Take More Breaks

November 3, 2026

We had a staff reduction at work recently. My job is still intact, but my team did lose someone. In response, they postponed several projects until spring. Some of those projects had been assigned to me, so my workload went from moderately heavy to comfortably full.

A couple of my coworkers also had their workloads reduced. Our manager then reassigned a project from one of those coworkers to me. This seemed odd since their original workload was already lighter, and the cuts made it even lighter. And now it's lighter still.

Even more oddly, I was flagged to take on projects from other departments that have also seen a staff reduction. An "opportunity" for me that feels more like a threat given the fact that I have zero interest.

In the past, I have had a very heavy workload. It has been acknowledged in head pats, and once in the form of a $100 gift card to Target, but there has been no substantial pay raise. Shocking, I know. They think I love being an underpaid peon, and my dumb ass has done little to disprove it. Oopsie.

My embarrassing realization in all of this is that I have entirely misunderstood the expectations of employment. I thought that I needed to appear busy at all times. I'd finish my assigned tasks and then hunt down any short-term projects I could sign up to poop out. If I had five hours to kill, I'd sign on to do two or three things.

As an example, our process involves a final manuscript proof by an outside editor. It's volunteer-based: you pick up a proof if you have time between assigned projects. Last year, I did 53 of these proofs. The editor who did the next-highest number did 12.

It's not that I felt like I needed to compete or whatever. The SS Prove Yourself has sailed. It's more that I thought I needed to account for my time. I thought availability was the same as obligation.

I'd still slack off a lot, spending hours a day doing whatever. Reading, mindlessly playing 2048, writing dumb stuff for my friends. But I would eventually complete those extra tasks, and despite my time-wasting, I could still do it quickly. The result of this is that now they think I'm so efficient and productive that when I have room in my workload, it's immediately filled in with someone else's work.

A comment on Reddit recently alerted me to the fact that most office workers don't actually sit there and work for eight hours straight. I know you're thinking "No shit, dumbass." Obviously, I knew this. But only in theory, evidently.

My manager also hinted at this in a recent chat. They told me to "take more breaks" because I complete projects quickly. I was like, Oh. Noted and filed. I don't know why this needed to be spelled out for me.

So now I'm trying to "take more breaks," even though I thought I was already doing that. More more breaks is my plan. And, you know, trying not to read too much into the fact that several of my coworkers have much less to do while I still have plenty. As seems to always be the case, this might not be the time to complain about it.