This has been the bane of my existence in almost every job I’ve worked. “Look busy”, “don’t stand idle”, “delegate tasks for yourself”. My dude, if it’s not on the job description and it’s not a task I was onboarded in why would I do it?
But in life we’re just supposed to somehow already know. And assume that we should lie about how we’re spending our time. I’ve fought with multiple managers because I’ll just leave when I get far enough ahead of my work that the only thing left to do is pretend I’m still working. I’ve been reprimanded for helping other areas instead of just still pretending to do work in my own.
It happens in enough fields that I realize, the culture isn’t broken. This IS how average people get through their careers. I’m the one who can only survive in roles that don’t have a hard endpoint for tasks. Because I’m broken in someway that I can’t stop getting ahead of my work and I can’t make myself lie about it.
Unionized makes a huge difference. I almost got made full-time at a unionized factory but I had to prove myself by hustling first and I caused an equipment failure
Then God or the Fates (or whatever you want to call the Universe) had better things in store for you than that job.
oof, if I attribute any intentional design to the things that have happened in my life we get to an “Evil Demon” situation pretty fast. But I appreciate the sentiment. I’m also praying to one day arrive at a place where it won’t feel so toxic to just exist