One month into corporate job - no work assigned. Anyone experienced this?

[Rockspebbles]

So I moved from one corporate job to another. When I started my previous job, I was thrown into the deep end. Straight into work. In this new job, I have not had a single thing to work on. I am just occasionally asked to shadow people doing stuff but that’s it. The team seems to be highly resourced, which is good, as everyone says they are not struggling with their workload etc. I also raised this with my managers who said it’s just a quiet time with the summer having been at its peak when I joined. They said usually they are too busy. But I don’t know… a colleague started 2 months before me and she is also in the same position. I am panicking a bit as we have time sheets to fill and it’s always something random to do with training. I am scared line management would pick on this and make me redundant. Don’t know if I am catastrophising though 😂 I will keep chasing my managers for work I suppose?

Yes, do keep nudging but balance it with finding things yourself and letting your manager know if you have done so and are taking the initiative - sounds like you are doing some of this and if I was your manager, I would be expecting you to demonstrate that you are finding role-useful things to do or learn during this quiet period. Though as your manager, I would also have prepped properly and found you enough useful-for-you, useful-for-the-company stuff for your first few weeks!

You mention training (great) how about reading academic papers in your field / summarizing them for the team? Have you reviewed the org chart thoroughly and got in touch with people across the organisation for coffees / taken the time to prep thoroughly first? Have you asked for a list of stakeholders whose views of your team / organization it might be helpful for you to have an objective chat with so you can feed that intelligence back? Can you help an adjacent team with something they need support on? Can you network with industry contacts to ask for their advice on this new role and how to make the most of it?

That is annoying. Poor planning on their part.

Black Books s.2 ep.3 😋

But in seriousness... does your company have a policy on induction? You should have mandatory learning to do. Maybe you could set up some meetings with key internal contacts - spend the time you have now to forge some relationships and make yourself known.

Thanks for the ideas, everyone. Well after a month in, I have completed all our mandatory training. I have nudged them again today. There is only so much I can research and review by myself, realistically. I like the networking idea. Thank you. I will take that onboard. I am just feeling isolated and useless 😞 It’s also quite daunting there is a timesheet I have to fill at the end of the day. Thankfully it’s not every hour but I still wreck my brain trying to summarise what I did in 7hrs. @Emmylou22 will look up that episode 😅

Yes yes to the set up meetings with internal contacts and stakeholders. Easy questions that you can always fall back on include ‘how do you see our company/sector/industry at the moment and where do you see it going in the future?” Who else shall I contact within the organisation/sector.industry.

It can be a sign that you have reached a certain level of seniority to find your way like this. Congratulations, use the time well to build up contacts for the future.

Yes, I had a similar experience and it was absolute hell trying to fill my hours with zero work to do. I was pretty young and felt I had to stick it out as leaving quickly would look bad on my CV. I was made redundant after 11 months and immediately found a new job with a proper workload and was SO much happier.

In your position, I'd be job hunting.

Whatever you decide to do, don't forget to (not too frequently!) update your manager with intelligence, feedback and findings where relevant - or just what you're doing. Could be in 121s, via Teams or email etc.

It's important to be proactive in and of itself, but it is also important to communicate to the powers that be that you're being proactive 😊

I'd read every single page of the company website, their annual business plans etc, so you have a clear idea of what is going on across the corporation, and what their next plans are. Ask to attend all meetings that are relevant to your team, suggest setting up brief meetings with clients to get to know the people you might be dealing with.

Make sure your IT and other office skills are up-to-date, that you are fully confident on any software you might need to use, including use of AI in your field.

Then just shadow your line manager, and volunteer where appropriate until you get asked to take over a task.

I have never had a job where there is nothing to do. it sounds bliss but everyone I know in that position absolutely hated it and felt anxious. Hope it improves soon.

I suppose I hope I won’t be made redundant. My manager said it’s normal and I am still new. They are busy with their own stuff and don’t have much time to hand over projects. My concern is the timesheet I need to complete every day. There is a lot of overhead time rather than projects. Although it’s internal projects, I am still worried about not having stuff to do

What was on the job description? Surely your manager has work they need you to do? It's horrible being under employed (I'm in that situation) and no means as relaxing as people assume

Yes that’s understandable, empty timesheets are an issue. They need to put you on projects.

Yes I had this experience in a corporate junior role. Very little work to do, in fact I decided to leave after 6 months and only in the weeks before had I properly been allocated a work load.
i hated it - they were such an inflexible employer (no wfh, annual leave for appointments) obsessed with us being there yet people didn’t seem to have much on!

My current role trained me in a week, I had a busy workload from the get go and they gave me trust and autonomy - so much better personally. Sorry no advice but it’s only once you’ve been there a bit longer you can ascertain if it’ll ever get going or they’re just not a good place to work

@Parkernight1 thank you. I will hang around a bit longer and see. Did you also need to complete timesheets? I think this is my biggest concern. It’s all internal stuff project wise. So no real ‘clients’ but still!

I had a similar experience some years ago and like a pp I left after 6 months. I spent my spare time job hunting and working on a freelance project (I was honest about the latter - I offered to bring it in house and they declined!)

An organisation that wastes staff time like this is almost certainly badly run and you need to find an exit strategy. Having to lie on time sheets is not great!

Years ago I remember someone starting a job where I worked just as their boss was away for a couple of weeks, when the boss came back he looked at what they guy had done and said you've done it all wrong but if you had done nothing I would have fired you. Find something to do.

Use AI to complete the timesheets. It will dress it up and make it sound like you're doing more than you are / aligned to company values etc.

This is pretty common and I have experienced similar in the past. Unless there are issues with really poor management, the likelihood is that they are resource planning for future work, and they will be aware that you haven't been assigned work.

It was mind boggling to me when this first happened to me. But since then I have realised that it seems to be standard practice if they are bidding for a lot of work, so they have people ready to go.

Ask if they have access to any additional training resources or external certificates you can work on while you wait for work to be allocated to you.