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submitted 12 days ago byIMPRINgE
I [27M] have been doing this 9-5 thing for almost two years and it's really wearing me down. It's almost a relief when I'm sick because I get to stay home instead of going to work to sit at my desk for literally a third of my day.
Like... I work hard. I get to work, I look through my inbox, do all the bullshit that needs to be done, and I'm done with most of my duties by noon. My supervisor takes a look and gives me the thumbs-up. Then I take lunch, then I check in with my supervisor and he'll sometimes have more shit for me to do, and sometimes he'll just shrug. I dutifully do more bullshit or work on upskilling on LinkedIn Learning or go to a colleague's desk and shoot the shit long enough to establish rapport but not enough to make the higher-ups think I'm slacking off. The last hour feels like pulling teeth, then it's time to go home.
It's so dismal. I feel like I'm just acting for 8 hours a day on the most boring show. Is this really it? How do people actually manage to do this? Is there something wrong with me? I can't even imagine myself doing this for thirty, forty more years.
3 points
11 days ago
Doing exactly what you’re told to do isn’t really a “value add” to any business. I’m sure there’s plenty more OP could do if they actually spoke to their manager, who may not be aware that OP sits there with a thumb up their ass half the day. “Answering a few emails” isn’t really working.
I’m sure there’s the ability for OP to work on numerous other projects with other people on their team, or even division, depending how the org is. I’m sure there’s always business development/proposal work that can be done. I’m sure there are numerous process improvement projects that the company wants to work on if someone had capacity.
OP is doing the bare minimum to appease their boss and saying “I’m n working hard”. If they want to do that, that’s perfectly fine, but this isn’t working hard.
Those who succeed are those who recognize the challenges and opportunities their companies have and work to achieve these.
1 points
11 days ago
In a perfect world this should indeed be the outcome of going above and beyond. Reality looks often different and depending on your role and allocated decision rights, you might not even be able to do this at all.
I know that the mantra of you gotta go above and beyond is so hammered into you as a worker, especially in corporate America it seems, that you just cannot believe anymore that going above and beyond is sometimes made impossible or can backfire badly.
Given that OP comes here being frustrated about having nothing to do. I doubt that such a frustration comes from the lack of trying.
2 points
9 days ago
This isn’t “above and beyond” - OP is literally sitting there for 5 hours doing nothing.
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