Dying of work boredom

LegacyUser

Now before everyone starts qeuing up to axe me to death becasue of the title....read first please. I've had this job 6 years. Is started busy enough but never very taxing on the brain. It lead to promotion and more responsibility coupled with more money, good times, honest work for honest pay.

Fast forward to now and not so good, there have been redundancies and we've all taken cuts,I've been reassured I ma not one of the people who'll be let go in a hurry but I am dying inside . I'm in a position where if I left I know that I'd be missed because, well, even though it's not a busy role it's a crucial one and one that requires someone mature and copped on so, my 6 yrs experience here would be missed of course, but no one is irreplaceable of course. But the thing is..I really have f*ck all to do, I am dying of inertia and I'm not like that as a person. I want more and am going to upskill in order to move on when the time comes.

There are a couple of other factors which have lead me now to feeling absolutley jaded in here and not in the slightest able to even try motivating myself any more. I am also at the recieving end of an awful lot of mis management issues which are in themselves more stressful than busting a gut that one would normally perform in an honest days work. They've told me this, that and the other will happen in relation to a situation in here and it's never been delivered so now that they're "re-structuring" as they put it to me, well, all that means is I get to do more of the incredibly menial tasks no one else wants to do anyway. I know loads of poepl will blast me out of it and say "I'd love to be picking the fleas off a camels a*se for an hourly wage if it meant cash at the end of the week" but please do not come back at a tirade of "you're lucky you have a job" because I know I am and that's a non issue at this stage.

Several times I have thought of going in and discussing it with one of my bosses, of just laying it out straight and asking for redundancy but I'm afraid they'll just say ah sure just take a months notice and see you, and that's all I'll get for my troubles of being honest.
Otherwise I was thinking of trying to talk it out with them, possibly going on shorter hours or less days, but I don't see that happening for reasons that are valid.

My question is, if you're a boss, would you consider making me redundant if I volunteered, or would you just give me a months notice? I have a good relationship with them in total, they have always been happy with my work, but this is really getting me down and I don't know if I'll last the time it will take me to study at night without literally going off my rocker with lack of activity I feel like banging my head off the walls most days. Any useful and constructive advice would be much apprecaiated, none of your beratings for having a job, please.....and thanks

CatFromHue

hi
im in a similar situation. i started my current job last year. when i started i had no training and was pretty much left to my own devices. that was frustrating.
over time i figured out what my role is.
my problem is that i never have that much to do. but if i do it has to be done asap.
i have gone sometimes a month at a time where id have nothing to do.
im ok at the moment but i can certainly understand your situation.
i used to find id be more tired and in a foul mood after a day doing nothing then a day where i had stuff to do.
i cant really help with your redundancy question but all i can say is that you're not the only one in this situation

AARRRGH

Could you read a book or run a business while in work? You know, something to occupy yourself while you get paid...

LegacyUser

Sorry I've been in a coma nope just kidding I'd say the mods are up to their eyes in here these days and it took a while for my OP to be posted so I'd gone away to other things and forgot to check this.

Thanks for the responses. CatFromHue, I know exactly what you're talking about, the moods are awful ...and it's only a false sense of bad mood and nothing very deep rooted, it's really just a sense of wasting your life for 8 hrs and then getting back to your "real" life so to speak after work, but then sometimes it's really hard to do anything after work because you've lost all motivation when you get out.

@ AARRRGH... yep I do a few things when I can to keep me occupied I just wish I could do more work related stuff to make the day go by. In hindsight after posting, I do know that I am luckier than most with still money coming in and am grateful for that.

I have since made a decision to study at night, a little expansion of what I already do and move into a different field with it (eventually when opportnity arises)
I think I forgot that nothing is static forever it's just felt that way in here for a long time now but it will change. And exercise is great for relieving the inertia too! Anyway thanks for your answers.

Hitchhiker's Guide to...

Inertia-fied wrote: »

Sorry I've been in a coma nope just kidding I'd say the mods are up to their eyes in here these days and it took a while for my OP to be posted so I'd gone away to other things and forgot to check this.

Sorry about that. Sometimes forget to check for pre-moderated posts.

AARRRGH

Inertia-fied wrote: »

I have since made a decision to study at night, a little expansion of what I already do and move into a different field with it (eventually when opportnity arises)

Great idea! I did a masters at night last year and it kept me very occupied. Even when I was in work I was thinking about how I was going to write up one of my papers, or whatever.

Inertia-fied wrote: »

And exercise is great for relieving the inertia too! Anyway thanks for your answers.

Yeah, another great idea. I go to the gym and it really makes me feel good - mentally and physically.

Clanket

I had a similar situation when travelling a couple of years back. Got a contract job with an oil company in Australia for 3 and a half months and i can honestly say that it was the worst job I ever had, even though it was by far the highest paid. Reason - I had approx 15 to 20 minutes work to do every day. The rest of the time was spent trying to look busy. I got so sick of asking for work and not getting any that I just stopped asking. And lo and behold they stopped giving. So I was getting paid an equivalent of more than €100k a year to show up at 8:30am, do nothing and leave at 4:00pm. Use to drive me mad. I eventually found a little room on a floor that was rarely used. Use to go down to it all the time for a kip. Absolute madness.

Out of interest, do you work in the civil service?

LegacyUser

Nope ...architects. But I'm not an architect I'm support staff, secretarial.The phone rings about 10 times on average a day. Now the boss asked me to "move about" some to fill the day and in generally shake the place up to make it "feel" busier. When I told my sister that she asked me did he want me to do River Dance like Graham Norton in Father Ted which made me laugh pretty hard about it all really.

The reason I think he said this is so that I will promote energy around the place again as I once did a couple of years back, as I used to sort of "run around" a lot. But only cos there was running around to do. Now it has been ordered of me to manufacture that armosphere and you just can't when there's not that much to be done.
I had never wanted to be made redundant so much in my life as in the last two months but now I have decided to hone my secretarial skills now and just do whatever he wants me to do to remain in the job till either they make me redundant or I can leave for a new job.
So if it means doing Riverdance around the office, I suppose it could be worse.

Hey that was a lot of money Alofthedunnes to be doing nothing, jeez more than I'm on anyway.I think making the decision to upskill and then change jobs has mentally helped me even though it's going to take time, I at least feel now like I won't be "stuck" here forever. Never thought I'd stay with secretarial but like the man said, if you're going to do something, do it well, and apart from a creative side I don't want as a career, being a scretary, PA, receptionist is all I've known so far so maybe doing some kind of upskilling in it will be my exit route outta here.It's sad but it's happening in this industry lots.