In a pickle, what would you do?

[overthinkersanonnymus]

My job is very boring and as lovely as my boss is, she's a micromanager.

I wfh 4 days with one in the office, but a lot of the time I have nothing to do and it's driving me mad. But on the other hand, I get to nip out for walks, do my washing etc and have a fairly average salary of £30k.

Now I could possibly look in to a sideways move with a different company, same industry just a different sector, but feel quite nervous of doing that due to the whole "better the devil you know" situation.

Do I stay working from home, bored to tears or do I jump ship and maybe regret it? I'd have to be office based if I was to move. To be honest, the whole industry is mind numbingly boring to me.

If your boss is a micromanager how can you be in this situation? Surely she would know how much work you have?

I would be honest with her about your workload and then you won't be bored.

Micromanaging as in what ever I am doing, she needs to be fully involved and I don't really have any autonomy.

If you are genuinely bored to tears, it’s impacting your happiness, and you’re totally unengaged, I’d find something else. I also agree, how can your manager be a micro manager and not know how little you have to do?

Perhaps when you start interviewing you’ll realise that there are more interesting roles out there. Or you’ll realise that other jobs are just as boring and you’ll try to make yours work instead.

At £30k there should be lots of options out there. Do you have any transferable skills that you could move into another role?

Sadly we mostly all have to work, it’s not often fun but it should feel rewarding or stimulating.

If the whole industry bores you then why don't you use all your spare time to study something else and change careers completely. Use this time of low pressure/WFH/reasonable pay to get everything sorted for a move.

Money for old rope though, isn't it?

What would you actually like to be doing instead?

Life's too short to be this bored, unless you really need the working arrangements!

I'd start applying for other things and see what's possible.

I certainly wouldn't jump ship for a sideways move in an industry which bores me to tears

Do some studying to get qualifications related to an industry you ARE interested in

You could even study at home during the working day

Totally Money for old rope.

Stay in the job and double your money by taking on another one 😀

If she's a nice person and there's nothing major wrong with your performance, she's micromanaging because she thinks that's how you're supposed to manage people, probably through inexperience (although some managers carry on like this for many years), and/or because she's bored to tears herself. If you get on with her, try and get a rapport where you're collaborators. Could you use a regular 1-1 to brainstorm ways your team could work better?

Move on. It sounds dull.

I feel silly for saying this as I have no experience, but my dream is to be a midwife.

Unfortunately I can't afford to be out of the workforce for 3 years whilst in university and maternity support worker roles are like gold dust. Plus the pay is minimum wage, which id struggle on.

Honestly, I don't know what I'd like to do when i grow up! In the real world, not my fantasy above.

i do love the word pickle.

if it was me id use the spare time to teach myself new skills or qualification's, our bosses were lovley and a good team until redundancy, but before that we were encouraged to learn and train in different skills etc

Can you study midwifery with all your spare time ? Obviously you'd have to sit the exams but you might not have to attend the lectures depending on the university, except perhaps the last year with actual practice in a hospital.

@Maxorias I believe you have to a certain amount of hours on placement in all 3 years to be able to get your PIN.

Plus you really need that hospital setting to get you used to the work.

@AsdaCafeWriter @sugarspiceandeverythingnice12

I'd love some ideas on what I could possibly study at home? Noting financial related! That's where I am now and I can't bloody stand it.

Can you decide when those hours are ? Could you condense your current hours so you work 4 days a week for instance, or do the placement hours at the weekend ?

@Maxorias unfortunately not. When you are in a placement within a hospital, you shadow a mentor and that means working the hours that they work. So 37.5 hrs a week in a mixture of nights and days and then 30 hours of university a week as well.

I think some people do manage to have part time jobs too, but I'm 38 and never been to university, so any spare time I had would be study.

What are you interested in?

If it were me, I'd train to be a Counsellor

For what it's worth if I had to pick a new industry I'd love :

• Stuff relating to international adoption (maybe look for a job within an organisation that facilitates this)
• Stuff related to family law (anything from a paralegal, a solicitor, a lawyer...)
• I'd also love social work and anything related to migrants/asylum seekers, helping integrate them etc
• And nursing/midwifery especially in an IVF clinic (I wouldn't train to be a doctor at 38, which is also my age, that'd take too long), but I would probably not go for it due to the antisocial hours and low pay

But you need to pick something you'd be really excited about even after the novelty wears off. All the things I listed are things I've been interested in for years, read books about them, testimonies, etc.

I am in this situation too. Was in a very fast paced role up till a year ago and just cant get used to the slower pace!
Was going to go down to 4 days just so it was less tedious but it seems silly when I can get paid for 5 and get away will skiving so much. Would rather have fulfilling work than skive any day though!

I was going to ask how old you are because I’m in a similar-ish situation but I’ve got 10 years on you so I’m happy coasting and hopefully getting redundancy in the next few years 😆
are psychometric tests are thing?! Or could you speak to a careers advisor (real, not bullshit life coach) to try to work out what you’d like to do instead?

This sounds like me but I work 3 days. On my non working days I’m training for a more vocational role but it won’t pay as well as what I do now which is £40k fte.
but I’m so fed up at this job I’m comfort eating and feeling so miserable and frustrated. I trained for years and have lots of experience and if I wasn’t for financial reasons I’d walk.

What's the new role you're training in?

I’m training in outdoor education and therapy. And eventually it will be a sustainable job but at the moment I need the cushion of my other job and it just feels pointless. I’ve been doing it a long time and while I do like the industry I don’t like the culture where I work right now.

i was going to say finance,

what about history ? eg great leaders

or military history and different bunkers

or even learning about the london underground system ?

and many other topics i recommen the youtube show modern marvels