I’m currently sitting in my corner cubicle setup doing absolutely nothing. For reference, I am in a co-op position and I am paid decently well considering just attending my college was enough experience to be hired in a co-op position. The upside is that I have full control over when I come in, how many hours I work (within reason) and I even have the opportunity to work from home if needed.
Back to the doing nothing part, I don’t do absolutely nothing, I just get my work done as needed. The unique position I am in surrounds me with coworkers that I share about 10% common work with. Other than that, I am the only person in the office that works on what I work on. All of my training has come through old instruction documents and virtual meetings with people that aren’t even in the same country teaching me how to use the programs I need.
Don’t get me wrong, when I have work to do I actually enjoy it, but I do not get enough work to fill my time here. I can’t tell if I work faster than what is expected or if I am given less work than they realize. I suspect I work faster than expected because within the program I have been using, tasks have been marked as taking upwards of 4 to 5 hours, some as long as 16. Despite this, there hasn’t been a task that has taken me more than 45 minutes to an hour.
This has left me with a lot of time to sit back and think. I would be constantly browsing the web, reading articles, lurking on Reddit, to kill time everyday if it weren’t for the fact that my computer setup is angled in a way where it is blatantly obvious if I am doing something not work related. That being said, keeping work tabs open on my screens and writing this post on a Google Doc is more than enough to look like I am hard at work.
All this rambling leads me to a question for all of you, is this really a common thing in the workplace? Being severely… underworked? I’ve done the math and figured that with the hours I work and the expected time that I will be here, I should make roughly 30k my entire time with this company, and up to 50k if I really forced myself to do the hours. I just can’t wrap my head around the fact that this company is spending this much money to have me sit around and do nothing. I don’t feel guilty about it, but it does suck sitting at a desk when I know I could be doing something more productive at home.
All this being said, the opportunity and work I do get is worth it for me in the long run. The money is more than enough for me right now, and it is getting me through college. Just eager to see if anyone else has had an experience similar to this, and any thoughts they have in it.