How to handle situation when I don't have enough to do? [duplicate]

Question

This question already has an answer here:

• What to do after I finish all my tasks and my manager has no tasks to give me? [duplicate] 4 answers

I have almost 8 years commercial experience, and I've been working for my current company for 2-3 years now. My problem is I don't feel like I'm doing any work at all.

For a whole year I was working with a team from a different office on a project, last month due to financial issues, the other office was shut and project was put on hold. Since then, most of the stuff I did was just small patches, no more than 10 lines of code.

When I picked a couple tasks from the list from the project which I was working on before, my team leader told me there are more important things to do. Since then, I'm spending more time asking him what I can do than actually doing any job. Given that everyone else in the office is busy with something, and I don't have anything to do for hours makes me feel bad and useless.

How I should handle this situation?

Answer 1

Since the main advise you took away from the other questions and answers was to talk to your boss and you’ve already done that with little success, my advice is to start practicing your skills, learning new skills, and polishing your resume. You said the other branch closed due to finances; yours might be next. Preparing for that is the most practical approach to the “down time”. Improving yourself is never a bad idea; not for your current employer nor possible future employers.

Answer 2

TL;DR : Learn to be a better professional in your current job by reading and practising when you have nothing to do.

To add from @UnhandledExcepScan, if you value your job, I think the best thing to do is to use your down time to read and practice every little thing that can be linked to your job.

Right now, you have almost no work, but trust me, it can change quite quickly. Your manager's boss may also stumble upon the fact that you are not producing a lot of work, and manager have the bad habit of shifting the blame to the employee to save their job.

Working on things that can improve your work and your knowledge is beneficial because it gives you something to tell your boss if he ever asks you.

You should always be ready to explain waht you have done the past few weeks, days or months should you be asked by your boss.

And obviously, it's also very good for you to try and learn new things, because it makes you a greater asset for this job and the next!