feeling absoluetly useless at your job

[Cops]

normally I've worked a lot of jobs that make me feel pretty useless, dishwasher, bus buy, prep cook, mcodnalds, etc. I think these jobs gave me some satisfaction knowing that I did something regardless if it was washing dishes, cleaning tables or making someones food. I felt a purpose in what I was doing, regardless of how useless I seemed at the time.

I'm caught in a situation where my job includes me showing up at 8:30, my boss (he works for the college, he's a teacher) showing up at 11:30, my boss leaving at 2:00 and me leaving at 4:30. I use to have a list of duties but slowly what I'm asked to do has slowly vanished. I'm a Department Assistant, I basically fix stuff or do random things when I'm asked, now I'm fine with this considering it's an easy job but what really makes me feel even more awkward is that another teacher is running a TV show from our school which will include all our media outlets, considering I'm a broadcast student that produces shows I thought this would have been a great idea when I put it forth to my department head last year. Two fellow DA's (department Assistants) work under this teacher, their job includes editing past media, helping the creative flow of the network and general broadcast journalism duties. I see day to day activity of fellow students who love what they do, I pretty much work out of the same area and besides fixing computers a few weeks ago or counting inventory a month ago I really haven't done squat. I also was offered a real Broadcast Journalism job to create profiles for the college, my buddy got the job because I said I couldn't quit this after my first week and jump to something else. Some of the people I'd be working with work under the same department as me. I figured you can't shit in your sink then clean dishes with it.

I feel like if I make a stink about the job I'll get canned or a bad reputation, working for the media is a beast and the last thing you want to go do is open your mouth. If I step above my manager (he's also a teacher) then I look like a jackass, if I go through him he'll tell me they're working on our TV station and I'm working on keeping our department clean. I can't really quit because I need the money but it hurts like a motherfucker knowing I had the idea to make something like this happen and now I'm a fucking maid.

edit: there's a conference right now with all the different colleges and universities talking about their TV stations and some way of linking them together. Everyone but me is there right now, I think I'm just gonna piss off and leave.

[paradise!]

Idk, sounds like a serious dilemma, but i would suggest risking being a jackass to your boss. I mean think about it, should you let one man's opinion about you stop you from doing something fairly important? But it all depends on your personality really, if your the type that would take the go-ahead role then your boss should have expected something like this would happen.

[Cops]

I think he needs to realize that you can't give me fucking nothing to do when I could be productive, and me cleaning while the other people edit is complete backwards bullshit. I missed a few days which i was told I could make up, then his boss pulled me into her office (she's the department head of my program) and told me not to miss anymore time and that they docked me 3 days off my next pay check since I wasn't allowed to make up the time. He's a good guy don't get me wrong, he works hard during the year so the summer is basically a time in which teachers put in face time then fuck off, I completely understand this, but when you aren't really committed to being here then how the fuck can I commit myself to being here?

The other students get told to take days off which they still get paid for if the person they work with isn't here, where as I can't miss any time what so ever. I can't believe they can even justify paying me, it's a fucking gay ass situation that I wish I never agreed to do. I can't even watch movies because I work inside a room that has glass walls, the other DA's work behind me in the editing suite so if they pop out or teachers come and go they see me sitting on my ass not doing dick.

[Eric is God]

I'd definitely suggest you schedule a meeting with your manager and just lay it all out to him. Probably prepare some notes or key points you want to cover to ensure the conversation remains as professional as possible without the conversation becoming emotionally charged. If he's a decent guy he will understand your situation and will do what he can to give you more work and hopefully more tasks you enjoy.

I don't want to turn this into a conversation about myself (honestly!) but I've been dealing with a similar situation since late last year, but instead of not having enough work to do I have too much and the stuff I enjoy doing has also been taken away. I set a meeting with my manager, gave him a breakdown of how many hours I've been putting in, broken out into different areas and how everything has been escalating. At first he responded that his hands were tied because our director wouldn't approve more hires, but over time he has done what he can to ease my workload (which has still been increasing steadily for 6 months) and are team is looking to hire 6 more people. So I'm faced with a job where I'm over worked, under paid (given my level of responsibilities) and hate most of my duties. You can threaten to quit, tough it out and hope things improve or move on. It's hard to find a win-win situation in either of our situations, but it has to start with you and your manager having a frank discussion.

[stark]

Just 'accidentally' leave this thread open on your bosses computer

[Izor]

lols, thats pretty much how i feel sometimes back home, seeing as how contractors are responsible for our whole system there, which leaves me effectively out of a job. I mean really, even if they dont have you doin shit, you gotta ask yourself if thats really such a bad thing in the end. You would like an opportunity to prove that you can do something but in the end youre getting paid to do nothing. Thats how I coped with the 'shitty situation'. Just start leaving during the day to go to the gym and take 2 hour lunches. Youll soon realize just how nice you have it!

[Heroin Bob]

sounds like your being managed out if your not getting privileges "every one else" is getting


id give the old "fix this or im out" speech, worked for me a month ago and got me a raise!

[Epinephrine]

If your job sucks, get a new job. No one out there really cares about you. If you can get a better job, your reputation will naturally improve.

[Cops]

It doesn't suck, it's not satisfying, it's completly different. Sucking would be working at McDonalds or Tim Hortons, I've had sucky jobs before. I think I'm very lucky to not be lifting boxes so I need to just keep my mouth shut regardless of the fact that I feel like I don't do shit all.

After a bullshit day of me sifting through my anger I've decided to say fuck it and just ride it out. The jobs for another 2 months, making a big deal about getting the short end of the stick would just be a waste of time. All the teachers pretty much just want to fuck off and not deal with any stress. Bugging my manager about not giving me enough work or his manager would just piss them off, I think I should just shut my mouth and go with it. I'd like to be involved but I'm not, and I'll have to deal with it.

if I can get away with leaving early, doing nothing then I'll do my best to not give a shit. I really wanted this job to matter and be fulfilling but it can't and won't. I think I'm gonna find a new area to work, I don't really want to hang around an office while people are doing work and I'm sitting at a desk looking like a fucking tool. I might even be able to create some opportunities in which I can watch movies or sleep.

[Izor]

if I can get away with leaving early, doing nothing then I'll do my best to not give a shit. I really wanted this job to matter and be fulfilling but it can't and won't. I think I'm gonna find a new area to work, I don't really want to hang around an office while people are doing work and I'm sitting at a desk looking like a fucking tool. I might even be able to create some opportunities in which I can watch movies or sleep.

This is exactly the right attitude...I mean if they want to give you some responsibility by all means you should be jumping on the opportunity to show that despite the popular belief of most of this forum, you are indeed not useless. If they dont, though, well youre probably getting paid the same as all the other joes that are actually doing work. In the end, your resume for your next job will look the same as theirs. Bottom line is if you think this is a career as opposed to a job, you dont wanna go around pissing your boss off. I've seen numerous people get in a lot of trouble by doing that, even if their boss is a piece of shit.

[Epinephrine]

Satisfying? It's a summer job. I've never had a summer job that was any satisfying in my 10 years of working summer jobs.

I think your new attitude is just right Cops. Just suck it up, ride it out, and enjoy being lazy. When you're in the real world fighting for a career it won't be as easy so why not enjoy it now?

[Eric is God]

Satisfying? It's a summer job. I've never had a summer job that was any satisfying in my 10 years of working summer jobs.

I think your new attitude is just right Cops. Just suck it up, ride it out, and enjoy being lazy. When you're in the real world fighting for a career it won't be as easy so why not enjoy it now?

I must have missed the part where this was a summer job so I completely agree with Epi. This isn't your career so don't sweat the minor stuff that will only last a few months. On my first co-op position with Sprint they gave me enough work to fill maybe 25 hours a week and at least 5 hours of that was standing in front of a photocopier printing out the weekly reports for upper management. I went to everyone I could asking for more work and when no one gave me any I just played Spider Solitaire 2-3 hours a day. I'm sure that once you enter a full time position you will be bitching about how you have too much work (like me) so enjoy the empty hours while you can. Better yet, try to teach yourself something with that time so you come out with something extra to add to your resume.

[DankNuggets]

I must have missed the part where this was a summer job so I completely agree with Epi. This isn't your career so don't sweat the minor stuff that will only last a few months. On my first co-op position with Sprint they gave me enough work to fill maybe 25 hours a week and at least 5 hours of that was standing in front of a photocopier printing out the weekly reports for upper management. I went to everyone I could asking for more work and when no one gave me any I just played Spider Solitaire 2-3 hours a day. I'm sure that once you enter a full time position you will be bitching about how you have too much work (like me) so enjoy the empty hours while you can. Better yet, try to teach yourself something with that time so you come out with something extra to add to your resume.

yeah i work, on average, about an hour a day. When i was an intern, they just kinda laughed it off, saying that "it's a slow time of the year". bullshit, it's a slow job. I'd love more work, it makes the day go by so much quicker. F'ing surfmaster on the computers doesn't help either. I got a choice of here, news, wikipedia, or maps. Recently they've made it an option to work 4-9.5 hour days instead of 5-7.5 days. No way in hell i'm gonna sit on my ass for another 2 hrs a day just for a day off (it'd be nice though). Maybe it'll get really busy sometime in the future, but as of now, i feel your pain. My boss/coworkers don't seem to mind, they all went to school together and just chat it up for a couple of hours a day. If only i was a redneck farmboy into golf and clemson sports...

if you get really bored, i'd suggest just looking through wikipedia, virtually every article you look at is going to have an internal link to some obscure word that they didn't need to put in there. I can waste hours just following links to strange words. Not to mention the freshness of the "random page" button.

[Cops]

soultion: a production company in Toronto wants me to start editing for them, I'll basically double up in pay by working out of my college.

Izor: I didn't know you were so in tune with popular belief and what the consensus of this forum felt. I might not be the most highly respected person on this forum but I'm pretty god damn sure you are beneath me.

Epi: I got 1 of 3 jobs all the students in my department wanted, every single one of my teachers told me they recommended me for the job. I think life could be a hundred times worse so I feel like a douchebag for getting upset over the fact that they expect very little of me. I have good connections and I just need to play my part this summer.

[Izor]

Youd be surprised how well in tune i am with the popular beliefs on this forum. Basically I just answer a question for myself and take the opposite and thats the popular belief here. I dont think you caught my sarcasm, though :/