How to deal with lack of assignments in a remote position? [closed]

Question

I'm working for an outsourcing company and two weeks ago got my first assignment, working remotely for a company abroad, as a senior.

The salary is great for what I'm used to. Each one of the companies, the one that hired my and the client, require me to track everything I do, logging every individual task in their respective systems. So far so good.

The thing is, every project they assign I complete in less than half the available time, and I'm not making a big effort either, nor skimping the attention and quality of the product. On the contrary, I feel the work is very easy, but I'm doing it with care, precision and joy.

And yet, after I finish each project, I spend hours or days doing little to nothing, as they don't seem to be used to people getting things done so quickly and it takes them one or two full days to put something on my plate. I tried to get them to include me in more projects, give anything to work with, but it's always something too little and quick for me to complete.

I would just take that time off, but I have to log something in the time trackers.

I've spoken repeatedly with my focal point, which is the lead of the small department but also does the same kind of tasks I do. They say they are happy with me (even rated me as a 10/10 employee in a survey they sent them), but I feel my speed could make the department as a whole look slow and inefficient (which I think it kind of is).

Any person on the team takes 4 to 6 days what I do in 2. On the other hand, if I only track what I actually log, as they take forever to assign me new stuff, it will reflect badly on the people in charge of getting me those tasks.

I've talked to the project manager from the company that hired me and they say I should "fill the tracker with as much as I can".

Here are the options I think I have, none of which sound right to me:

• Do my best at my own rhythm, let the focal point know I have nothing to do and skip the idle time from the log (it will say I work 6 hours, some days 2 hours)
• Do the same but keep insisting they give me less time for each project and more projects (I feel they're starting to get sick of it)
• Log idle time as such
• Log inflated numbers, so everything runs smoothly, like with any of my colleagues (I would not do it, but I feel everyone's implicitly asking me to)

I really like they people and the job. Do you have any suggestions?

Answer 1

Long term, it's gonna be a cultural challenge to stay there. Short term, it can be interesting, easy money.

The main risk for you is to lose your usual rythm. Personally, I'd go with a personal project to keep the rythm, in addition to what I am paid for. I've already been in such a position - just in the office, not remote, for 5 months. We were 3 to be underemployed. One guy did develop a management software for his cousin's business, another guy did improve his C++ skills, I taught myself Python. Both three of us did keep a good work tempo, and if more work from us was needed, we were already on the good tempp.

Later, you'll see if you can keep the motivation. For now, this seems the most important to me for you : keep the good work habits - it's quick to lose them, and long to regain them.

Answer 2

Here's how I'd handle this:

If the job is permanently remote: I'd lie and claim it's taking me three times longer than it actually takes me to do everything. At that point, you're essentially getting full-time salary for a part-time job, which will allow you to enjoy a life outside of work, a literal dream for many people (here in the US, at least). They've made it clear that they want you to just lie about it, so I say go for it. Your company's wretched inefficiency isn't your problem.

If you'll be required to go into the office after the pandemic: once you're back in the office, I'd start being honest and logging idle time as "Idle -- no work for me to do." It'll get their attention very quickly, because somewhere up the chain, there is a person who they would very much prefer not see that. They'll respond to this in one of two ways: by finding you more work, or by firing you.

Only you can assess how devastating being fired will be for you, but I'll just say this: going into an office and doing nothing all day gets boring very, very quickly, to the point where it becomes a waking nightmare, and you'd likely quit anyway after too long (I made it ten months, when I was in a similar scenario).

Answer 3

Log idle time as such

This is the most honest option.

They've asked you to "fill the tracker with as much as you can", and you have clearly exhausted all possible productive work to fill it with.

But for bureaucratic reasons you are still required to write what you are doing in the log.

So you write exactly what you are doing: "Waiting for more work to be assigned to me."

Make sure your focal point knows you are lacking tasks to do, as well, of course.

More generally, recognize that the problem is not you, and you do not need to approach this with the attitude that there is something you are doing wrong that you need to fix. The problem is in the workflow, and fixing it is above your pay grade.

Answer 4

For now I suggest just listening to your focal point, it might be that the other developers are just as fast as you but get the same instructions as this is a form of time or risk management to them. However, make sure you have proof of this request (CYA).

You've just stated to be pretty new to the assignment, it might just be that they're starting with smaller more low effort assignments to make you familiar with the underlying systems and give you time to acclimatize before they give you more difficult requests.

Lastly make absolutely sure you're completely done. Maybe there's something people forgot to tell you and they're expecting a set of unit tests or documentation to be delivered at the end of the project. I would be very surprised if this is the case. But when you're that much faster than expected, I'd double check.