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I am working at consulting company which provides project help to customers in different domains. I was assigned to a supply chain project as a management liaison.

Originally the manager of my company was assigned as the project lead, and he assigned certain tasks to me. Now the customer has reassigned the project lead position to their company employee, because of strategic changes.

I no longer have those tasks assigned, and I feel more or less useless. I am still helping out organizing meetings, but that is pretty much it. I want to get more work and utilize my technical skills for the customer's team and projects.

How do I ask my manager for additional work without sounding being useless to the team?

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    Note to anyone thinking to close as Duplicate: There are alot of questions asking about getting more tasks, but none I found have this kind of context. Please read before voting to close as duplicate.
    – IDrinkandIKnowThings
    Commented Jul 26, 2017 at 17:34
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    @IDrinkandIKnowThings Does the context here really change the conversation? Asking for more things to do is asking for more things to do.
    – Bernhard Barker
    Commented Jul 26, 2017 at 17:41
  • @Dukeling - Having been a consultant that has had to survive quite a few reorganizations I can tell you that many times yes it is very different from someone who is an employee of the company that doesn't need to worry about being cut
    – IDrinkandIKnowThings
    Commented Jul 26, 2017 at 17:53

3 Answers 3

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Just tell your manager that you have noticed that your workload has decreased and that you can handle more work.

There is no need of feeling useless. If you don't have enough work, just speak up and tell your boss that you are capable of doing more work. It is probably a simple oversight on their part. There is usually more than enough work to go around.

If you ask and they don't assign more work to you, then they are satisfied with the amount of work you are producing and do not expect any more you.

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Because you are a consultant, I would first reach out to my contact at your consulting company and let them know about your situation and that you have time to take on more work than you are being assigned. They may direct you to do the best you can with out creating waves. Reorganizations are dangerous times for consultants. Some times different managers get assigned that want to reduce the consultant load for no reason other than that its a quick cost reduction. Hopefully your account manager has been in contact with your manager and has a feel for climate with regards to the management at your company. They should be able to provide you direction even if it is just keep your head down and look busy all the time.

If your company doesn't have any direction for you, or simply directs you to ask for more I would start by trying to offer help with existing tasks for your projects. You can also approach your customer contact and let them know you have your current tasks managed well and have room on your plate if they can use you. The further out from the reorganization you get the easier it should be to get more tasks assigned, or you should know if they are trying to eliminate your position.

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Not mentioning you have enough work to do is going to backfire eventually.

I would go with something that makes it sound as if you are willing to take on more work, instead of you not having enough work. Focus on the fact that you would like to do more and have skills that are currently unused but valuable to the company. Go for something like:

'Hi Mr X, I took a look at my weekly planning and now that Person Y has taken over some of my tasks, I'm ready for a new challenge. I am looking for a new project to take on, perhaps one where I can utilize my technical skills. Do you have any suggestions?'

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