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.

I wish this was my life! My jobs constantly busy, hectic even! Id like an hr for lunch! Make the most of it! Do training or just get on top of housework! Find that mysterious bottom of the washing basket

In the short term, so you can get away from your desk a bit, it might be worth using some kind of hack to stay green on Teams. I'm sure I've seen a kind of mouse mentioned before that moves itself every so often, or you could maybe stick something heavy on a key of your keyboard, if that would work?

It sounds like heaven having no work to do, but not if you can't fill your time with something useful like housework, reading, etc. If you can think of any other jobs you'd like, maybe start looking at YouTube videos about the roles, reading up on what's needed, and even doing a course towards it (on your own computer!). Then you could update your CV and you'll have spent some of the spare time on something very productive.

Time to write that bestseller OP😂

I think you need to think more widely about your role and how you can help the organisation run smoothly rather than just being reactive.

You say you don't have much coming in but is that because your "good bunch of people" are suffering in silence? Do they know you and find you approachable? What are their concerns/challenges? Who wants to step up? Who is under/over worked? Is there succession planning in place?

Get out into the team you are responsible for and get to know them and their work. Make your job more interesting and challenging.

In same position part time WFH . There are quite a few methods to keeping the green on teams look them up online. I’m doing stuff round the house, exercise, reading. I see part of my job as being available to deal with emergencies. However, I’m a few years from retirement so I am seeing it as a transition period. I’m considering getting a second job but I quite like my reading afternoons!

How do organisations a) justify this low level of productivity and b) justify presumably decent salaries for positions with long periods of inactivity? I'm not really sure what constitutes a decent salary but I'm seeing professional qualifications here and 'senior roles'.

If those of you who are experiencing this were office based, would your management not put more work your way? Could your organisation in reality get by with fewer employees?

This would never happen in education ‐teachers sitting 'on green' in the staffroom, crafting or learning a language while they wait to see if anyone needs them to teach a class. This is why I'm realising that, after 25 years in primary schools, never switching off and working like a beast, I'm actually a mug. I've spent my life crafting a career which has seen me top out at a salary which many MNers wouldn't get out of bed for. However, if I can get a fraction of my salary beating the system with a mouse-jiggler, I'm going to consider it.

For me, and I suspect some other posters in my position, I am underemployed in that I find I can produce the required amount of work at the required quality for my role.

I outperform many peers who work far harder than I do. When I left my previous job, they had to hire two people to replace me.

So no, I don’t feel at all guilty about my afternoon naps. I’m not interested in promotion or additional responsibilities. Life is pretty good as it is!

Beachwalker, this is so interesting. It gets me thinking about your less effective colleagues who, despite working harder, are outperformed by you, as you are clearly very efficient. Never having worked in a professional capacity in an office / wfh (albeit plenty of unskilled office work during uni), I'm trying to understand why your managers don't say "Aha, workforce, it appears that Beachwalker is setting a gold standard of productivity. From now on, we expect you all to be striving toward this, as it is clearly attainable. Atta, team!"
How are they left to dawdle on, taking longer to do the same work you complete in less time, on the company dime? In education, you just have to take home whatever you were not able to accomplish within school opening hours and carry at home until you're done. How come employers aren't expecting this of people who are already working from home?
I can't wrap my head around how a set 'working day' or ring-fenced hours actually work in practice? In teaching, it's literally never done, and teachers are contractually bound to work X hours pa + however many additional hours are required to complete necessary tasks.

That said, I'm not advocating for some kind of race to the bottom of compelled workload to match the dumb working conditions in education. It would obviously be better for teachers' wellbeing if there were contractual hours which actually did finish at some point and there was an entitlement to be 'done for the day'.

I honestly don't know how on earth my organisation can justify my wage, plus all the extras they have to pay on my pension and NI etc. It's mad, but not my fault. I'm moving on as quickly as I can. I've paid for myself until now but I won't from now on as far as I can see. I work in sales and always easily hit targets.

Ditto, I don't know how colleagues make such a meal out of things? Its been the same at nunerous companies though so just come to the conclusion i'm very efficient.

@EveSix I wouldn't dream of showing up my colleagues by obviously outperforming them. My manager has no idea I nap on the sofa/take long lunches with friends/read/knit/watch tv etc etc. Where there are big spaces in my diary, I fill these with things I have already done. So, for example, on Monday I will write a report as well as everything else I am assigned to do, but Weds afternoon is filled with "Write X report". If I were in the office I would find it far more difficult as I would either be bored or I would end up having to request additional work from either managers or by assisting colleagues with their workload (which is the option I would prefer)

I used to work as a lecturer/departmental manager in FE, and regularly worked 60 - 80 hours a week, so I totally understand what you are getting at re teaching. I burnt out (surprise surprise) and vowed never to work like that again.

@EveSix As another teacher I agree - the position lots of posters seem to be in here is totally unimaginable to me. I went part-time once I had kids, but I can’t really imagine ever teaching full-time again and having any kind of work-life balance.

I remember going into school on my day off to catch up on some stuff once and thinking, wow, this is what people in normal jobs do - I can do these tasks in any order I want, make a cup of tea when I want, go to the loo when I want, and I don’t even have to perform in front of people six times a day! And then I remembered it was my day off so I wasn’t being paid for it anyway…

+ however many additional hours are required to complete necessary tasks.

This is the whole problem with teaching, isn’t it - this is so open-ended. There is literally no limit to what you can be asked to do!

God, I’d love that much time to do as I please. I agree with whoever said start a course to fill the time, then you’re doing something worthwhile while being paid 😁

I am in a similar position (but in a different industry to you) at this point in my life/career it has worked well for me so far, but I could do my job in about 50% of the time and sometimes the days do drag. I've gotten into the habit of watching TV, texting friends or doing housework during the day. When my personal life has calmed down, I will likely leave.

I think this is actually a really big 'hidden' issue. I struggle to speak up because you get people who've never experienced it saying 'ooh I wish I had that issue' which minimises what can be a very stressful and difficult working environment for people and discourages them from speaking out, causing their mental health to suffer.