'I guess you have no German heritage, otherwise you'd know that having a work ethic is valuable intrinsically. "

Like those whacky Nazis?

I just transferred to a new job in my organization that is extremely interesting but really only takes 4-5 hours of the 8 hour day. I was looking for a job that wouldn't take more than 40 hours a week, but never expected it to actually be boring. I am super productive and my boss says he's really pleased with how much I'm accomplishing, but I feel guilty and bored.

Here's a couple things I have started trying that seem to be working.

1- Totally agree with PP about scheduling projects into smaller time blocks and deciding the day before what to do tomorrow.

2- READ about your profession, field, colleagues, work, etc. You can learn a ton that might help you get a better job at your current employer, move to management, or just keep your brain stimulated. When I'm reading a report that references another report, I pull up the other report and see what that document says.

3- Use Google Alerts to search for news on your profession. It's like surfing the web but actually work related.

4- You can also research your competitors and see what they do.

5- Ask co-workers in different parts of your office or organization to tell you about their work. This can be in the form of a meeting, coffee, lunch, etc. Good way to improve your own professional knowledge while building contacts.

6- If you feel bored, guilty or dissatisfied, tell your boss that you are looking for more work. Even if s/he doesn't respond, you've flagged that you are willing to help out. If/when you decide this job isn't for you, it will be easier on everyone if they know why you were dissatisfied from the beginning.

7- Similarly, seek advice from mentors and peers in other parts of your firm/office about what else you can do to add value. If you don't know them well, probably best not to do this until after you've consulted with your boss. But for close personal friends/colleagues, this can be a great way to get new ideas and potentially build leads for moving to another job in their office.

Thanks to everyone who posted other tips!!

Anonymous wrote:In a good day I work for perhaps two hours. The rest of the time I monitor the interwebs, go for coffee or a walk. Sometimes I nap in my office with the door closed. I make around 200K. And I get the top performance mark.

I feel absolutely no guilt. After a while people tend to get paid according to their productivity. If I worked four times as hard I should be on $800K. But I don't need any more money.

I don't understand this work ethic thing. Why should working hard be preferable to being more relaxed and enjoying life? All this "the bosses know who you are" thing is bullshit too. Good bosses judge you purely by your results, and won't care how much time you spend on DCUM.

Your salary is much higher than mine, so that's great that you make such a high salary and still have a lot of free time. But regarding the work ethic thing, I don't understand questions like that. Enjoying life for me means being committed to a career I love (as well obviously, as enjoying my family and having time to relax). I would be miserable just working for a paycheck, though your paycheck is nice

Honestly, I don't believe you aren't at least around people who are driven, thrive on challenging themselves and growing, and accomplishing more and more every year. There are plenty of us out there, and we feel lucky, I can tell you. And I don't mean breaking your back to work 80 hours because I think that's bad for people's health and I'm a leave-work-at-5:00ish-and-shutdown-for-the-night kind of mom, so it's not like I work unreasonable hours. But the goal for me is not soley to "relax." I'm in my 30s. I'm not ready to retire and take up knitting. I need more balance than that and working two hours a day wouldn't give me that.

It's noon and I've done squat today. Even worse, there's not actually anything for me to do. My inbox tray is empty (as usual).

Anonymous wrote:In a good day I work for perhaps two hours. The rest of the time I monitor the interwebs, go for coffee or a walk. Sometimes I nap in my office with the door closed. I make around 200K. And I get the top performance mark.

I feel absolutely no guilt. After a while people tend to get paid according to their productivity. If I worked four times as hard I should be on $800K. But I don't need any more money.

I don't understand this work ethic thing. Why should working hard be preferable to being more relaxed and enjoying life? All this "the bosses know who you are" thing is bullshit too. Good bosses judge you purely by your results, and won't care how much time you spend on DCUM.

I guess you have no German heritage, otherwise you'd know that having a work ethic is valuable intrinsically.

"I'm a teacher and have better things to do than indulge your self-involved ass. Lucky for you, I don't hold your stupidity against your kid."

Oh please. My child's teacher gets three breaks a day - once when the kids are off at a special, once while they eat lunch, and once during recess.

Anonymous wrote:In a good day I work for perhaps two hours. The rest of the time I monitor the interwebs, go for coffee or a walk. Sometimes I nap in my office with the door closed. I make around 200K. And I get the top performance mark.

I feel absolutely no guilt. After a while people tend to get paid according to their productivity. If I worked four times as hard I should be on $800K. But I don't need any more money.

I don't understand this work ethic thing. Why should working hard be preferable to being more relaxed and enjoying life? All this "the bosses know who you are" thing is bullshit too. Good bosses judge you purely by your results, and won't care how much time you spend on DCUM.

Tell me what you do and how I can do it when I grow up.

In a good day I work for perhaps two hours. The rest of the time I monitor the interwebs, go for coffee or a walk. Sometimes I nap in my office with the door closed. I make around 200K. And I get the top performance mark.

I feel absolutely no guilt. After a while people tend to get paid according to their productivity. If I worked four times as hard I should be on $800K. But I don't need any more money.

I don't understand this work ethic thing. Why should working hard be preferable to being more relaxed and enjoying life? All this "the bosses know who you are" thing is bullshit too. Good bosses judge you purely by your results, and won't care how much time you spend on DCUM.

While I agree about hypocrites, if you are educating and caring for my child during the day, I wil email you and will expect a response. Sorry. So, please peddle your plight elsewhere.

Let's clarify. Are you someone who actually works during your workday? Or are you you one of the admitted slackers?

Because I can't imagine why you'd think I'd email an entitled slacker.

I'm a teacher and have better things to do than indulge your self-involved ass. Lucky for you, I don't hold your stupidity against your kid.

k

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I hope those of you bragging about how much you don't do are not the same people who complain about teachers not returning your "just checking in" email.

+1

While I agree about hypocrites, if you are educating and caring for my child during the day, I wil email you and will expect a response. Sorry. So, please peddle your plight elsewhere.

I'm scared I'm going to be stuck in an office my entire life. How to escape "cubicle nation"?

How was everyone's work day today?

Anonymous wrote:I hope those of you bragging about how much you don't do are not the same people who complain about teachers not returning your "just checking in" email.

+1

OP finally checking back in. I've been working hard today on one of my long-term projects (really!). As a PP mentioned, I think it's mid-career burnout as well, though perhaps exacerbated by the fact that it took me a while to regain a full workload upon returning from maternity leave. (DS is 13 months, and I've been back for almost 8.) My job is intellectually challenging, but it takes me a lot less time to do everything than it used to, and I'm no longer afraid of failing. I can't really seek new challenges within my organization, as I don't want to supervise people doing what I'm doing now, but I can lay the groundwork for a different but related career track. Boredom sucks.