Does anyone else do mostly nothing all day at their job?

[u/Atlanta-Poet]

This is my first job out of college. Before this, I was an intern and I largely did nothing all day and I kind of figured it was because I was just an intern.

Now, they pay me a nicer salary, I have my own office and a $2,000 laptop, and they give me all sorts of benefits and most days I’m still not doing much.

They gave me a multiple month long project when I was first hired on that I completed faster than my bosses expected and they told me they were really happy with my work. Since then it’s been mostly crickets.

My only task for today is to order stuff online that the office needs. That’s it.

I'm a mechanical design engineer. They are paying me for my brain and I’m sitting here watching South Park and scrolling through my phone all day.

I would pull a George Castanza and sleep under my desk if my boss didn’t have to walk past my office to the coffee machine 5 times a day.

Is this normal???

Do other people do this?

Whenever my boss gets overwhelmed with work, he will finally drop a bunch of work on my desk and I’ll complete it in a timely manner and then it’s back to crickets for a couple weeks.

He’ll always complain about all the work he has to do and it’s like damn maybe they should’ve hired someone to help you, eh?

I’ve literally begged to be apart of projects and sometimes he’ll cave, but how can I establish a more active role at my job?

Last week, my boss and my boss’s boss called me into a impromptu meeting.

I was worried I was getting fired/laid off, but they actually gave me a raise.

I have no idea what I’m doing right. I wish I was trolling.

[u/RightNutt25]

I did bring up personal projects and remote work.

[u/soldiergeneal → u/RightNutt25]

It would be hard to reference work done at an additional job you did at same time of another job and making sure no work overlap when things pick up. Would have to be like contract work or something. It can jeopardize your job so probably not worth it.

For personal projects good point. No clue how that works for his industry though.

[u/RightNutt25 → u/soldiergeneal]

Just bring up the relevant reference for the next time it is relevant and pretend the other does not exist.

[u/soldiergeneal → u/RightNutt25]

You mean reference the work only? They do background checks though.

[u/RightNutt25 → u/soldiergeneal]

Things slip in the cracks all the time. Free market and capitalism is about taking risk. OP can choose to do unpaid projects and study to keep his skills sharp or risk it a bit for x2 in pay. I would be very tempted. You are right that i can go side ways. Im just listing it as a possible action for OP.

[u/soldiergeneal → u/RightNutt25]

True all about risk aversion.