Doing very little for this salary? Panic

[Greenwip]

I’m earning close to 70k. I do have times where I am worked to the bone and very stressed (maybe 7 days since start of the year so averaging one day a month). The rest of the time I work 90% of the time from home and have naps, a bath, food shop etc in between a few emails and remote meetings. It sounds great and sometimes it is but I am constantly worried about job security. I wonder if this is more common than I think?

What people fail to realise is that people who are employed in specialised roles, especially stem roles, cannot simply be deployed into other areas of the business in slower times. They are crucial for the delivery of business goals yet they are not generalised workers in any way. My job is very cyclical. Some of the people screaming at how unfair it is wouldn't be willing to do calls at 2am or run an audit from holiday because it's a surprise inspection. We get paid for expertise and experience not to be toiling away stacking boxes. We also cannot realistically 'help out' in other departments. Production can't be helped by scientists. Quality folks are suddenly going to magic into R&D folks. It's simply not how it works. The writers and marketing are waiting to be handed data and they can't do anything except minimal prep until they have it. You have to build in for cyclical cycles in lots of industries. Product life cycles in mid to small companies often dictate the work. I work very internationally and it's no different anywhere else. It's all about delivering business goals on time. We moved away from an hourly clock in clock out type model a looong time ago in middle and upper management in lots of STEM based industries.

Everyone I know who works for a public service seems to work bloody hard for poor compensation.
I work for a private company.

There are areas of my global company where I know the staff say they are overworked or need more staff/support but there’s fuck all I can do about that.
It’s not like I can pop over to their part of the business and start answering phones or doing paperwork. It’s be like asking an electrician to go and build a shed or landscape a garden. Totally different experience and skills needed.
They don’t need me using my spare time to interfere, they need more admin staff or a second line manager to make decisions.

Totally agree. I’m from STEM and also in QA for immunooncology. Today I worked 3 hours, had 2 hrs driving lesson, went outside to sit in the rain, did a post office run, seen fellow colleague in a supermarket, played with the neighbours cat outside and logged out of work by 4:30pm. Yesterday I worked 1hr, solely focusing on emails and documents. A week ago, I was swamped with audit proposals from external consultants, meetings and docs again.

Salary does not equal work. Salary is paid for level of accountability, risk and specialist knowledge in the sector. I didn’t get two MSc and a BSc to work hard for life, I got those to be paid what my knowledge is worth.

If you are happy not learning/developing yourself, whilst going stale doing nothing,
then it’s all good.

Thats what I would be more concerned about.

Especially if it get found out how little you are doing.

Perhaps use some of the time to invest in your self/career so that if you do need to get a new job eventually you are on par with other candidates also going for the same job.

Some companies are just like this though. I once had a job in a pharma consultancy where there was no client work coming in for 3 months, I did a TEFL course in work time (no WFH then). Then I worked at a travel company during covid, our job basically disappeared and again not much to do for best part of a year - I was depressed, unproductive and manager never noticed.
Some of my other friends do very little as they are the only data analysts in the village. My friend who was “lead analyst” basically played PS5 most of the day as no-one else knew what he did or how long analysis takes to do - people are easily wowed by an analysis that you can knock up in 3 hours, they think it must have taken a week. I would never get away with it in my job now as all my team are super fast and have the same skills, my manager is on the ball and we have near daily standups! But other companies do not.

There is a productivity problem though, if you want to it is VERY easy to do nothing in many corporate jobs. I got depressed and miserable doing that, nowadays I ask for more work and did really well in my annual review as I get much more fulfilment out of being busy. But before I could easily do 1h a day and pretend I was busy.

People earn a lot more for a lot less, just make sure you are staying sharp and ahead of the market should you lose the post.

What risk though? I would be interested to know what would happen if you fucked up at work. How much business would be lost and for how long.
I guess you would lose your job which is no different to a shelf stacker. Would you be penalised in other ways?

I think of people like Philip Schofield who fuck up big time but someone else replaces the irreplaceable.

Am I the only one who finds this post shocking? I worked in education {not teaching for the most part) in a middle management role. Worked very long hours at certain times of the year and the rest, average of 8 hours per day. Very tight deadlines as students had to sit exams and have a working timetable. It was quite a niche role. I am now retired but constantly see many MN slating my generation off as we, apparently had things so much easier than the current generation of workers. Well, from the sounds of it, we didn't because we did actually do the work we were paid to do. I am not surprised that the country is in the state it is in as it seems it is totally acceptable to do school runs, baths etc whilst being paid to work. Since Covid, it has become increasing more difficult to contact companies if you have an issue - presumably because they are all in the bath!

I think it has become quite common. I work very hard under a lot of pressure about two weeks every three months. The rest of the time very little is expected of me. You need a lot of experience to do my job but I'm not kidding myself that it should be this way. Everyone in my team is the same. I don't agree with it but I'm close to retirement - otherwise I'd find something else.

I’m on £70k and chronically stressed and overworked - also a corporate role! You need to tell us what you do so I can move to your sector 😂. Nothing identifying but HR / finance / IT / management consulting in a tech company / civil service etc. I don’t feel like I’m doing anything worthwhile with my life being so busy so don’t worry about wasting it. Just try to use the time productively - write a novel or something!

I have to ask, what do you talk about in 121s with your manager (assuming you have them)? Surely there is nothing to say!

God, I wish this was me. I'm self employed and make about £45k and work SO hard for it.

Don't feel guilty. You're being paid for your skill set.

Also nurses, nannies, childminders etc can be on shit wages and have responsibility for lives. I mean they need to be pretty accountable.

Very true

Why are you attacking the OP instead of their employer?

I earn a fraction of that, I work nights and slog my guts out. I have two degrees, one of which is the entry requirement for my job. I work in the NHS…. And people complain we are overpaid! (I’m not a Jnr Dr/Dr/Nurse… I’m a non-clinical professional though)

Don't worry I'm the same. 20 years in my industry including a very senior (but relatively poorly paid) role just before I had children so in my mid 30s. Now self employed and busting a gut all hours to make £45k. I often wonder where I would be now if I'd picked something else entirely. There are a few things I could have been good at, but now I feel like I've been so shaped/socialised by my industry that my face doesn't fit anywhere else

There were plenty of mishaps in my job and never been made redundant. Risk can be any: managerial, technical, business, corporate, legal risks. I deal with these daily. Simple review of NDA /MSA is a risk you’re being paid for. Because it can result in a lawsuit against a company in which case they’ll have to splash out on attorney fees internationally.

Degree pays. The more degrees, the larger pay. It’s irreplaceable skill sets. My company was looking for me for 8 months before they recruited me.

Because OP and others posters should have some morals Yes, the employer should be monitoring this but the employee also has a responsibility to their employer by being honest about their workload.

I was in the same position as the OP, same industry for 30 years before taking early retirement. The firs 10 years is getting yourself established and that takes long hours, working evenings and being available during holidays, it all paid off in the last 20 years of my career.

i could do my job efficiently in a day that would have taken me weeks if not months when I was getting established.

@WhatShallIdo11 And risk redundancy in a cost of living crisis? Nice idea! Sure the OP should discuss stretch goals and skills with their employer, and might even get bored enough to go out and look for another job, but ultimately if a company is willing to pay that person that salary to fulfil a certain role and they are already more than exceeding it then why is it anyone else's business how their hours in the day are deployed to meet the job's expectations?

Word. Public sector here and I was up at 4.30am, like four of my mornings a week. I worked on the two trains to my job, taking around ten mins in total off my laptop as I climbed stairs etc. I’m just eating my breakfast now, on the first of my two trains back, where I’m making myself take twenty mins out to read a mumsnet thread as a break while I eat. I haven’t had a lunch break and I know there’s at least another 90 mins of working left in my day before I can clock off. I’ll get home at half nine, wash my breakfast box out, get clothes ready for the morning and go to bed.

This is a somewhat more hectic week, given the change in government, but it’s usually 3-4 days in the office a week, 4.30am wake up, 8pm get home, in bed by 9pm to try and sleep enough for the next day and working flat out in between. Wfh days are even worse as I don’t get the natural break of walking to and from the train station on either end (though I was transcribing bulletin headlines on the hoof today, so even that’s getting filled up now 🤣)

I’ve been public sector, both local and national, for over a decade and never smelt a whiff of a Bisto choo-choo @RavenhairedRachel Also get paid around 60k for this, and I think I worked out once that my hourly rate as a barmaid (inc tips) was roughly comparable…but no-one puts a drink behind the bar for me anymore 😂.

The number of people who’s heard that their friend’s mate’s mum’s ex-boyfriend’s uncle used to work for the local council and they never had to do any work - used to bugger off at midday on a Friday for the weekend and no-one could ever fire them, either…makes me chuckle (until I see how burned out all the teams are).

@NotAlexa I work in a very closely aligned industry to yours. We had our 13485 audit last week. The director of quality ran the front room/back room for 3 days coordinating staff in 8 timezones some of which had to be up and ready at 2am. No one gives a fig what she does when it's slow. She will now work through the NCs with the various departments over the next few months. Many baths will be had! No one gives a toss.

How do I get this job please?

WHERE do you guys work? And (most importantly) are you hiring?