I would welcome a day at home with no errands and nothing to do but having nothing to do at the office is not the best feeling. Like if they want to pay me to do nothing, that is nice in a way but then its annoying to come in to the office ( its an admin job at a school so there is no work from home ) .
Anyone else in a similar situation ?
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I mean probably people who do social experiments or smthin like that, or probably as a source of entertainment broadcasting their mundane life for others.
Could you learn a language or listen to a podcast? This does sound frustrating. I’m just trying to think of how you could pass the time and feel good about it.
I’ve certainly had days like that. Having too little to do is worse than having too much to do. When that happens to me, I go around and talk with my co-workers about the projects they’re working on, and see what kinds of interesting things I might be able to help out with or get involved in.
I’ve been lucky enough to reach a point where I can literally sit on my ass all day and still get paid! The catch? It took years of hard work, building an incredible team and now I’m the one signing my own paycheck.. So it’s not quite as exhilarating as it sounds..
YES! It makes me feel like I’m going crazy sometimes, but I find ways to look busy (reading pdfs of books, talking to ChatGPT, etc). I was recently a manager and was stressed to the max all the time though, so in a way it’s a nice change I guess
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It’s called a bore-out and it happened to me. I was just dying to get another job. Luckily I finally did get one
Right here. I always look forward to other people sharing they don’t do anything all day, because as far as I am concerned I AM THE CAPTAIN.
I’m autistic, fully employed, but I Do F All!!!!
I do all my tasks/responsibilities to the best of my ability, I am dedicated/responsible/reliable/honest
My tasks do not take the entire 8 hour day, throughout an entire day, what I do can take 1 hour tops. I doomscroll, listen to podcasts, answer questions on Reddit.
I am bored out of my goddamn mind.
Guess it’s better than not having a job.
Look into a popular Japanese term
“Madogiwazoku” roughly translated it means window sitter.
Its people who, either by a fault of their own, or the companies decision, or through them completing their projects/tasks/responsibilities don’t get new ones, or have them taken away from them.
The pressure and time to fire people is complicated for some companies, and often they don’t want to endure it or even start the process, and the shame involved in actually firing someone is often greater then forgetting about said person, plus it accidentally causes another term “Hikikomori” again roughly translated is withdrawn from society, because re assimilation is hard.
So these window sitters just literally do nothing or sit by the window, scroll twitter, read the paper, just so the people outside, can look up at the high rise buildings, see people, fully occupied and think
“That looks like a great place to work, I’ll put in an application”
They continue to get paid, but don’t do anything
Oh, if you were remote you could OE and collect 2 checks but it’s nearly impossible to do if you’re in office.
Oh absolutely, welcome to the club! Our meetings are scheduled weekly, but nobody shows up because, well, we’re all too unmotivated.
It’s weird, right? At first it sounds like a dream—getting paid to sit around. But then your soul starts slowly evaporating somewhere between the 27th scroll of Reddit and pretending to look busy when someone walks by. You start rationing your snack breaks just to have something to look forward to.
I feel you. It’s like being stuck in a very polite, fluorescent-lit purgatory.
Yes my husband, please take him back to the office for me 🫡
Having a day like this right now. I’ve opened and closed all my usual excel spreadsheets and built a random text generator with my limited python knowledge, so now I guess it’s just staring at the clock for 4 hours and hoping someone messages me asking for my help.
My first engineering office job was pretty much like that.
My tasks took max 2h and final 6 hours I sipped coffee ate company given sweetbuns and fruits and talked stuff with my Co-workers and did random own CAD-projects with company softwares.
It was pure hell as felt so useless and bored. Only funny thing is that the job paid me more than anything before despite in my previous bluecollar jobs I barely had time to sit down.
DOGE is watching.
If I was like some of the guys I worked with, I’d say construction. Not me for sure because I’m a chick and yeah no. That wld not be tolerated. Others though….. yeah. It’s amazing too. I’m sore. Brother how?
I’ve got significant down time if I’m caught up on my tasks. Like 4-6 hours a day. I’ve been spending the last few months listening to veterans talk about combat and the harrowing tasks they had to do under fire. Before that I learned to replumb my whole house via YouTube. Learned to build several things. Learned a lot about old cars. Spent a lot of time catching up on anime.
Id love a boring job. Its dumb but I really like filling out forms and other paperwork that everyone else hates. I get an easy dopamine hit completing one, so I get a high sense of enjoyment if that’s all im doing. I once completed my bosses data entry at a factory just to get out of my factory job for a couple of hours. I got her all the way caught up (she was months behind) and she was super impressed that everything was so neatly organized. That was in 2005 and I’ve craved that kind of work ever sense, but entry level is usually more manual labor than pencil pusher.
I’ve never had a job that just had me sit there, even as a night auditor at a hotel I still had more than enough to do during my shift.
My entry level mindset immediately says “if you have enough time to sit, then you have enough time to clean”. – I know that’s not true in upper level jobs.
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I was in the same position, but I was on call for substitute teaching now and then so I couldn’t even reliably do another job in case I had to go be in front of kids.
I spent my days reading books and gambling on my phone lol. It seems like it would be good but it’s just so boring and demoralising. Most days I’d just go home a couple hours early but that was stressful in its own way as I didn’t want to get caught, so couldn’t fully relax at home.
Nope. I’m a teacher. I can’t even sit at lunch on most days. I’m lucky to get to sit on the toilet once a day. lol!
Have you read “Bullshit Jobs” by David Graeber ?
I’ve had a few jobs where I sat all day doing nothing. It’s hard. When I first started working, as a receptionist, I used to read most days. What I’ve done is try and make myself useful or offered to help co workers with some work they’re doing. If I’ve not been allowed that, I’ve generally read, browsed the internet, organized files or the supply closet.
There’s no way you’re at a school with nothing to do. Take the initiative before you get fired.
I wish I had a job like that, I’m exhausted from trying to keep up with work, what kind of admin job is it? I think a lot of people would prefer a job like yours.
Are you able to use your phone
Our hospital valets. They act like their only job is to drive cars. We’re lucky if they open the door for handicapped people. They don’t stand outside the entrance to advertise their service and sit there all the time and look at their phones.
Before I was assigned a permanent team that’s what my job was. The pay is low, even for the standards in my country, but I’m fully WFH and quite literally have zero work to do. I’m hired under a generic “assistant system analyst” title.
Yeah, some of my coworkers.
I’m not falling for that AGAIN Manager Dave!!
I had a part-time job like that for 14 years. Weekend security. Fortunately I like to read. It was great.
When those rare days come around I surely look busy!
We’ve been doing this lately because I work for the govt and I’m a purchasing agent and our credit card limit is set to a $1.00. Also with all the memos and signatures that we need, it is very frustrating.
I work 10 hour days and do about 10 minutes of work. When I tell people that they say they’re jealous. But it is a very hard day to get through.
I got hired as a contractor for military work a few years back ) maintenance procedures for equipment. You have to have a security clearance to do it. The week I got hired, the company changed agencies that do the background checks. I wasn’t allowed to do anything until I was cleared. I had internet access to browse around, and that’s all I did. In at 8 am, out at 4 pm. Every single day. Honestly, that was excruciatingly boring. 6 months later, I found a better paying job and left.
Typically, I will have at least 1 day a week like that. I work at a facility that repairs and maintains the radios, computers, lights/sirens, DVR equipment, etc that go into city vehicles. Whether it be a squad car, firetruck, ambulance, public works, etc. We work on it. If we have nobody come in for service, and we have no installs, guess what? We have a day to sit and do nothing.
I’ve seen trinket kiosks( money laundering ?) workers sitting in dead malls all day with no customers
Some days I have that, especially right now. So I find little projects to work on instead. Like, I’m reading a book related to my field so I don’t feel bad about doing that at work.
Or I bring my knitting to work and knit for a little while.
As a person with a good work ethic, I found jobs with not enough to do, horrible. The days feel like they are 40 hours long.
I’m at work right now browsing Reddit,so yeah.
Yes, I work part-time from home and take maybe 6 calls in a 4 hour shift. I am the point of contact for around 100 phone agents who are customer facing for a UK private medical insurance company. I’ve worked in this industry for almost 20 years and began as a phone agent myself, now I assist the agents with complex medical or underwriting questions in addition to occasionally providing coaching.
In the past two weeks I’ve reread all 5 Hunger Games books, Memoirs of a Geisha and Night Shift by Stephen King and part way through The Last Empress – I get plenty of time to read!
When I was in the military we were either doing a hundred things at once that were all super stressful or we were doing literally nothing while sitting on the cement for hours which was even more stressful.
What do you guys work with
Work construction with an agreement I get 40 hours a week. We get a lot of downtime waiting for permits and material. I’ve gone weeks with just hanging out at the shop. I’ll go to the gym, run errands, or just stream shows. Gets boring sometimes.
Did I write this?? Yes. I was in management for 10ish years, took a new job and now all I do is sit here. I get paid more but I’m bored out of my mind. I am in an open office concept so I can’t even do things at my desk. I did a Google search on how to pass my time. Wasn’t much help.
I left a deadly dull job, burned out, for an administrative assistant job. It was a brand new department in a university and there were two of us AAs. I decided I did not want to have that situation again. Since it was brand new, it meant that I was creating the work flow, systems, everything. My coworker could not care less about the job, so I ended offering to take some of her tasks.
It was the best job I ever had. (I’m retired now.). I was not stuck doing one thing all the time; during the year I had tasks and projects to perform and they were all different. Some were annoying, some were a lot of fun, and others let me use my creative side.
I wasn’t seeing as an underling, but as a team member. My opinions influenced policy.
Everyone deserves this type of a job. It seems that all work has become too compartmentalized; it’s been a problem since Henry Ford. It allows for a robust middle class but kills your soul in the process.
And I doubt it will get better. I think we’re in the middle of a seismic shift.
if we are going to be building new factories in this country (U.S.), physical labor will be necessary. We’ve already seen the transition from everybody should go to college to get a good job to everybody going into the trades to get a good job.
I’m a third shift switchboard operator for a hospital. Most of my shift is doing nothing for 8 hours. I read 2 books a week, scroll Reddit, and do sudoku. I’ve spent many hours playing Minecraft. I get paid for this.
I dream of this. I work in Insurance at the call centre so I am literally on calls the entire time, I am so exhausted and depressed.
George Costanzas very smart advice for seeming busy at work was to ‘always look annoyed’. Anyway I’ve been there and it is stressful in a different way. Plus the day drags.
I work from home and my job is 80% waiting for calls. If we were still doing it from the office I’d go nuts, but at home I can do whatever between calls. Tonight I deep cleaned my apartment
I was a “manager” at my previous job. The most number of people working under me was 2. I had a big corner office with big windows. One side was facing some woods so I could watch and photograph birds and animals all day. I had a mini fridge that I kept wine in. I got paid milage to and from work. Most of the time I played games on my computer. Occasionally I had to go out onto the production floor and actually be productive. Then the company got bought out and was moved to Corinth Methissippi. They wanted me to relocate from Austin Texas, I said no thanky.
I worked as an Assistant Language Teacher in Japan for two years . Had to work between 40 minutes a day. Spend the rest of my time doing my Master’s
Yes. Im a realtor. I generally work from home. However i do have an office. Theres times where my wife, kids, the dog, whoever! is buggin. So i skeedaddle on over to my REAL office and lock myself in. I do 5 minutes of work and then spend 6-8 hours watching videos on YT. Im practically a scholar on the Younger Dryas lol.
Night security. You have to be ready to do something but 99% of the time you are there just to deter would be criminals and just keep an eye on the place.
I have an electrician maintenance gig at a plant. I pretty much wait for stuff to break. Some weeks I’ll have 5 calls to go to and it’s mostly resets
I know someone that had a remote job with little to no work, decent pay and he quit his job to work in a warehouse sorting parcels with less pay.
I still can’t understand this type of decisions but I respect the dude.
Not all the time but I’ve had days here and there like that. Until last month I worked 2nd shift as a teir 2 IT tech at a hospital. Every so often I would have days where there either weren’t any projects to work on or they were all caught up, and we would get 0 calls to the help desk all shift. So I’d be all alone in my office with nothing to do. Usually tried to pass the time by cleaning and organizing the office, but it usually ended up just being 8 hours of YouTube.
I don’t know what kind of job that is, but that’s not like mine. The only time I really don’t do anything is if I’m on a break or lunch or another break or I’m off for the day my phone always rings.
I’d love that honestly. I’d find ways to keep busy if allowed like reading or something. I’m just tired these back to back calls all day talking to rude people. 🙁
Lol that’s my pipe dream
Yep. But I have my own private project that I’m heavily involved with. Plus I look extremely busy doing this private project…
If I work really hard about 3-4 months out of the year I have many weeks where I am literally just showing up so I don’t get fired. It’s my preferred method of work/life balance. I like to get it all done at once and leave lots of space for free time and putting out fires.
Depends what job I’ve got that day and how things go, I’m either working like a dog for 10 hours straight in stupid hot/humid/dirty conditions in the literal depths of hell(2000+ metres below sea level), or I’m sitting in the break room watching Netflix all day and there’s no in between
I’ll be honest I dread when the latter happens, as another comment mentioned too much of that and you feel your soul being literally sucked away and your will to live deteriorating somewhere around that 27th scroll
I’ve started bringing books to work or downloading them on my phone for those days, that way I can at least still feel like I’m doing something that isn’t feeding into the brain rot of modern social media and shit
I work as dispatch for my city’s animal control and whenever I’m not on the radio, answering the phone, or assigning calls to the officers, I’m basically just sitting on my ass browsing Reddit with my music playing. After almost 20 years of working retail, I feel like I’ve earned it although unfortunately I’ve gained around 30 lbs in the 3 years since I’ve started this job.
Granted I’m new still, but yes. My job is like that.
My manager is extremely handsoff, to the point that I’ve been here 4 weeks and have zilch to do 6 or so of my 8 hour days.
You mean politicians?
Yeah i get paid to be in office. Have like 20 min of work per day. I set up my bike trainer and will ride the bike and go on hour-long walks throughout the day. Yeah it sucks but it could always be worse.
During slow times of years for sure. It always make me wonder why are we artificially still pushing 40 hours workweek. Pay me the same for less time and the same amount of work please. You’ll save on electricity bills too.
Or let me work from home at the very least.
My workflow can be very much ‘feast or famine.’ I try to do some self-directed continuing ed, file housekeeping, etc. during the slow periods. Things that will make my life easier when work picks up again.
I’m the senior “maytag repairman” at my work. 10-15 years to go.
Me as a unarmed security guard.
I do my rounds which only takes me 10 minutes to do. When I am done I sit in a guard shack occasionally letting in vehicles. The rest of the time I’m sitting down I bring a Steam Deck and play video games or scroll on my phone till I have to go home.
I work in the financial industry and the majority of the day I am not working. I do have to work on site so I fill the extra time by making my grocery list for the week, looking up new recipes I want to try, online shopping if I need anything, making lists of things I want to get done in the weekend, texting with friends and family, being on Reddit obviously because I’m at work right now, sometimes cleaning my office because our cleaning service sucks.
I’d rather be at home but at least I’m allowed to use my phone and my work computer however I want when I’m not busy.
Its because some jobs pay for your knowledge being ‘on call’ and not your total labor, there were weeks where I would work like 10 hours total but my employer definitely needed my skills every now and then, its why having a career path and credentials is so important
OED says the oldest recorded use of sinecure is 1662. So your “problem” is at least 363 years old and common enough to have an exact word.
Yep am nurse on the average 12 hour day I’m not doing anything but chilling for like 8 of them
would absolutely encourage anyone to read the book Bullshit Jobs
> having nothing to do at the office is not the best feeling
It’s a tremendous opportunity that you should never pass up.
My boss always said, “There’s no fence around the books”.
In other words, go learn something.
You’ve got a climate controlled office, with a desk, chair, computer, and free internet. No barking dogs, no yelling kids, no neighbors working on their supercharged engines.
Take this opportunity. Don’t squander it.
…. In case you can’t tell, I’m out of work right now. I wish I had done more professional development during those slow days at work, it would have put me in a much better position today.
Wow I’m a teacher and wish I could relate. Just 20 minutes of sitting with a clear head is non existent 🤣 and to think of how the salaries differ from a “boring” job. I’m curious…
Yeah. I go to work and i do nothing. Im forced to be there cuz i work with family x
I work in a control room. I do almost nothing for 11 hours a day. Think Homer Simpson. But if things go bad, I am literally the difference between life or death
Polar opposite.. I’ve got so much to do I’ve lost my fight and sit around too much because overwhelmed.
Yes and it’s destroying my health and making me lazy
I get to WFH and I would do minimum at home bc when I’m in the office, I finish my work too fast that I just sit there clicking on random documents just so I could look busy.
Even when I don’t do much at home, I still finish my job too fast at the office. I even tried slowing down, and taking my time with each click and any responses I type out. And still end up with nothing to do.
I try not to complain bc I know people would kill for my job, especially it pays well. But I also feel like I’m slowly wilting away 🫠
I returned from maternity leave and was told not to step on anyone’s toes by doing my job.
But I can’t not do any work.
So I have to somehow look busy while having nothing to do.
It’s torture and has destroyed my sense of self.
The book ‘bullshit jobs’ is about this.
Meanwhile, I’m paid piecework, if I’m not working I’m not making money.
I play Nintendo/movies most of the day. I jokingly tell people I get paid to play video games. And I just recently got a raise/ and got high marks on my performance review!!!!
Right now it’s me.
But it’s not always like this. Soon I will be assigned a new project and will be working 60 hours a week while getting paid just for 40.
But this past month got paid just to show up and do almost nothing
If you’re an intern yea 😭😭😭 me rn I like it because I get to have time to learn the things I want for personal goals
I do data entry at a small b2b advertising company. I had two orders to enter today. I’ve literally been on Reddit for four hours. The downside is that I don’t get paid much. But I have good health insurance.
I used to work as a transport dispatch years ago and it taught me office work is not for me.
We had to build shipments in the morning which was a piece of piss to do and then just wait all day and monitor loading until the trailers go and come back.
In between back pain from sitting at a chair all day, listening to the same 3 songs on the radio two of which were Ed Sheeran, trying to look busy in front of the managers and struggling to not fall asleep it was a nightmare.
Sometimes, I go to work and have a half day or less, but home is far and work is close to kids schools.
This is why I have a gaming pc at work.
Most officers in my area, yes.
I’ve had jobs like this. One being a night receptionist at a motel. Luckily I had a small TV and got lots of reading done. Occasionally my friends would stop by and hang out for a bit. I enjoyed my job, especially because I’m an introvert, but sometimes had a hard time staying awake. Lol
1 week a month this is my life. I’d lose my damn mind if it was constant. The one week is too much as is lol.
I will search for something to do. The day just drags if I’m not busy. I’ll clean if that’s all I can think of (which is definitely not in my job description). I much prefer staying busy.
This happened to me before and it was so boring that I eventually quit and got a job that paid less.
You’d be surprised how many people clock in, open their laptop, and then just kinda vibe for hours. Sometimes it’s not even their fault. Work’s just that slow.