Employee waiting for over 2 months to have new tasks assigned to them by new boss as they maliciously comply to their boss's directive: 'I have nothing to do...'

Brad Dickson • Managing Editor

Aug 23, 2024 10:00 AM EDT

Taking the initiative will get you far in most workplaces, even though it's technically your manager's job to make sure you have work to do. But the last thing any manager wants to do is chase staff around to make sure they're being productive, and anyone who has managed staff who never do anything they haven't been explicitly told to do knows how frustrating this can be. So, just them knowing that you're actively trying to get as much as possible done without their oversight will bring them some relief.

Still, there is only so much you can do to ensure you're being productive. There are only so many times you can ask your boss what you should be doing and plead for approval of open tasks to be assigned to you so that you have something to do.

It's not as if you can just go out and create work for yourself in a lot of instances; you'll still end up waiting for red tape to clear, and if you're already struggling to get people to give you tasks to complete in the first place.

When this worker continually asked their new boss to please approve tasks for them to work on, they drew their boss's wrath, who angrily told them to stand by and wait for feedback before proceeding… They emailed their boss to make sure the request was covered in writing to refer back to. That was over two months ago, and they're still waiting to hear what they should be doing.