would suggest an honest conversation with your line manager. As others have said, apart from making you feel crap, you’re losing out on basic skills and potential career progression. They’re not getting the best out of you, so it’s lose-lose. Ask if you can be moved to the somewhere where there’s more work.

If you take steps to address this and nothing changes then I would 100% get out.

This. Its ok to say ' do a course! Do some training!' But interviews are all about what you have actually done in your job. If you aren't doing anything, you have nothing to sell about yourself at your next interview.

It sounds like a great deal until you're actually in it. There is nothing worse than feeling tied to a desk to deal with any emails or calls, but then having nothing to do in between.

Does your line manager know how you feel OP? I'd be tempted to have a very open and honest conversation with them and say that you're contemplating leaving.

Otherwise, is there any CPD you can do to expand your knowledge in the meantime?

I'd also be concerned that not having much to deal with will make you rusty in a new job too, so definitely a two pronged attack IMO:

1. Speak with your manager and see if they can re-jig the team/work so that you have more to do;
2. If that fails, seek something else sooner rather than later.

As a bit of a separate suggestion though - could you do some freelance work on the side? If you end up busy in your main job it would have to be done out of hours of course, but it could keep you busy and earn you a bit of extra money too.

There are so many thing you could be doing. It sounds like a dream being paid for reading/watching films/sitting in the garden (not now!)/ having a bath/getting all your housework done/cooking a nice meal. All the things that most people don’t have enough time to do. I’d be thinking about why you have no motivation to develop yourself.

A boring day in HR? Always thought that was an oxymoron!!!

If you prefer being busy then look for something else. I recently changed (HR) jobs due to a restructure and went from a front line, SLT job where I thrived in the chaos to a Divisional Project Lead role - I was literally crying with boredom and lonelinesses by week two and ready to burn my house down as I was sick of working from home.

Back in my old job now! So it totally depends, do you want to feel fulfilled or do you just want to make your money and go home?

When I had an office based job like this it drove me insane. I was ridiculously bored.

Now I wfh with the odd trip out to events or meetings, I love the fact I only actually work about 15-20 hours a week, despite being on a well above average FT salary (third sector) I have no difficulty whatsoever filling my days.

Reading books, watching TV, catching up with friends on the phone or face to face, dog walks, popping out doing chores, napping, knitting, baking, and loads more.

Do you really not enjoy doing anything other than working?

It angers me so so much that our taxes are paying people who have nothing to do.

NOT saying anything bad about your DH- not his sodding fault it’s the management.

Terrible waste of taxpayers money!!!

I know exactly how you feel OP and am jumping ship again due to boredom and nothing to do. I've come to the conclusion I'm just terribly efficient. In current role i've had 6 months of dwindling work and got bored of cooking meals cleaning the house and completing CPD. I'm depressed and feel like my career has stagnated. I'm really busy and motivated, it hurts to hear 'you're living the dream!'

I should add i've volunteered to do five other things within my company and always been told they don't want me doing that 🤷‍♀️

I would stay where I was if I were you, maybe it’s just a quiet spell, can you ask to get more training at work / up skill?

I couldn’t think of anything worse than being bored at work.

Could you ask to do one day in a different department or ask them if they have any training courses you can go on.

I would be careful going from that to a different job as you may struggle.

Your colleagues might not be busy either and they may just be making their work stretch or acting busy. In your shoes, I’ll take advantage of the quite period to learn something, it might be a course or even something fun like baking. Like I’m currently doing a speech therapy course not related to my work but just to know how to communicate with a child in my Sunday school class. .