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I think this is asking the wrong question. Your team lead might not have realised that the workload is becoming sporadic. Speak to them, explain the situation

I think this is asking the wrong question. Your team lead might not have realised that the workload is becoming sporadic. Speak to them, explain the situation, and ask if there are other smaller tasks you could use to fill in the gaps. If it "wouldn't seem good to bring a book to study at my desk", then it's probably not a good idea to do effectively the same thing on the computer either.

saluki 7y ago
y, I wouldn't draw attention to your workload, I've seen people ask about mores tasks due to not having anything to do, only to find out the company has a low level of work/revenue available and this person was let go. Maybe see about changing teams or taking on a higher level position, be careful how you frame it. Typically managers are stacking tasks/assignments/deadlines so you're as busy as possible.
- el_dev_hell 7y ago
  > I've seen people ask about mores tasks due to not having anything to do, only to find out the company has a low level of work/revenue available and this person was let go. I witnessed a similar scenario with a former colleague. He would have 2ish hours of dead time each day after submitting his daily/weekly/monthly reports to different departments (he was a data analyst). He wouldn't have anything to do until the different dept. heads replied with more work based on the last report. He asked our manager what else he could help with (on multiple occasions) and came off as super driven/motivated from my read of the situation. I had similar dead spots and... well.. STFU. I would browse reddit/hackernews or work on a personal blog post. At the time, I felt like a dick for not doing the same and asking for more work. My rationale was "I get paid to do X, I have done X, it is not my job to load myself up with work if I can do X in 6 hours instead of 8". Anyway, in January a few years ago, we had a restructuring (I still lol at that word every time) and several jobs were "shifted" from fulltime to partime/casual. My colleague had his position "re-evaluated" to 18 hours per week from 40. He could either accept the new role or take a redundancy package. He took the redundancy package. I kept my 40 hour per week job and ended up with a slight COL raise. I chalk this up to a real life example of "what's good for the whole isn't always good for the individual".
- muzani 7y ago
  I find that many software companies understand and aim for redundancy. We know the benefits of having redundant servers. "Bus count" is also a well known term.

saluki 7y ago

y, I wouldn't draw attention to your workload, I've seen people ask about mores tasks due to not having anything to do, only to find out the company has a low level of work/revenue available and this person was let go. Maybe see about changing teams or taking on a higher level position, be careful how you frame it. Typically managers are stacking tasks/assignments/deadlines so you're as busy as possible.

el_dev_hell 7y ago
> I've seen people ask about mores tasks due to not having anything to do, only to find out the company has a low level of work/revenue available and this person was let go. I witnessed a similar scenario with a former colleague. He would have 2ish hours of dead time each day after submitting his daily/weekly/monthly reports to different departments (he was a data analyst). He wouldn't have anything to do until the different dept. heads replied with more work based on the last report. He asked our manager what else he could help with (on multiple occasions) and came off as super driven/motivated from my read of the situation. I had similar dead spots and... well.. STFU. I would browse reddit/hackernews or work on a personal blog post. At the time, I felt like a dick for not doing the same and asking for more work. My rationale was "I get paid to do X, I have done X, it is not my job to load myself up with work if I can do X in 6 hours instead of 8". Anyway, in January a few years ago, we had a restructuring (I still lol at that word every time) and several jobs were "shifted" from fulltime to partime/casual. My colleague had his position "re-evaluated" to 18 hours per week from 40. He could either accept the new role or take a redundancy package. He took the redundancy package. I kept my 40 hour per week job and ended up with a slight COL raise. I chalk this up to a real life example of "what's good for the whole isn't always good for the individual".
muzani 7y ago
I find that many software companies understand and aim for redundancy. We know the benefits of having redundant servers. "Bus count" is also a well known term.