Because 90% of jobs don’t just let you do leisure activities on the clock and doing literally anything makes time go faster than sitting around doing literally nothing.

As long as you can keep busy that way it is fine to have those jobs with downtime! The challenge arises when, for example, the workplace doesn’t allow personal cellphones on site or in the work area. Or perhaps there is an expectation to look busy all the time so you don’t have the leisure to read or write. I’ve had the luxury to have a job where I can relax a fair bit and have some enjoyable free time with your pastimes listed above.

My previous job was at a workplace with no useable internet, poor cellular signal, and no phones allowed while working policy. Very strict to always be doing something to look busy but when there is nothing to do it gets dreadful.

Looking forward to others experiences on this!

I’m getting both bored and anxious if I don’t have anything useful to do during work hours. I don’t think it’s my work ethics in the play, but self imposed expectations. When this happens too much too often, is when the work no longer feels “fun” and I have to find something meaningful to do again.

Now I’m very privileged in that my current employer’s been very good with the opportunities within, and I’ve always found another position (and promotion) to challenge myself again.

But I think many people expect their work to be interesting, feeling meaningful personally, and if it fails to do so it’s time to move. It’s crapton of your week anyways you need to spend on the “grind” it would suck if it felt wasted time.

For me, waiting for the phone to ring was torture, because I could be interrupted at any time. It was draining and stressful. If you’re actually able to relax, that’s different.

I’m still in the beginning of my programming career (maybe also the end, looking at how AI is going, lmao) and at my previous job I had fuckall to do. I spent nearly a year without a project, working basically 30 minutes a day. I quit mainly because I was afraid that when I change jobs I will have say 5 years experience on paper, but the knowledge for 1, because I’ve barely done anything.

Work isn’t always about money, you also want to learn stuff so you can make even more money in the future. You can’t really do that if you get paid to watch Youtube all day.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boreout

What’s wrong with reading a book, writing poetry or a novel, exercising, playing with the smartphone…

Ask your manager. They’ll probably say something like “it looks untidy”.

Personally? Sitting around too much makes me anxious and antsy, not to mention it makes the time go by really slowly. It’s hard to enjoy pastimes when you’re stuck somewhere you wouldn’t be if you had the choice. (Also, as others have mentioned, not everyone can do those leisure time activities while at work).

My work is actually a little abnormal, but we have plenty of days where we are mostly just waiting around doing nothing for 10hrs and then working really hard for two. Sometimes I do like those days, but more often than not, I enjoy keeping busy with work stuff because sometimes those 12hr days are even longer. If I sat around for the majority of that, I’d be bored out of my skull. Yeah, I can read/do a few things you mentioned, but not for that long.

I also sort of get to live inside my head while I’m working idly with my hands. It’s a little freeing for me mentally to take the load off of my “leisure” brain. I listen to music and kinda pass the time doing my job. And I actually like my job. So that’s a huge benefit.

I see a lot of posts about people becoming depressed because they feel like they have nothing to do and therefore feel useless, but I just can’t relate. My last job pushed harder and harder to make sure we were busy at all times and the constant rush along with it never being enough for middle management to be happy was what made me depressed. I would have killed for downtime to actually breathe.

I used to be bored at work as I had too much downtime, so I decided to just accept more duties. Was nice to be able to solve problems learn new things and it made the time go faster. But you just keep getting more and more work and responsibilities heaped on you for doing a good job, and absolutely nobody notices it until you start falling apart. Then all of a sudden people you’ve never heard of are ‘concerned’ about you. At this point I am burnt out and do even less work than when I was bored, but the difference is that it also drains me.

The lesson is to never try to work at or around full capacity. Don’t fall into the trap of being bored and deciding to take on more work.

Time moves slower when I’m sitting around doing nothing. I’d rather get stuff done and see things getting built; it’s satisfying. If I’m sitting around with no projects it just seems like a waste of time, and I personally don’t like being inefficient.

Other guys? They love just shooting the shit.

This book speaks to it better than I can: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/david-graeber-bullshit-jobs/

Specifically take a look at

Chapter 3: Why Do Those in Bullshit Jobs Regularly Report Themselves Unhappy? (On Spiritual Violence, Part 1)

There’s a big difference between like “working at a cash register with no customers, but you have to stand there looking attentive or management will yell at you” and “working from home, and I can read lemmy on downtime”

I would love to read or something while sitting doing nothing every day. However, I get yelled at and constantly receive shit from my coworkers for being lazy… while they also don’t do shit.

So I sit… and stare at my screen… and press buttons occasionally.

Companies are not stupid and will rarely ever pay you to do nothing, so if you suddenly find yourself with nothing to do at work and not being handed any new projects, they are probably thinking of letting you go and it’s probably time to look for a new job.