Amazing work life balance vs no development whatsoever

[maggiethemagpie]

So, I've been doing a job for the past three years which on the face of it sounds ideal. I'm paid full time but work from home, and most weeks I'm working at around 50-60%% of capacity. It's a very reactive job, waiting for the phone to ring for internal clients to have issues that need resolving, which I then provide solutions for.

The money's good, there is occasional travel (maybe 6 times a month, sometimes overnight but usually not) and on the face of it that sounds great as i have a lot of free/unaccounted for time that I'm being paid for.

I've made my boss aware I can take on more and have asked for development but I don't think she's really bothered to be honest, I don't think her role is working at full capacity either so she seems happy for me and my colleagues to just pick up the work as it comes in and if it's quiet, that's ok..

However, whilst doing nothing half the time sounds great it does mean that I'm getting zero development, there are no projects, no opportunities for growth and my career is actually going backwards in that if I was to go back on the job market now I'd actually be in a worse position than before I took this job in terms of my skills and experience - or I'd be relying on experiences from 3-5 years ago to discuss at interview which would be difficult to remember the details of and are fading more and more as time goes by.

If it were not for the fact that the job is working from home, reasonably well paid (plus no commuting costs) and great work life balance I'd have started to look for something else by now. But I keep thinking, how can I leave when I essentially have a very easy life with this job - I can walk my son to school and there's plenty of time in the day to get on with other non work stuff if it's quiet. I can work from anywhere if I have a laptop connection, so I often go to coffee shops or shopping centres just to make the day go faster (so long as I can get to my phone or laptop if a call comes in, that's fine with the boss).

However a little voice in my head keeps saying my careers going backwards, I'm bored, I have nothing to inspire me or keep my interest, I have no development opportunities.

Should I just count my blessings, and enjoy this easy, relatively stress free job where I get to work from home and have a fab work life balance?

Or do I accept that I've outgrown the role, that I'm bored and look for something more meaty and developmental even if it means working a lot harder than i currently am/longer hours/more travel?

WWYD?

I would apply for a few jobs to test my marketability and use the information from that to seek out my own development opportunities. It sounds like you have enough time to do some personal studying and there are lots of online courses now so that's an option to keep your skills and knowledge up to date. And might be inspiring. If you find some development that is in line with your current org's needs, do you think they would pay for it?

Or just doing some learning just for you to satisfy your itch to stretch hourself. Could that be an option?

Put your feelers out and see what else is out there?

Can you use the downtime to study/do a professional qualification?

I think the only risk is that you change jobs, are working flat out with a commute, unable to take your son to school and still have no development opportunities/quickly become bored with the work. That's happened to me before.

Rest assured, if you, your boss and colleagues aren't busy, it won't be long before things change.

I take the view if a job is low pressure, with lots of down-time, it's a business model that's at threat of being cut partially or fully, sooner rather than later.

If you are reliant on your income, I'd get something sorted out as soon as possible and jump ship while you have a choice.

daisychain, I've been thinking that ever since I started and it hasn't happened yet. In most places, it would not be long before things changed but not where i work! They're not very... efficient.

Also there were a round of cuts last year and I was told my job was safe at that time. So whilst i don't have a crystal ball, I don't think based on my knowledge of my employer that I'm going to be placed at risk of redundancy in the near future. There's no one to really care about how much I am doing, so long as the customers are satisfied.

From experience, organisations often claim "no more cuts, your job is safe" after a round of cuts for obvious reasons, they want to create stability for the surviving staff, "business as usual". But you know your organisation best.

I would start looking especially if pressure at work is low, you'll have slack in the system to explore.