Mentally surviving a bullshit job
March 8, 2019 10:34 AM Subscribe
I have a job that requires very little of me, but that I can't afford to leave at my age or with my family responsibilities. What can I do to stave off boredom, despair, and the sense I am wasting what's left of my life?
I have 2 days or less of work per week, but am required to be at my work site for at least 4. I'm at the point where I've read, I think, all I can read as a method of keeping tedium and a sense of failure at bay. I'm also between personal projects that I can work on sitting in my office. I'm looking for suggestions for some productive and satisfying ways that I can make use of all this time that I maybe have not thought of.
Some possibly relevant background:
-- My office is in a area where there is a small amount of woodland / open space, but is otherwise hemmed in by highways, parking lots, sidewalk-less roads, and a boring strip mall whose only allure is a bar, which I am trying to steer clear of.
-- I have very little direct supervision or even attention - as long as I do what is asked of me, I am basically ignored completely.
-- I like my co-workers well enough, but don't have substantive friendships w/any of them.
-- We have a small gym, and I run there 2-3 days a week.
-- I realize this is a problem plenty of people would love to have, and that this whole thing is absurd and probably even contemptible.
I have 2 days or less of work per week, but am required to be at my work site for at least 4. I'm at the point where I've read, I think, all I can read as a method of keeping tedium and a sense of failure at bay. I'm also between personal projects that I can work on sitting in my office. I'm looking for suggestions for some productive and satisfying ways that I can make use of all this time that I maybe have not thought of.
Some possibly relevant background:
-- My office is in a area where there is a small amount of woodland / open space, but is otherwise hemmed in by highways, parking lots, sidewalk-less roads, and a boring strip mall whose only allure is a bar, which I am trying to steer clear of.
-- I have very little direct supervision or even attention - as long as I do what is asked of me, I am basically ignored completely.
-- I like my co-workers well enough, but don't have substantive friendships w/any of them.
-- We have a small gym, and I run there 2-3 days a week.
-- I realize this is a problem plenty of people would love to have, and that this whole thing is absurd and probably even contemptible.
Would you like to improve things for your workplace? If so, perhaps you could take on pet projects to that effect. I struggle with boredom at work and cope by taking on more work and even creating work projects that nobody else noticed or cared about. Maybe there's a process that needs to be improved? Information in multiple places that could be centralized?
posted by crunchy potato at 10:46 AM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by crunchy potato at 10:46 AM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
Oh hell yes, use this loose time for skills acquisition. Someone will ultimately notice this business of two days work done over four days.
posted by Oyéah at 10:47 AM on March 8, 2019 [7 favorites]
posted by Oyéah at 10:47 AM on March 8, 2019 [7 favorites]
Teach yourself to draw by copying images that resonant with you. I did this for a while - it was sort an art therapy.
Along this line (no pun intended), check out Zentangling.
posted by diogenes at 10:53 AM on March 8, 2019
Along this line (no pun intended), check out Zentangling.
posted by diogenes at 10:53 AM on March 8, 2019
Learn a language! You can make all of your flashcards online, put post-its on your office supplies, take an audio course, and be speaking excellent Spanish/Hindi/Arabic/anything in 6 months.
Another thing I have greatly enjoyed is office gardening (unless you have no windows).
posted by epanalepsis at 10:59 AM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
Another thing I have greatly enjoyed is office gardening (unless you have no windows).
posted by epanalepsis at 10:59 AM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
You could write letters! Either to penpals, or to officials (congresspeople, etc).
Is it possible that you could do some remote work as a volunteer in your free time? Maybe there is some data entry or something that you could do for an organization that you could do during downtime, while still being available for your job?
Skillshare.com often has free trials and has a lot of classes/videos - I haven't tried it myself, but it could be an option to entertain you, perhaps, or to give you ideas on what to work on?
posted by needlegrrl at 11:02 AM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
Is it possible that you could do some remote work as a volunteer in your free time? Maybe there is some data entry or something that you could do for an organization that you could do during downtime, while still being available for your job?
Skillshare.com often has free trials and has a lot of classes/videos - I haven't tried it myself, but it could be an option to entertain you, perhaps, or to give you ideas on what to work on?
posted by needlegrrl at 11:02 AM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
I'm a writer, and I often either write or do pre-writing type activities (researching things on the web, making notes at my desk which looks like "working" but is actually not directly relevant to my job duties, typing up outlines or making research spreadsheets which also looks like I'm doing work related stuff) during the work day.
At this point I mostly do it as a hobby, but it would be cool to eventually publish or sell something, or for it to lead to meaningful paid work. But even if not, it's a great way to occupy my mind outside my boring office job.
posted by the milkman, the paper boy at 11:07 AM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
At this point I mostly do it as a hobby, but it would be cool to eventually publish or sell something, or for it to lead to meaningful paid work. But even if not, it's a great way to occupy my mind outside my boring office job.
posted by the milkman, the paper boy at 11:07 AM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
I realize this is a problem plenty of people would love to have, and that this whole thing is absurd and probably even contemptible.
Nah, given that you've used the phrase Bullshit Jobs in the title of your posting, I imagine you've read David Graeber's exploration of why this sounds great but isn't. I hear you. I have a bullshit job, too.
Something that allows you to create something can feel good in a bullshit job. I'm not talking about keeping an easel under your desk and creating great art. Me, I sometimes knit at one of my job sites where I'm less in public view. My boredom turns into hats and stuff. It's a little meditative and better than looking at the damn internet all day. Would things like that be satisfying?
posted by Smearcase at 11:09 AM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
Nah, given that you've used the phrase Bullshit Jobs in the title of your posting, I imagine you've read David Graeber's exploration of why this sounds great but isn't. I hear you. I have a bullshit job, too.
Something that allows you to create something can feel good in a bullshit job. I'm not talking about keeping an easel under your desk and creating great art. Me, I sometimes knit at one of my job sites where I'm less in public view. My boredom turns into hats and stuff. It's a little meditative and better than looking at the damn internet all day. Would things like that be satisfying?
posted by Smearcase at 11:09 AM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
Perhaps find an activist group and see if they have tasks you can do for them? Ideas of things you might be able to do for such a group:
-- write social media posts or emails to their mailing list
-- research (contact information, history, other groups doing similar work, etc)
-- administrative tasks (setting up meetings, finding meeting places, organizing food)
-- setting up databases (even simple gmail contact lists)
-- setting up organizational tools (Slack, contact lists)
posted by mcduff at 11:12 AM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
-- write social media posts or emails to their mailing list
-- research (contact information, history, other groups doing similar work, etc)
-- administrative tasks (setting up meetings, finding meeting places, organizing food)
-- setting up databases (even simple gmail contact lists)
-- setting up organizational tools (Slack, contact lists)
posted by mcduff at 11:12 AM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
Study for an online BA or MA in something related to your field or totally new and use it to move on up out of this job you hate!
I always recommend people look at Thomas Edison University because it's the State of New Jersey's adult education university, and has a campus, therefore saving you from the stigma of an "online degree." I don't know where you are, but a NJ mailing address qualifies you for in-state tuition.
posted by DarlingBri at 11:22 AM on March 8, 2019 [4 favorites]
I always recommend people look at Thomas Edison University because it's the State of New Jersey's adult education university, and has a campus, therefore saving you from the stigma of an "online degree." I don't know where you are, but a NJ mailing address qualifies you for in-state tuition.
posted by DarlingBri at 11:22 AM on March 8, 2019 [4 favorites]
Do you have my old job?
I variously worked on a programming skills course, developed some tools to make the work I did have more efficient (my boredom was the tight deadlines interspersed with dead air variety), got put on a committee way outside my expertise so I had to learn stuff, took lots of short walks, and spent too much time BSing on Twitter. And started seeing a therapist, because I needed it, because of the job.
posted by eirias at 11:23 AM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
I variously worked on a programming skills course, developed some tools to make the work I did have more efficient (my boredom was the tight deadlines interspersed with dead air variety), got put on a committee way outside my expertise so I had to learn stuff, took lots of short walks, and spent too much time BSing on Twitter. And started seeing a therapist, because I needed it, because of the job.
posted by eirias at 11:23 AM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
MOOCs! They were made for this situation.
posted by Don Pepino at 11:23 AM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Don Pepino at 11:23 AM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
(I recommend anything taught by anybody at the University of Edinburgh, just because the city is so gorgeous and maybe they'll go outside now and then. And they're sweet people.)
posted by Don Pepino at 11:25 AM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by Don Pepino at 11:25 AM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
Mr. Botanizer also worked in a building hemmed in by highways but next to a bit of woods and a ravine with an intermittent stream. He went out during lunch hour and identified birds and brought back samples of plants for me to identify. A coworker took wonderful closeups of insects. A seasonal project might be a natural history of the bit of wild space with photos and drawings. You could use field guides or maybe there is something like Go Botany in your area.
posted by Botanizer at 11:27 AM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
posted by Botanizer at 11:27 AM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
You could edit wikipedia. There are various projects aimed at improving the general quality of the articles. Long lists of missing articles (eg. about women), etc.
posted by sohalt at 11:29 AM on March 8, 2019 [12 favorites]
posted by sohalt at 11:29 AM on March 8, 2019 [12 favorites]
I wrote a fair bit of not-terribly-good poetry during one of my most bullshit jobs, and a little of it is actually pretty good upon rereading. Also journaled online (yes, originally on livejournal), which can be good for the mental health. There are a fair number of useful journaling exercises and questions available online, if you need a kickstart.
posted by ldthomps at 11:35 AM on March 8, 2019
posted by ldthomps at 11:35 AM on March 8, 2019
Two words: Side hustle. Find stuff that's cluttering your house and sell it on ebay.
posted by Wild_Eep at 11:40 AM on March 8, 2019
posted by Wild_Eep at 11:40 AM on March 8, 2019
I've had that job. Multiple times.
One time I learned about biology. A lot of biology. I read a bunch of textbooks and papers and review articles. I went to biology meetup groups and lectures. I talked with people at the groups and lectures about biology. Sometimes it was a grind, and sometimes it was fascinating. I dreamed about becoming a biologist. (Then I learned how much biologists earn for the first decade or so of their career.)
Another time I learned about human-powered flight. There was a $250K prize at the time, since claimed, for a 60 second human-powered helicopter flight, and I thought the money might help me escape the bullshit. I learned a lot about engineering, but never did anything with it. I have filled lots of notebooks with drawings and equations, though.
Other times, I've taken on more responsibility at work. That's sometimes the scariest thing: what if I mess up this great situation I've got? It has forced me to grow, though, usually in useful ways.
What I've learned is that we are members a species who really want to be useful and important to other people. If you're spending most of your time feeling like you're being forced to be useless, it gets horrible after a while. Find something that makes you feel like you're making a useful contribution, whether it's at work or in hobbies. Find people who you can be useful and important to.
If you've gotten into the groove of not doing this - if you've gotten into the groove of reducing your obligations and interactions instead of increasing them - it might seem like it's not worth it at first. It usually is, though, in the end.
posted by clawsoon at 11:50 AM on March 8, 2019 [7 favorites]
One time I learned about biology. A lot of biology. I read a bunch of textbooks and papers and review articles. I went to biology meetup groups and lectures. I talked with people at the groups and lectures about biology. Sometimes it was a grind, and sometimes it was fascinating. I dreamed about becoming a biologist. (Then I learned how much biologists earn for the first decade or so of their career.)
Another time I learned about human-powered flight. There was a $250K prize at the time, since claimed, for a 60 second human-powered helicopter flight, and I thought the money might help me escape the bullshit. I learned a lot about engineering, but never did anything with it. I have filled lots of notebooks with drawings and equations, though.
Other times, I've taken on more responsibility at work. That's sometimes the scariest thing: what if I mess up this great situation I've got? It has forced me to grow, though, usually in useful ways.
What I've learned is that we are members a species who really want to be useful and important to other people. If you're spending most of your time feeling like you're being forced to be useless, it gets horrible after a while. Find something that makes you feel like you're making a useful contribution, whether it's at work or in hobbies. Find people who you can be useful and important to.
If you've gotten into the groove of not doing this - if you've gotten into the groove of reducing your obligations and interactions instead of increasing them - it might seem like it's not worth it at first. It usually is, though, in the end.
posted by clawsoon at 11:50 AM on March 8, 2019 [7 favorites]
My job has periods like this too, and it's 10 times more exhausting than being busy and productive all day. I try to do everything I possibly can to make my after-work life easier during work time. I take long breaks to go grocery shopping, run errands, exercise, etc. I write long messages to friends I want to catch up with. I disappear to the bathroom or my car to floss my teeth or file my nails. I take care of personal administrative stuff (paying bills, booking flights, etc.).
posted by metasarah at 11:59 AM on March 8, 2019 [4 favorites]
posted by metasarah at 11:59 AM on March 8, 2019 [4 favorites]
I spend a lot of the day sitting at a computer at a semi-public desk where I can't e.g. listen to a podcast/practice a language out loud. It's also possible at any given moment that someone will interrupt me, so it's fairly difficult to write fiction or work on programming, although those are two things I occasionally try to do just because.
I end up doing a lot of half-measures. I work on Duolingo in silent mode, which is less than ideal but which potentially is justifiable as work-related. I find tasks tangentially related to work that will require me to work on a problem, then work on that. I find things related to the job and try to understand them better. I make things I want to understand better somehow relevant to the job. I think of creative ways to help my partner, whose job is more stressful than mine.
posted by aspersioncast at 12:14 PM on March 8, 2019
I end up doing a lot of half-measures. I work on Duolingo in silent mode, which is less than ideal but which potentially is justifiable as work-related. I find tasks tangentially related to work that will require me to work on a problem, then work on that. I find things related to the job and try to understand them better. I make things I want to understand better somehow relevant to the job. I think of creative ways to help my partner, whose job is more stressful than mine.
posted by aspersioncast at 12:14 PM on March 8, 2019
Can you get this job to support professional development opportunities like going to conferences, attending presentations, workshops, etc? It will get you out of the office and possibly making connections that could lead to another job. You could even offer to pay for it yourself, but just get permission to be out of the office attending the event. As long as the event is somewhat related to your work/industry/sector, you should be able to justify the expense/time.
Or maybe you could take on organizing "lunch and learns" for your office and invite interesting and relevant speakers to your office to give presentations. That gives you something to do at the office and provides some breaks in the day for something more interesting.
posted by brookeb at 12:22 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
Or maybe you could take on organizing "lunch and learns" for your office and invite interesting and relevant speakers to your office to give presentations. That gives you something to do at the office and provides some breaks in the day for something more interesting.
posted by brookeb at 12:22 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
this whole thing is absurd and probably even contemptible.
If you keep beating yourself up over this, that will make it harder to enjoy the little distractions that keep you sane — or even to work up the energy to do them at all.
posted by nebulawindphone at 12:37 PM on March 8, 2019 [3 favorites]
If you keep beating yourself up over this, that will make it harder to enjoy the little distractions that keep you sane — or even to work up the energy to do them at all.
posted by nebulawindphone at 12:37 PM on March 8, 2019 [3 favorites]
You could do some idle worker tasks for money, like surveys or voice transcription. There are some other ideas at Beermoney.
posted by msbutah at 12:50 PM on March 8, 2019 [3 favorites]
posted by msbutah at 12:50 PM on March 8, 2019 [3 favorites]
Is it possible that you could do some remote work as a volunteer in your free time?
A few more ideas:
Proofreading for Project Gutenberg
Transcription and Wikipedia editing for the Smithsonian
Digital volunteering for Australian museum(s?)
United Nations online volunteering
Red Cross volunteering (possibly requires a more fixed schedule than you have)
Humanitarian Open Street Map
Astronomy stuff
More astronomy stuff
And more astronomy stuff
Various research projects
Plus if there are any open source projects you use and want to support, many of them can use contributions not just to code but to their documentation, tutorials, graphics, etc.
On a different tack, if you come across any local organizations you'd like to help they might have a use for whatever digital contributions you can provide.
posted by trig at 12:56 PM on March 8, 2019 [15 favorites]
A few more ideas:
Proofreading for Project Gutenberg
Transcription and Wikipedia editing for the Smithsonian
Digital volunteering for Australian museum(s?)
United Nations online volunteering
Red Cross volunteering (possibly requires a more fixed schedule than you have)
Humanitarian Open Street Map
Astronomy stuff
More astronomy stuff
And more astronomy stuff
Various research projects
Plus if there are any open source projects you use and want to support, many of them can use contributions not just to code but to their documentation, tutorials, graphics, etc.
On a different tack, if you come across any local organizations you'd like to help they might have a use for whatever digital contributions you can provide.
posted by trig at 12:56 PM on March 8, 2019 [15 favorites]
I've been you before. The only thing that worked for me personally was to take the bull(shit) by the horns and force the job to become non-bullshit. Doing other stuff didn't assuage the malaise. Is there any additional work you can take on, or get official approval for training, conferences, etc? Organize officially sanctioned company events or trainings, or charity drives? Go ridicuously far more into detail than you need to on your actual work? As in, write ten side-memos on tangents? This is what I did, and I turned my bullshit job into a real job.
posted by schwinggg! at 1:18 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
posted by schwinggg! at 1:18 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
Reframing: your job is paying you to be available to work. It is not your employer's job to entertain you. You do not need to feel bad about not working constantly, nor do you need to be mad at your job for not being fulfilling. Hopefully a different take will help you accept it and figure out how you can productively use your downtime.
When I'm stuck or bored at work, I freewrite for fifteen minutes (no stopping!) and always come up with at least a couple nagging life admin things I can take care of or some potential project ideas.
posted by momus_window at 1:31 PM on March 8, 2019 [8 favorites]
When I'm stuck or bored at work, I freewrite for fifteen minutes (no stopping!) and always come up with at least a couple nagging life admin things I can take care of or some potential project ideas.
posted by momus_window at 1:31 PM on March 8, 2019 [8 favorites]
Someone will ultimately notice this business of two days work done over four days.
I would file that under “possible but hardly inevitable.”
Many small to medium sized organizations are ill-equipped to monitor, analyze or act on concerns surrounding the efficacious use of worker time. Management may simply have very little idea how long the responsibilities take to tend to — the major data point in hand may be the benchmark set by OP.
posted by Construction Concern at 2:51 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
I would file that under “possible but hardly inevitable.”
Many small to medium sized organizations are ill-equipped to monitor, analyze or act on concerns surrounding the efficacious use of worker time. Management may simply have very little idea how long the responsibilities take to tend to — the major data point in hand may be the benchmark set by OP.
posted by Construction Concern at 2:51 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
“Offer it up,” as my mom would say, and make that time useful to others:
Distributed Proofreading
Record periodicals for the blind
Record public domain books as audiobooks
Read text samples for the Mozilla voice data project which I have forgotten the name of
posted by wenestvedt at 4:52 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
Distributed Proofreading
Record periodicals for the blind
Record public domain books as audiobooks
Read text samples for the Mozilla voice data project which I have forgotten the name of
posted by wenestvedt at 4:52 PM on March 8, 2019 [1 favorite]
Is the question here really "how would I use two days per week at which I had to be at a desk?" Get my taxes done, set up all my appointments etc., plan vacations, organize the 15 years of digital photos I have and decide which to print into books or wall hangings, pick from one of two or three ideas I have about alternate careers and take online classes or even start building a website for them (depending on whether I could do that without using office resources such as the Internet), plan out my meals and how to prep cook them over the weekend, research geneology and draw our family tree, assign myself little research projects and write up what I learn, (if I could wear headphones) maybe plan and edit and market a podcast, learn day trading (totally kidding on that one, don't do that, but I do think it'd be fun to set up one of those fake-money accounts and watch stocks and read stock twitter), knit...
I do think I might lose my mind if I couldn't listen to podcasts or audiobooks or find some other way to alleviate loneliness.
posted by salvia at 5:11 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
I do think I might lose my mind if I couldn't listen to podcasts or audiobooks or find some other way to alleviate loneliness.
posted by salvia at 5:11 PM on March 8, 2019 [2 favorites]
I have a friend who wrote his first novel in a job like this. He became a successful writer. So... Is there some kind of bucket list item you can cross of your list while at your desk?
Also, get into something social of some kind at work or outside it.
posted by xammerboy at 9:02 PM on March 8, 2019
Also, get into something social of some kind at work or outside it.
posted by xammerboy at 9:02 PM on March 8, 2019
I was looking for this when I posted before but didn't remember enough to find it:
Protein folding game to contribute to biomedical research
Some more info about it
Looking for this brought to mind one other occupation: researching some subject and posting on Metafilter :-)
posted by trig at 12:22 AM on March 9, 2019 [1 favorite]
Protein folding game to contribute to biomedical research
Some more info about it
Looking for this brought to mind one other occupation: researching some subject and posting on Metafilter :-)
posted by trig at 12:22 AM on March 9, 2019 [1 favorite]
- plan(+t) a garden to support your native bees
- pick up wood carving
- meditate (headspace app!)
- use the time to plan all your meals, like go nuts with overnight oats, bento boxes, meal prepping etc.
- learn quotes by heart
- learn a language (signing?)
- pick a small project to improve the work environment, like making the bathroom fully accessible for folks with babies or organize a way for the office to recycle all the trash etc. etc.
posted by speakeasy at 2:37 PM on March 9, 2019 [2 favorites]
- pick up wood carving
- meditate (headspace app!)
- use the time to plan all your meals, like go nuts with overnight oats, bento boxes, meal prepping etc.
- learn quotes by heart
- learn a language (signing?)
- pick a small project to improve the work environment, like making the bathroom fully accessible for folks with babies or organize a way for the office to recycle all the trash etc. etc.
posted by speakeasy at 2:37 PM on March 9, 2019 [2 favorites]
Spool knitting
Regular knitting
Small handicrafts to be sold on etsy
Create digital goods to be shared or sold online (e.g., SVG files of common objects for use on Cricut machines, or models of items to be 3D-printed).
Take online courses in software packages via Lynda.com (or the like), often free from your local library.
Edit the web site or newsletter of your favorite nonprofit.
posted by wenestvedt at 4:19 PM on March 9, 2019 [1 favorite]
Regular knitting
Small handicrafts to be sold on etsy
Create digital goods to be shared or sold online (e.g., SVG files of common objects for use on Cricut machines, or models of items to be 3D-printed).
Take online courses in software packages via Lynda.com (or the like), often free from your local library.
Edit the web site or newsletter of your favorite nonprofit.
posted by wenestvedt at 4:19 PM on March 9, 2019 [1 favorite]
If you can wear headphones or listen to audio, you can transcribe or translate TED Talks.
posted by abeja bicicleta at 4:17 PM on March 12, 2019
posted by abeja bicicleta at 4:17 PM on March 12, 2019
This thread is closed to new comments.
posted by metahawk at 10:39 AM on March 8, 2019 [3 favorites]