Feeling guilty for having little/nothing to do

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I mainly work from home. I get my tasks done quickly and I have never been behind on a deadline. I always get great reviews on performance.

And yet I feel so bloody guilty because I have some days when I have very little to do for hours. I try and find things I can be doing, but sometimes there is just nothing, I end up checking the same things repeatedly. This is especially bad at the moment as we're in the quiet summer holiday period, so many people are on holidays.

Yes there are some busy days, but busy days aren't the norm.

I don't want to tell my manager I have little/nothing to do, as that may make my role a target for redundancy. I have taken on some work outside my remit already and even then I have a lot of free time.

Is this common or am I right to panic a bit!

I honestly could've written your post, so I'm watching with interest!

Just get a hobby or look for a busier job. How will your manager know if you aren't doing work in your hours if you get everything done?

Your post made me smile, I think you must be a very diligent person. It may be that you actually have a decent amount of work but are just exceptionally disciplined and efficient?
I wish I had your problem, I’m the Queen of Procrastination and then a Deadline Devil.

Just enjoy!

And please let us know what job is this so I can apply too.🤣
I do 12hours shift with 1 hour unpaid break.

Some people are just incredibly efficient. Enjoy it.

Life is too short to look a gift horse in the mouth. You're only here once, lean into the fact you've lucked out and use your free time for whatever you fancy.

I used to work in a job where everyone on the team was allocated the same amount, but I'd put in place systems to get through mine pretty efficently so my 40 hours a week usually took about 15, I'm not sure it took anyone more than 30-35 though. I asked my manager for a heavier case load a few times and I was told no, if they did that then the others in the team might be moved onto performance management by the higher ups or they'd look to reduce the team size (valid, we didn't need that size team for the workload). I was advised just to keep myself busy reading professional articles etc. So I read every single one published in our field by late Tuesday once I'd done my tasks for the week and still had about 20 hours to kill. I hung in there for nearly a decade before I was selected for redundancy (it was even said in my exit interview by bosses boss that I often looked like I was loitering about and not doing anything so clearly my attempts to look busy had failed) even though I'd hit and exceeded every single target. In that time I'd written and self published 3 books and started an online side business, so actually being made redundant didn't bother me too much as I had some good second streams of income already set up. It was a blessing in disguise really as now I work fully at my own pace on my own business and am a lot more fulfilled.