
Ask HN: Is it expected to always be working during working hours? - usrme
I am a fairly new employee at a rather large company and when I was just starting out I had a lot of things to learn (as expected), so I did a little bit of everything to get the hang of it all. As time went on I have been given my own projects to work on, but there are moments when I am unable to do anything because of a dependency on someone else down the line. In times like these, is it expected of me to find myself a (side)task to keep me busy or is it understandable that I am on &quot;hold&quot;, so to speak, and dealing with things that aren&#x27;t necessary work-related (i.e. doing errands, reading, taking video courses etc)? I&#x27;m new to the IT industry (and to working full-time in general), so maybe all of this is commonplace knowledge to people with more experience.
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brudgers
It depends on the company culture and the individual's personality. There are
also two orthogonal issues, taking care of personal business during normal
business hours and inefficiencies in the the internal workplace process.

At a high level of abstraction, being on hold because of a dependency
indicates a problem in a business process. Fixing the problem or mitigating
its effects seems like a responsible thing to do. On the other hand, if there
is some pressing personal business, down time created by the inefficiency
might be a good time to schedule the time away from the office.

My random advice from the internet: look around and see what your co-workers
are doing. Talk to your boss. Keep in mind the type of person you want to be
and to become. Consider the possibility that a job without enough interesting
and important work to keep you engaged is more likely to hinder your career
over the long term than advance your skills.

Good luck.

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bballer
I've personally never worked in such a large organization that this is a
problem, but I would imagine that you should spend that time improving your
knowledge in the domain you work in, or attempting to help co-workers with
their tasks. Safest bet though is to ask and observe your seniors.

