Work has made me sick - help!

[libbylove]

Hi - first post! For 18 months since I went back to work after a secondment I've had nothing to do. Maybe half an hour of work a day. It's soul destroying. I escalated it multiple times to different senior managers over those 18 months and nothing has happened.

I can't seem to get another job, inside or outside my company, no matter what I do - unless I take a pay cut, which I can't do as DH had to take a cut last year and we're already running at a loss. I get asked what my "family situation" is etc and while I know that's illegal, I'm mostly applying for jobs at small companies and it's my word against my interviewer's.

So, this week it finally got to me, mentally, and my doctor signed me off for over a month. But I'm already thinking about what I'll do when I go back. My self esteem has taken a real bashing over all this, to the extent that is stopping me from even applying for new jobs. I feel like I used to be a really valued and ambitious employee but done I had my toddler three years ago they just don't want me any more. If they did, they'd give me work to do right? And every time an interviewer says "but what have you done RECENTLY?" I don't know what to say.

I suppose I just want someone to tell me what to do. What do I do during my sick leave, and what do I do overall?

I hope you like the new job

I have to be frank, I've dreamed of jobs like this. Is it just sheer randomness to get one? Are they replacing you?

Honestly Lighthouse the novelty of a job where you genuinely do nothing all day wears off really quickly. As the OP, and myself have found, it eats away at your confidence and self worth. It leaves a huge hole on your CV too which can really hinder career progression and getting another job. I worked with plenty of people who'd been stuck for twenty years because even though they had a job, and got paid, they had no skills or experience.

Civil service advertise jobs like this all the time. Particularly in the MOD. If that's what you're after. But I mean it kindly when I say be really wary of going for a job like this. You can end up trapped.

Tbh I seem to be rushed off my feet in every job and as for skills....they're just all jobs really. I may be a lot older than you and op but really it seems good to me.

I've been told this about civil service before but the job descriptions are all about 20 pp long so I thought they'd be mad busy too. I'm coming to the end of a contract so I really might give this a go I think.

It's hit and miss lighthouse! My last CS job had a huge description - but I sat twiddling my thumbs. I was given one piece of paperwork a month to process, and encouraged to just 'sit'. You really don't know till you're in there.

The best sort of department to aim for is something records based. I know I'm generalising, but in my experience, they tend to have a lot of dead time. Something like engineering/med logs would be something to look at.