Have you ever been in a job where you actually had nothing to do? How would you react? Is it a dream or a complete nightmare? These same questions are being asked by an employee who was recently fake-promoted. Yes, you read correctly. One random day, he had a meeting with his manager, and she told him that his role was being eliminated from the company. He panicked because he thought he was being laid off, but life had other plans for him…
Since the company "valued" his knowledge and wanted to keep him around, they created a new role with a fancy new title: "Senior Advisor, Strategic Initiatives". I mean… that sounds very interesting and probably a position that does require experience. He was excited, although he was going to make the same money. He asked her about his responsibilities, and she gave him a very vague answer: 'We'll figure that out together…'.
The first week came around, and nothing happened. Then the second, third, fourth… he ended up working for six weeks with nothing to do. While for some people this could be a dream, for others it is a complete nightmare! Having to commute to an office, sit there alone, with nothing to do, for the same amount of money feels awful to me.
His coworkers ask him what he's working on, and he feels embarrassed to say that there's nothing to be done… When he asks for work, his manager tells him to trust the process and that he needs to be more patient. But meanwhile, he's sat there with nothing to do… Now, there are two hypotheses as to why this is happening.
On one side, he's not sure if the company can't afford to fire him, so they are expecting him to quit, or if he essentially will have work in the long run and he needs to be more patient until things get settled… What would you do in a case like this? Would you stick around, or would you leave?