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I'll try to make this as constructive as possible.

I came onto my current job in a rotation program earlier this year as a new graduate out of college. In my short 6 months, I've done very little work and have constantly asked for more from my manager and other leads in my work-group. The only thing I've gotten is some easy admin work that took me no more than 30 minutes. Otherwise, my daily work is basically other administrative work that takes literally about 20 minutes a day.

When I started, my then-manager established no short-term or long-term projects, which didn't make for any short-term or long-term goals. I came into this rotation/job basically with a blindfold because I didn't have any say in what I wanted.

I try my best to come into work every day with a positive attitude and put in my best. However, my morale sinks lower and lower every week. I know there are plenty of jobs that take some time breaking-in, but I've already wasted half of this rotation already and I want to contribute. There seems to be little to no work to be delegated to me. The only thing keeping me sane is the handful of people my age whom I talk with and my venting when I get home every day.

Would it be unprofessional for me to talk to my manager how awful my 6 months have been? I've let him know through 1:1s that I'm twiddling my thumbs and I really need some work, but not my full inner thoughts on the job. As millenial-esque this sounds, I want to put in a request for another rotation already and quit.

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  • 3
    Related: workplace.stackexchange.com/questions/16765/…
    – user10911
    Dec 18, 2013 at 20:14
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    My recommendation in such circumstances has always been to learn as much about the company's market as possible - if you're 'slack' use it to get an understanding of the overall business. Very often managers don't know what to do with new hires - this happens all the time. It's up to you to demonstrate initiative. Dec 19, 2013 at 3:23
  • 6
    What is a rotation job? Jul 28, 2015 at 7:14

2 Answers 2

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TL;DR answer:

No, it won't be unprofessional. Every professional is supposed to provide feedback (at least here, my company trained us to provide feedback every 6 months, for instance). It's part of the cycle to improve production at the workplace and synergy.

Long answer:

Well... It's not unprofessional. But you have to be VERY careful with what you say and do. I think it can be really good of your part to provide feedback, and with honesty. Not everyone do it.

But if you do provide a negative feedback, don't provide it empty-handed. I will say it again: Don't provide your feedback empty handed. When you talk to your boss openly, you have a chance to suggest improvements. Imaginate the following:

  • Your boss does not agree with you. You got no suggestions to solve or improve the situation, so you got nothing. He will just disagree with you and nothing may happen from the talk you had with him.

  • Your boss does not agree with you, but you proposed something that,
    in your point of view, can solve the situation. Even not agreeing
    with you, he may follow your advice to improve the
    workflow/workplace/whatever the situation is.

By what you said, i understood that you are decided to talk, and just wanted to know if it's unprofessional or not. My answer is no, it is not, but it will be unprofessional to point a mistake and not suggest a solution.

Good luck.

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  • Could the downvoter explain so i can improve my answer? (or the question). But i suspect downvote spree....
    – Hugo Rocha
    Dec 18, 2013 at 20:00
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    Minor nitpick: Your TL;DR is longer than the text that precedes it. "TL;DR" is typically used to introduce a summary of a long post, in case that post was too long to read.
    – Tim Destan
    Dec 23, 2013 at 2:53
  • oh, yes. Will fix it.
    – Hugo Rocha
    Dec 23, 2013 at 11:05
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    I know this is a very late comment, but a manager cannot possibly disagree with the statement "I feel no satisfaction from this job", only with possible reasons/fixes for it.
    – Erik
    Jul 28, 2015 at 12:47
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    @T.Verron another late comment, sorry. But I think in that case, the manager is probably short-minded. If an employee identifies a problem that no one identified, it has to be asserted if it's a real problem or not. Sometimes the employee suggestion can have no cost to the team/company and can help improve a situation. Listening is hard, more than meets the eye, but if someone just dismiss an employee opinion/vision because it's unique, that's another problem.
    – Hugo Rocha
    Feb 4, 2016 at 16:29
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What is it that you hope to achieve by unloading your feelings about the position to your manager? Your manager is probably not blind or dumb. He likely knows you are not happy or challenged. So all your sharing will do is add to his stress level and force him to make a decision. When backed into a corner managers tend to think more about their career than that of the new hire who is unhappy. This is not to say that your feelings are unjustified or unreasonable, just that they are basically irrelevant to your manager.

So instead of telling your manager how horrible it is to work for him, I suggest a different course of action. During your 1:1 ask him about the future. Talk with him about potential for project work. Try and understand what the company is hoping for you to learn from the rotation you are in. And if there is something more you can do to get involved.

If there is no potential work ask if there is a problem with the work are doing. If there is address it. If not then I think talking with him about a transfer may not be out of line. I would stress that it is not that you have a problem with manager just that you would like to be able to contribute more.

In the end that may not be possible either. Many companies that have rotational training plans are inflexible. The good news is that it is just a temporary assignment and it should not be too long before you will get to rotate into a new position. But alienating your current manager is not a good idea. Your new manager is likely to reach out to your current manager to learn about you. If your manager does not like you it can put you in an uncomfortable position through out your current and potentially future rotations.

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  • Thanks. I wasn't trying to implicate or pit anything against my manager as he just came into our group several months ago after I did. It's just an unfortunate situation for both of us Dec 18, 2013 at 22:26
  • If he came to you complaining how the lack of work meant that you were wasting your time and not providing the company any value and it was making him unhappy, how would you take that. Dec 18, 2013 at 22:28

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