How much actual work do you do?

[HGoat1]

A couple of weeks ago, I read an article on "imposter syndrome". It’s the feeling that you are undeserving of all your accomplishments; that somehow all your success is a fluke and soon you’ll be exposed.

Every win that I've had in my career, every pat on the back I've gotten, I know it is because of my skill and intellect. I don’t think I’m lazy. I don’t neglect my work, take unnecessarily long breaks, or give less than my best effort at my job. But when I sit there for hours on end trying to figure out what the hell I’m supposed to be doing when I’m just waiting for a client to call back or my boss to get back to me, the thoughts creep into my mind.

Do others have this much time? What are they doing right now? Should I be doing something else? Why don’t I have work to do? Is my boss not giving me more work because she doesn’t trust me?

I can recall nights where I've stayed late at the office, and I'm not against it at all if necessary.

I guess my question is: how much work do people actually get done in a given day or week? Are you also spending many of your days finding yourself with hours to kill, or are most of your days filled with actual work to be doing?

Let’s try to beat imposter syndrome by revealing just how much our jobs actually demand on a day to day basis. Or you can all reveal that yes, I am a lazy sack of **** and a time thief because I don’t have those full days.

 

[cyclone101]

Well, I'm on CF right now... so...

 

[madguy30]

 

[TXCyclones]

A couple of weeks ago, I read an article on "imposter syndrome". It’s the feeling that you are undeserving of all your accomplishments; that somehow all your success is a fluke and soon you’ll be exposed.

Every win that I've had in my career, every pat on the back I've gotten, I know it is because of my skill and intellect. I don’t think I’m lazy. I don’t neglect my work, take unnecessarily long breaks, or give less than my best effort at my job. But when I sit there for hours on end trying to figure out what the hell I’m supposed to be doing when I’m just waiting for a client to call back or my boss to get back to me, the thoughts creep into my mind.

Do others have this much time? What are they doing right now? Should I be doing something else? Why don’t I have work to do? Is my boss not giving me more work because she doesn’t trust me?

I can recall nights where I've stayed late at the office, and I'm not against it at all if necessary.

I guess my question is: how much work do people actually get done in a given day or week? Are you also spending many of your days finding yourself with hours to kill, or are most of your days filled with actual work to be doing?

Let’s try to beat imposter syndrome by revealing just how much our jobs actually demand on a day to day basis. Or you can all reveal that yes, I am a lazy sack of **** and a time thief because I don’t have those full days.

Unless you work a production line having some time on your hands is pretty common. It doesn't lessen your efforts nor your results, providing you actually give some effort and results.

 

[isufbcurt]

I'll say that I am very efficient and get crap done when I want to. Other times I don't feel like doing much. But to me it all balances out and in the end I get all the stuff I need to completed by the deadline.

 

[AdRock4Cy]

About 15 min of real work.

 

[coolerifyoudid]

Some days, I do the work of 3 people. Other days, I do the work of .3 people.

Regardless of the volume, I try to maintain a level of quality, so I like to think it all balances out.

 

[Dr.bannedman]

i pretty much run the whole store. i can do everything but scoop up the fish. when chad heads back to school i will get my shot. pretty jazzed about that.

 

[Bigman38]

 

[throwittoblythe]

A couple of weeks ago, I read an article on "imposter syndrome". It’s the feeling that you are undeserving of all your accomplishments; that somehow all your success is a fluke and soon you’ll be exposed.

Every win that I've had in my career, every pat on the back I've gotten, I know it is because of my skill and intellect. I don’t think I’m lazy. I don’t neglect my work, take unnecessarily long breaks, or give less than my best effort at my job. But when I sit there for hours on end trying to figure out what the hell I’m supposed to be doing when I’m just waiting for a client to call back or my boss to get back to me, the thoughts creep into my mind.

Do others have this much time? What are they doing right now? Should I be doing something else? Why don’t I have work to do? Is my boss not giving me more work because she doesn’t trust me?

I can recall nights where I've stayed late at the office, and I'm not against it at all if necessary.

I guess my question is: how much work do people actually get done in a given day or week? Are you also spending many of your days finding yourself with hours to kill, or are most of your days filled with actual work to be doing?

Let’s try to beat imposter syndrome by revealing just how much our jobs actually demand on a day to day basis. Or you can all reveal that yes, I am a lazy sack of **** and a time thief because I don’t have those full days.

You described my mindset to perfection. Please remove yourself from my brain!

I would guess I spend 10-20 hours a week doing actual work, in general. I've worked as many as 60 hours a week in my current job, too, though. I'm salary, so I'm paid for 40 hours. I always get my work done and done well; and I do so on time, every time. My boss is thrilled with my job performance. However, I have LONG stretches with literally nothing to do. I have a side business doing woodworking, so I do some design work for that to fill the time. Sometimes I'll work on personal finance stuff. Sometimes I just read a book using the kindle app on my desktop computer. I like to say "I always fill the time productively, it's just not always related to my job."

I have the exact feelings you're describing though. I'm constantly feeling like I shouldn't get paid this much to do so little. Things shouldn't be this easy. Part of that comes from my first job out of college which was production engineering work. In that job, I was always slammed and rarely had time to relax during the day (or after hours). Now, when I have long periods of down time, I think I'm doing something wrong.

I ask for more to do, but I'm usually given something that takes a couple hours, then I'm without work again. I like my job, the company, and the people, but I feel ashamed at times that they think I'm so great when I'm only using about 25% of my total effort.

 

[cyclone101]

In all seriousness though, I work in a pretty relaxed environment. We have our responsibilities, get them done and you're good. When needed to help with other duties, help out. If you continuously get your work done in a reasonable time, you are rewarded with the flexibility to step out early on a Friday, or take a long lunch to get some personal things taken care of, or work from home occasionally. That motivates me more than having a boss look over my shoulder every minute of the day for nine hours a day. Busy time of year I'll do probably 30-40 hours of actual work. Slow time of year I could finish everything by end of the day on Monday if I could schedule it all before then.

 

[madguy30]

I'll say that I am very efficient and get crap done when I want to. Other times I don't feel like doing much. But to me it all balances out and in the end I get all the stuff I need to completed by the deadline.

I have a relative who's a supervisor and he basically goes by this idea.

'This is what needs to be done, this is when it needs to be done by, I don't care how you do it or when, just have it done on time or earlier, see you at happy hour on Friday'.

Typically works and there's been some stuff out there about how people are just as productive doing things at their own pace.

 

[Gunnerclone]

Hang on...

 

[Gunnerclone]

Here’s my answer.

 

[goody2012]

I've wondered about this all the time. I do actual work maybe 5-10 hours a week, sometimes less. I've thought about getting something more fulfilling, but a stress-free position is hard to give up, and I get paid pretty well. It's a conundrum.

 

[Gunnerclone]

I've wondered about this all the time. I do actual work maybe 5-10 hours a week, sometimes less. I've thought about getting something more fulfilling, but a stress-free position is hard to give up, and I get paid pretty well. It's a conundrum.

I have several short but intense and meaningful moments of work on any given day on average. Otherwise I’m free. Some days I have one short but intense and meaningful moments. Some days I have 20. But I can’t be bogged down by anything else that would cause those moments to be missed or delayed.

 

[throwittoblythe]

I've wondered about this all the time. I do actual work maybe 5-10 hours a week, sometimes less. I've thought about getting something more fulfilling, but a stress-free position is hard to give up, and I get paid pretty well. It's a conundrum.

My only "complaint" about my job is that I'm expected to be in the office the majority of the time. Even though I rarely have anyone pop in with a request that I couldn't handle remotely.

I could work from home occasionally, but since I'm not doing any work at the office, I hate to sit at home and do nothing. And I can't bring myself to leave the office, while doing 0 work, and NOT take vacation days. Feels wrong to me, but I don't know why.

 

[HGoat1]

This is cracking me up

I'm feeling better already!

 

[throwittoblythe]

In all seriousness though, I work in a pretty relaxed environment. We have our responsibilities, get them done and you're good. When needed to help with other duties, help out. If you continuously get your work done in a reasonable time, you are rewarded with the flexibility to step out early on a Friday, or take a long lunch to get some personal things taken care of, or work from home occasionally. That motivates me more than having a boss look over my shoulder every minute of the day for nine hours a day. Busy time of year I'll do probably 30-40 hours of actual work. Slow time of year I could finish everything by end of the day on Monday if I could schedule it all before then.

It would be amazing if we could compress our schedules into Monday and then have 6 days off. It's a shame to waste away in an office doing nothing work related as opposed to being at home or elsewhere doing productive, but non-work-related things.

 

[throwittoblythe]

This is cracking me up

I'm feeling better already!

I had to quit my last job because the boredom was so bad. This was a 6 figure, company car, bonus program, engineering job. I literally had nothing to do for weeks on end. I went to my boss repeatedly for more to do but he had nothing. My job was never at risk, I was basically told to enjoy the freedom and ease of the job. I trained for my first half marathon at that job. I'd go for 10 mile runs, shower, and then eat on my lunch break. I frequently took 2 hour lunch breaks.

It finally got so bad I went into my boss's office and said "Look, I come in here, surf the internet for 8 hours a day and then go home. I need more to do." After a couple months of nothing, I finally left for the job I'm in now. Which is more interesting when I have things to do, but only slightly less boring.