Ask HN: Anyone get anxious when they have nothing to do? This has always been the case for me, not sure why, but when I have nothing to do at work I get very anxious. I assume it’s because the other areas of my team are very busy and conversing on various problems and that makes me feel like dead weight and drains my energy. Open to suggestions or tips on avoiding this. I’m trying to find things to do, but I find it equally draining to fill the time at work with useless stuff. |
However, sometimes in the middle of the month I have those very same moments of "nothing to do" and I have made the mistake of telling my manager, literally "nothing to do, give me work" while being anxious because THERE MUST BE SOMETHING TO DO. He's gotten mad at me several times.
Last time this happened, because I have made the mistake of telling him that several times, he called me on Teams to stop me from telling him that. He told me that I should never tell that to a boss, and also, consider that just like you said, those other people maybe are working very hard. He's told me that if I have nothing to do, to just enjoy myself, do some "janitorial" work, or talk to people, and that it's good to not be busy 24/7 with never ending deadlines.
I'm hybrid, so now when that has happens to me, I always just pop to a coworker's desk to chit chat or watch what they're doing and try to help.
The same principle applies at work.
(also, agreed, relax: work isn't always evenly distributed, and —like Messi during the World Cup— you can walk around and catch your breath, while the focus is elsewhere)
No offense intended but that's the mark of a junior developer. Senior developers find themselves something to do, either to improve themselves or to help the business; preferably a single thing that does both. There are always new things to learn that will be a valuable career skill, there are always things at work that have been put off, like updating documentation, code maintenance, or adopting a new best practice. There is never nothing to do.
To forestall the inevitable comment about overwork, people are perfectly free to do these things at as leisurely a pace as they prefer although they would want to have accomplished something meaningful before the next batch of work comes in.