What the hell do I do when there's nothing to do?
I just started a new job that’s fully on site. Not exactly the dream setup, but the money made the decision for me and I desperately need it. The past year I’ve been freelancing, working from home, managing my own time. Before that, I was at companies that cared more about output than clock watching. Show up, do the work, go home. Simple.
This place runs differently. Strict hours. 08:30 to 17:00, no wiggle room. I can respect structure, that’s not the issue. What I’m trying to figure out is what I’m supposed to do when there’s nothing to actually work on.
I’m in week two and today I spent six hours doing absolutely nothing. No briefs, no direction. When something finally came through, it depended on another department, so I sat waiting until 16:45 for what I needed. By then the day was basically done.
I can’t use my work desktop for anything unrelated, and sitting on my phone feels like a bad look, even if there’s genuinely nothing to do. So I end up refreshing emails, digging through servers to undertand the system, trying to look engaged while achieving exactly zero. I've even asked if there is anything that someone needs help with and it's just replied with "wait for the briefs."
I’ve got a list of personal admin I could easily knock out, but I’m expected to stay glued to my desk in case something comes in. It’s a strange kind of limbo. Available, but not useful.
I’m not used to this kind of environment. I don’t mind working hard, but killing time for the sake of appearances is something else entirely.
So what’s the move here. Am I overthinking what I do to kill time? Most importantly, how do you make a day like this feel like one day instead of three.