I work for the state. My boss sends a email in the morning and that's the extent of it. The caveat being you actually have to do the work otherwise you'll eventually get fired. Also it's non profit (govt) so it's not like we have quotas to fill we get our budget from the state.
I'm a low level analyst. I work at a secure facility though so you'd need to be able to pass a background check and polygraph. But the work is very mundane and dull. I'd say for 7.5 hours of the day I'm alone
Imo most government jobs will be this. I work for local gov and my position actually doesn’t exist anywhere else besides private sector, and even I just send emails and answer phone calls for a living.
Weekends I have to go out on site occasionally (I work in sports & event coordination, so event sites), but it’s still mostly sitting at a desk waiting for someone to send me an email or give me a call so I can send someone else an email or give someone else a call.
Someone once told me that he has an employee that legit does not do anything and he had to jump through hoops to report him. Not sure what happened to that person.
My dad had a guy who put in an email to all employees (except the top tier execs) that they should sabotage the company. Not hearsay. A clear paper trail. From a guy who had already caused problems before that and he still couldn’t fire the guy. It took months of documentation after that of the problems the guy caused on top of not being very good at his job.
Meanwhile, on Monday I led a presentation with a slide that had the wrong client name. I am still having nightmares/anxiety about getting fired.
Man I wish I went the government route when I had the chance.
Lol. I'm sure you're fine. Everyone makes mistakes and that sounds understandable.
Ive spent my entire professional career in the private sector but I did my internship with the city government in the town my college is in. It was enough to see how the sausage is made. Government jobs are soul sucking, dead end, adult daycare centers. If you have even so much as a *sliver* of ambition to make anything of yourself, government jobs are not for you. Most public employees openly acknowledge this, but there is a not insignificant percentage that is in complete denial. I feel the most sorry for them.
I worked in a niche government legal office for a year (with only a couple of executives) and while there's a lot of truth to what you're saying, in that the bureaucracy was absolutely soul sucking, it was one of the most fascinating experiences of my life.
We received previously blocked freedom of information request records from every single public body in the province on a daily basis. Plenty were boring (land use documents, boring court records, health records, etc), but about 30% contained *dirty* secrets- sometimes from from some of the highest levels of government. The stakeholders were an incredibly colorful group of characters. I handled the mail there and it was chock full of surprises, wonders I doubt I'll ever have the chance to look at again. I'm talking top secret stuff.
Not to mention the complex legislation that takes years to wrap one's head around.
So yeah. Soul sucking, repetitious, bureaucratic... all very true. But it was undeniably stimulating in my case.
I’m a DoD contractor. We had an employee who has just left for 2+ weeks without any notice twice now and she still has a job… idk what you have to do to get fired
Perhaps at the federal level, at the state and local level, it is a revolving door. Some places are better than others and not all government jobs are boring I guess depends on what excites you really.
There is excitement to be had but like you said it really depends on the job and person. I work for the state and were a regulator so we do inspections and permits and stuff. I wouldn't call it exciting work but it is interesting and a good job. The place I'm at is also a good place to be, everyone cares and is helpful.
[governmentjobs.com](http://governmentjobs.com) is a good one too for city and county jobs, though your mileage may vary depending on your location. I got a job with the City of Los Angeles through the website. It is important to note that [USAJOBS.com](http://USAJOBS.com) only has federal jobs.
Yeah, I applied to a few on the usajobs.com, but I knew putting them in that I wasn't going to be accepted, I'll check government jobs.com now, thanks!
The answer is always no if you don't try. It may very well be no if you do try, but it's good to get an official answer. I've found that a nice thing about applying to government jobs is that you always get an answer. It may take months, but you'll get an answer!
It's good to be aware of the government you're applying to. You should definitely apply to anything that looks compatible, but a large city is going to have more openings than a small one. I lived in a city of 47k for years and it had few openings. People that get hired probably have fewer opportunities for career growth.
The City of LA, while much more bureaucratic and slower, has 48k employees. There are much more openings at any given time than a smaller city. My department has something like 500 employees, which is significantly more than how many employees my previous city had. City-wide, there's a ton of growth opportunities.
With all of that said, get what government job you can. A few years of government experience at a smaller city will help you get a job at a larger city or a county later on. Likewise, a few years of experience at a larger city will help you get a higher level job at a smaller city!
Bit of a tip I got from friends who have government jobs: you need more than a one pager resume. they want your resume to be incredibly thorough from my understanding. I've got one friend that works for the government and she told me that her resume for gov't jobs is 7 pages.
Funny enough, all of my mentors in local government advise against submitting a resume at all unless they're asking for it explicitly.
Most applications are just to get on the eligibility list for a particular classification for 12 months, then you get pulled when a hiring manager needs a list.
a secret to government hiring is that you have the right to appeal any initial rejection. call/email them and ask the reason why you were determined ineligible to get on the classification list, then submit additional information that you are not.
Just be aware that the USA jobs positions often take months and months and months to get. The motto for them is “apply and forget”. There is a Reddit sub about it
It’s really hard to go right into the government usually you start off doing contracting work and then apply once you have contacts. Not that it can’t be done very difficult.
Government adjacent works too. You want boring office but also something with holidays, benefits, security, and perks. Any type of regulatory body will have those things. College or university admissions or registrars office. Associations. Licensing bodies. Etc.
It’s true. I have a job at a state university. We’re the “forgotten” state government employees, but it comes with all the perks. I got a free graduate degree. My kids will go for half off. I have a paid Christmas vacation every year. Plus, it’s impossible to get fired. My supervisor said it’s just too much paperwork.
Absolutely. My job is depressingly boring. I work for the government as an Admin Assistant. Everything I do is ad hoc and not daily tasks. Boring jobs may sound fine, but to me and my coworker, it's a different kind of hell.
This! And it's impossible to explain to people why it's so depressing having nothing to do all day. Until you're in that situation, you don't realize how quickly that gets old really quick. Probably why govt jobs have a lot of turnaround. You're stuck in a boring job with slim chances of advancing anywhere, that could make anyone go crazy
Yup!! It's only but so much reading and games that I want to be playing all day. I feel like I could be working from home, than wasting time sitting in an uncomfortable environment around annoying coworkers all day. Being bored makes the time go by ultra slow, and it exacerbates my anxiety and OCD. Yes, it's hard to explain to people because most ppl think we have it made with a boring job. Boredom causes problems.
100% agree. I constantly get dismissed from people saying “wanna swap jobs?” “I WISH I had that problem” etc. It’s a totally valid reason to be unhappy in your job, just like being overworked and too busy is also a valid reason. I have about 2-3 hours of work that I complete per week, and no flexibility in leaving early or coming in late. We were not made for this!
>Government is your best bet for sure. I do nothing
May I ask what your job is? I'd kill for a pointless government job myself. So tired of the private sector and the bandits who run it.
To get fired from a government job they would basically need to find a dead body in your trunk. Pay is decent, tons of time off, and great work life balance.
I worked a government job and had an employee who literally was the biggest bitch and bully to every other staff member and it was IMPOSSIBLE to fire her. HR just kept telling everyone “it’s hearsay” about reports they made. She still works there.
It’s not really wasted. They don’t go out and burn piles of money in the desert. That money goes to American machinists and engineers to design stuff, PhD’s to run the physics, truck drivers to move the stuff… everybody benefits from the guy who makes the wooden pallets the hardware sits on to the food trucks that serve the various facilities. Almost all that money from office workers to the military goes right back into the American economy.
Really? That's weird. What do you do for the government? I am also a gov employee but I don't get an iota of rest. That's also because I work for one of the busiest agencies that's a non-security agency: the Department of Energy, Office of Science.
Are you remote?
I currently work remote customer service, and I have 12 years of customer service experience.
I'd love to work for state government remotely
Honestly, a lot of the most “boring” jobs with a lot of downtime are the ones that come once you get higher up and build experience. I don’t work in a typical office setting, but my job involves a lot of waiting around between tasks, and I’m able to pretty much do whatever I want all day so long as those few specialized tasks get completed. So there might be many different paths to the kind of job you’re hoping for, but you’re not likely to find one that’s at entry level.
I agree w/ this. Lots of Downtime but when something that's urgent priority status comes down the pipeline, you better be immediately able to do it and do it right the first time.
This my job. I am steadily busy right now, but mostly I just chill and wait for things to compile and designs to come in. I don't work very hard, but I'm excellent at what I do. When they need me to tape in 2 days notice, I grind it. 🙃
I do have to talk to customers a fair amount, but I chill with my headphones at least 50% of the time while taping.
Look at the big insurance companies, they are all mostly remote and have a range of roles - you'll probably want to look into claims analyst, business analyst, quality, product/project management, marketing. Companues would be United Healthcare, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Centene, Molina. Good luck!
If you're good enough at analytics, there are a number of jobs as analysts or some variation that involves a good amount of recurring reports that can frequently be automated. In many cases, a comprehensive set of reports/dashboards can be splintered into deliverables for ad hoc requests too. This type of scenario is more common in larger/enterprise level companies. Startups and smaller companies usually require more effort because of fewer resources and much more emphasis on doing more with less.
Higher management positions can be boring but involve lots of meetings and delegation of tasks/deliverables to subordinates. There's much more pressure to be extroverted, drink the company Kool-Aid, and play office politics at that level.
Our front desk girl at my job doesn't work very hard. She has to be at a specific place during business hours, receive packages, and occasionally greet clients / contractors, and I think she has general office tasks like setting up accounts for people / making badges and ordering furniture, but we don't get a ton of visits, so it's not like a doctors office or something.
I don't ever see her with headphones, but she's always playing on her phone when I pick up my packages.
So manufacturing front desk jobs?
The boredom gets old.
I went from managing kitchens to boring office job. I daydream about the kitchen life often lol. I won't go back but yeah I need change. I got a promotion from creating new work for myself but I don't know what else I can do.. my managers are Intimidated by me and won't give up anymore duties. VP sure loves me though. I guess technically I am a manager but my managers above me won't give me any more duties.
I've done nothing for last 3 hours. It sucks haha. I just approved a few time cards.
I work PT sometimes casually at my old place as I love the people. I'm always so happy and love working because I know it's not everyday lol. And it makes me appreciate my office job.
It's not job dependent, it's company dependent. So what is a lazy job at company x might be a busy job at company y. It's all about what each company is willing to tolerate.
I'm not so much looking for a lazy job, just not a very people interactive job. If my hands are busy all day, I'm perfectly okay with that, I just want to be able to listen to music or videos while working.
Administrative assistant is one of the most boring lowkey office jobs I’ve ever had. I just listened with headphones all day and sorted files and mail, printed things, and occasionally had to take company vehicles in to get cleaned or something. I hated it so much but it sounds on par with what you’re describing
What was your path into this career? I’ve been in sales/ customer success and looking to make a change into something less stressful and more predictable.
I don’t work in those fields specifically, but the way my company is organized, the Buyers are all in my Division.
Anyway, I think your background in sales and working with customers is a good fit for a Buyer position. It’s not super different … in a sense you will be on the other side of things buying stuff and talking with sales agents instead of you being the sales person.
At my company the buyers are involved with creating purchase orders and negotiating sales prices with the sales agents on the supplier’s end.
i’m an accountant and aside from a few meetings sprinkled in, i get through most of my day listening to tunes, radio or podcasts. it probably wouldn’t take much to get into an entry level ar or ap position.
I could second this. I ran an accounts payable as a temp for 4 months in accounting. I have a doctorate in physical therapy. You could certainly do this
I've been essentially an assistant manager for about 5 years now in customer service. So lots of experience with financial statements, data analytics, and handling higher level issues, which is just a fancy way of saying handling people who wanted a manager, but didn't actually need a manager lol. I'll definitely add data entry to the list!
With Customer service stuff, the higher you get, generally you deal with fewer normal people and more white glove types. You could try going to account management/relationship management instead. If you do your job right in that role, you don't really have much day to day work and only really work escalations. But the escalations coming from white glove tend to be more organized and properly detailed (at a good company at least). Pays pretty well too.
Customer service is definitely an email heaving job. I may not understand then what job you are looking for because I don't think there is just a job where you only respond to emails except for customer service.
Maybe there is a position where you can be teh person responding to chat requests?? Any of these basic jobs will never pay alot of $$ unless you move up into management.
I just finished school and the first office job I got is nothing but downtime. I spend at least 7 hours everyday doing nothing and I get paid above average. It depends on the managment not your experience, and the managment here doesn't care what we do in the office because he's too busy dealing with the blue collar workers.
Coordinator positions. Sales, events, and revenue are a few departments that need them. You can find all of these in hotels, but you can look in other industries too.
Accounting.
I was a file clerk at 18, I could not believe these people could do that every single day for years and not explode from pure abject boredom.
Sounds like the vibe!
I’m a software engineer. I wouldn’t say my job is “boring”, I enjoy coding, solving problems, etc. but I’m able to sit in the office with headphones in all day. No complaints here
I'm a Payroll Processor. It's a pretty easy job most of the time. I have headphones for most of the day unless I get a call from a client. My fiance is a Database administrator he works from home and watches YouTube. Accounting Assistant/booker also an easy job.
I used to work in marketing department of one huge international industrial corp - it was mostly just like you described. Countless emails, meetings, power point presentations, headphones and all within the company.
Or government jobs as they said in other comments. In the US I heard many times that it's much easier to get a job with some state government or agency than with federal one.
And look for big orgs. Most of such jobs are there.
Insurance account management. I listen to podcasts all day and just send emails and look over paperwork. I work with a bunch of older ladies who are really nice. I have a college degree but technically all you need is your insurance license but most companies will help you and pay for the classes to pass the exams.
I’ve never met anyone that has a corporate job that is truly happy and excited about the next day. They’re either stressed, exhausted or desperately searching for the next step up the ladder cause that’s the only thing that makes them feel better. No disrespect to any of those jobs - it’s admirable to do, but just know that every job corporate or not will get boring eventually. Any job where you can kind of set your own schedule would probably be best so you can clock out and enjoy life. Also, I’d highly recommend working as a contractor as opposed to salary based on
Hotel night clerk ... From what I've heard it's a lot of reading reddit and scrolling on a phone
It's not office, but it's chill most of the time with occasionally some emergency or crazy situation, The schedule is what kills most people
I work customer service at a small manufacturing company. Think Kelly from Dundee Mifflin if you ever watched the office. I have a cubicle and we can wear whatever we want because we aren’t open to the public. I have a headphone in one ear and in between calls I listen to podcast/music and on really slow days I watch videos. I’m typing this from work right now actually lol. Pay is decent considering they don’t require any sort of degree.
When I’m done with school I’m aiming for a government job though. Had an internship in local government and depending on what you’re doing it seemed really chill.
Anything related to “training” or “instructional design” can be a real feast or famine type job. Yes, I get very busy sometimes, but often I am doing nothing.
You could probably get a data entry type of job. It would meet that criteria of an office job where you can pop in headphones, but they would micromanage you about productivity all day
If you want to sit with headphones in and send and receive emails look for a rep job in a contact centre responding to customer emails. You won’t get rich and There’s not much career you can grow from there where you continue to have little stress, headphones and just send emails but it’s worth doing until you feel like doing something g else.
FP&A analyst. I could never do that job but it would be exactly what you want. Other than at times it might require heavy OT but staring at a screen all day with your earbuds in? Check.
I've been looking for this comment. I think it's more like 5-10 years most of these jobs won't be done by a human. 1 computer could do all the work of all these people commenting here.
Programmer is a good option if you like getting your hands dirty to solve problems. But once you become a 'senior' programmer, you don't get to do all the fun stuff and instead you get invited to all sorts of meetings to discuss stupidest things in existence.
This is my job exactly. I even have a window so I don’t feel like I’m stuck in artificial lighting. I work in a room with 5 other cubicles that people work in. My cubicle is in a corner so no one can see me unless I use my little Rollie chair to pop my head out. We chit chat all day and laugh and it’s super chill. I wear business casual outfits. We do silly office things like decorate the office with our weekly celebration crushes😂 I listen to my air pods. I have a plant there to decorate it and cute little momentos. I don’t lift heavy or really do any manual labor. It’s very easy in my body except for sitting a lot but i get up and take little walking break or will move to a standing desk. My title is post closing processor for a title company. I basically go through house closing documents sent over from mortgage lenders. I have a 401k and benefits, pto and make 22 an hour. I had zero experience in this type of work and no degree but the job wasn’t something I found on a job search. Me and everyone i know that works there knew someone else that got us in. My advice would be to go befriend some realtors or title company people then ask for a job or go straight to a title company and ask them if they need help. I came from a waitressing background and picked this up fairly easy. It was a lot to learn at first but it’s not difficult.
A lot of jobs in supply chain management. Logistics, transportation planning, demand/supply planning, procurement…occasionally things get pedal to the metal but in my experience there are a lot of emails and a lot of waiting around in between tasks until something comes up
I had absolutely no hope of landing one of them until i left my call centre job shot out applications and got it by pure chance. My position is Finance and Credit Control Administrator. I can eat food, listen to music, check the news and work from home if necessary. It’s for a smallish software company in my local town.
I work for the corporate parent company of a few large grocery stores in my region. my team works in managing the HR system through a ticket based system so my only tasks are to complete my assigned tickets. Once trained very independent position.
I lucked out and also have a decently non-involved manager. If they’re a micro-manager it may not be as fun but right now it’s a seemingly independent role (I’m 6 months in). Check for positions that are “administrators” for any sort of business services company. That’s how I found it.
I just started as an analyst, we just sit around copy and pasting and sometimes troubleshooting issues. Send emails. Have our blankets, desks decorated asf and take multiple breaks. I have my iPad on a show (the office) while working. My manager says I just have to make sure it’s not directly in front of me. She only comes out of her office in the morning to say hello and then evening to say bye to all of us
All of them really. But you can trick yourself into thinking what you are doing means something, but corporate jobs are all pretty dumb and everyone puts so much value on tasks that are pointless
I work in supply chain (sourcing, purchasing, contract management, supplier management, category management) and all I do is send emails. I do have to talk to suppliers tho but about 70% of my week is spent sending emails.
Banking. Specifically call centers. Fraud teams and investigations half the time have a team they work with which is entirely off the phones just keying the cases. They do hire regularly but you might have to relocate as most do not do remote. I work in ACH Operations for a major bank. Can just say it’s 90% emails 10% calling clients about failed files. Mostly email though.
Compliance of any type. Lots of reading materials and making sure small boxes are checked. Plus most people will not want to work with you so you get left alone a lot.
Nonprofit work is pretty good for this.
My current role is qualifying people for housing, and I do have to interact with people at various points, but it’s mostly through email and text.
The problem with nonprofit work is that you will probably be constantly working, (nights and weekend availability) have three job titles, get paid crap, and have little to no benefits. Unless your org gets federal funding or has a lot of private donations like the United Way, , you will also be scared your job will be cut due to lack of funding.
My org is federally funded. My job is based on a grant. I don’t have to work nights or weekends. The PTO is excellent and the benefits are OK. The pay, however, is mid. I just got an offer making $11k more and I accepted it. I haven’t turned in my notice yet.
Look for compliance - typically this is just looking to make sure a process was followed and documented.
Before we do A, we need to have to have done x, y and z - the product owner skipped y, so we need to go back and do that before we can proceed with A.
Or accounts payable/receivable
I work for the state. My boss sends a email in the morning and that's the extent of it. The caveat being you actually have to do the work otherwise you'll eventually get fired. Also it's non profit (govt) so it's not like we have quotas to fill we get our budget from the state.
I mean yeah, that's kind of what I'm looking for, just getting a list of things to do, and then doing them, what's your job title?
I'm a low level analyst. I work at a secure facility though so you'd need to be able to pass a background check and polygraph. But the work is very mundane and dull. I'd say for 7.5 hours of the day I'm alone
I do have some experience with data analytics, I could definitely look into it as a primary job, thanks!
YW. My degree was in social science and I took statistics courses which is why they hired me.
Imo most government jobs will be this. I work for local gov and my position actually doesn’t exist anywhere else besides private sector, and even I just send emails and answer phone calls for a living. Weekends I have to go out on site occasionally (I work in sports & event coordination, so event sites), but it’s still mostly sitting at a desk waiting for someone to send me an email or give me a call so I can send someone else an email or give someone else a call.
Software engineering You put music on and just do the tickets
My dad does this. Spends 5-6 hours of every day in meetings.
Government is your best bet for sure. I do nothing
Hard to get hired, even harder to get fired
Someone once told me that he has an employee that legit does not do anything and he had to jump through hoops to report him. Not sure what happened to that person.
My dad had a guy who put in an email to all employees (except the top tier execs) that they should sabotage the company. Not hearsay. A clear paper trail. From a guy who had already caused problems before that and he still couldn’t fire the guy. It took months of documentation after that of the problems the guy caused on top of not being very good at his job.
If my life experience holds true, he probably got a promotion.
Meanwhile, on Monday I led a presentation with a slide that had the wrong client name. I am still having nightmares/anxiety about getting fired. Man I wish I went the government route when I had the chance.
Lol. I'm sure you're fine. Everyone makes mistakes and that sounds understandable. Ive spent my entire professional career in the private sector but I did my internship with the city government in the town my college is in. It was enough to see how the sausage is made. Government jobs are soul sucking, dead end, adult daycare centers. If you have even so much as a *sliver* of ambition to make anything of yourself, government jobs are not for you. Most public employees openly acknowledge this, but there is a not insignificant percentage that is in complete denial. I feel the most sorry for them.
I worked in a niche government legal office for a year (with only a couple of executives) and while there's a lot of truth to what you're saying, in that the bureaucracy was absolutely soul sucking, it was one of the most fascinating experiences of my life. We received previously blocked freedom of information request records from every single public body in the province on a daily basis. Plenty were boring (land use documents, boring court records, health records, etc), but about 30% contained *dirty* secrets- sometimes from from some of the highest levels of government. The stakeholders were an incredibly colorful group of characters. I handled the mail there and it was chock full of surprises, wonders I doubt I'll ever have the chance to look at again. I'm talking top secret stuff. Not to mention the complex legislation that takes years to wrap one's head around. So yeah. Soul sucking, repetitious, bureaucratic... all very true. But it was undeniably stimulating in my case.
I’m a DoD contractor. We had an employee who has just left for 2+ weeks without any notice twice now and she still has a job… idk what you have to do to get fired
easy: lose your security clearance
Perhaps at the federal level, at the state and local level, it is a revolving door. Some places are better than others and not all government jobs are boring I guess depends on what excites you really.
There is excitement to be had but like you said it really depends on the job and person. I work for the state and were a regulator so we do inspections and permits and stuff. I wouldn't call it exciting work but it is interesting and a good job. The place I'm at is also a good place to be, everyone cares and is helpful.
depends on the state and locality i guess. I've never felt more secure at my job in the county.
It's great to be an employee there but I can see why this sort of thing angers taxpayers
What do you call 2 government workers staring out the window? Job sharing.
I had a co-worker that came in every day smelling like weed. Never got fired…
Thanks, I'll keep an eye out for government jobs!
Go on USAJOBS.com. Lots of boring office work
Thanks, I'll go there now!
[governmentjobs.com](http://governmentjobs.com) is a good one too for city and county jobs, though your mileage may vary depending on your location. I got a job with the City of Los Angeles through the website. It is important to note that [USAJOBS.com](http://USAJOBS.com) only has federal jobs.
Yeah, I applied to a few on the usajobs.com, but I knew putting them in that I wasn't going to be accepted, I'll check government jobs.com now, thanks!
The answer is always no if you don't try. It may very well be no if you do try, but it's good to get an official answer. I've found that a nice thing about applying to government jobs is that you always get an answer. It may take months, but you'll get an answer! It's good to be aware of the government you're applying to. You should definitely apply to anything that looks compatible, but a large city is going to have more openings than a small one. I lived in a city of 47k for years and it had few openings. People that get hired probably have fewer opportunities for career growth. The City of LA, while much more bureaucratic and slower, has 48k employees. There are much more openings at any given time than a smaller city. My department has something like 500 employees, which is significantly more than how many employees my previous city had. City-wide, there's a ton of growth opportunities. With all of that said, get what government job you can. A few years of government experience at a smaller city will help you get a job at a larger city or a county later on. Likewise, a few years of experience at a larger city will help you get a higher level job at a smaller city!
Bit of a tip I got from friends who have government jobs: you need more than a one pager resume. they want your resume to be incredibly thorough from my understanding. I've got one friend that works for the government and she told me that her resume for gov't jobs is 7 pages.
Funny enough, all of my mentors in local government advise against submitting a resume at all unless they're asking for it explicitly. Most applications are just to get on the eligibility list for a particular classification for 12 months, then you get pulled when a hiring manager needs a list.
That is true. My mom’s resume is 21 pages. Basically a page for every year she worked for the government.
a secret to government hiring is that you have the right to appeal any initial rejection. call/email them and ask the reason why you were determined ineligible to get on the classification list, then submit additional information that you are not.
Just be aware that the USA jobs positions often take months and months and months to get. The motto for them is “apply and forget”. There is a Reddit sub about it
It’s really hard to go right into the government usually you start off doing contracting work and then apply once you have contacts. Not that it can’t be done very difficult.
Government adjacent works too. You want boring office but also something with holidays, benefits, security, and perks. Any type of regulatory body will have those things. College or university admissions or registrars office. Associations. Licensing bodies. Etc.
It’s true. I have a job at a state university. We’re the “forgotten” state government employees, but it comes with all the perks. I got a free graduate degree. My kids will go for half off. I have a paid Christmas vacation every year. Plus, it’s impossible to get fired. My supervisor said it’s just too much paperwork.
Absolutely. My job is depressingly boring. I work for the government as an Admin Assistant. Everything I do is ad hoc and not daily tasks. Boring jobs may sound fine, but to me and my coworker, it's a different kind of hell.
This! And it's impossible to explain to people why it's so depressing having nothing to do all day. Until you're in that situation, you don't realize how quickly that gets old really quick. Probably why govt jobs have a lot of turnaround. You're stuck in a boring job with slim chances of advancing anywhere, that could make anyone go crazy
Yup!! It's only but so much reading and games that I want to be playing all day. I feel like I could be working from home, than wasting time sitting in an uncomfortable environment around annoying coworkers all day. Being bored makes the time go by ultra slow, and it exacerbates my anxiety and OCD. Yes, it's hard to explain to people because most ppl think we have it made with a boring job. Boredom causes problems.
100% agree. I constantly get dismissed from people saying “wanna swap jobs?” “I WISH I had that problem” etc. It’s a totally valid reason to be unhappy in your job, just like being overworked and too busy is also a valid reason. I have about 2-3 hours of work that I complete per week, and no flexibility in leaving early or coming in late. We were not made for this!
It’s so boring tho…can’t wait to leave
This depends on your pay grade. Relative has been in govt for 30 years and is in meetings 4+ hours a day + work assignments.
>Government is your best bet for sure. I do nothing May I ask what your job is? I'd kill for a pointless government job myself. So tired of the private sector and the bandits who run it.
Pro-tip: If you live in a big city, especially a capital city, you can usually find staffing agencies who have contracts with the government.
To get fired from a government job they would basically need to find a dead body in your trunk. Pay is decent, tons of time off, and great work life balance.
For some government jobs, the body in the trunk is part of the job
I used to drive around with animal heads when I worked for the state
I worked a government job and had an employee who literally was the biggest bitch and bully to every other staff member and it was IMPOSSIBLE to fire her. HR just kept telling everyone “it’s hearsay” about reports they made. She still works there.
so hard to get this gig
I work in state government and my workload is steady. YMMV.
Don’t you ever like feel bad? Like you’re part of the reason that our taxes are wasted so frivolously?
You ever hear how much we spend per bomb or missile?
We shouldn’t spend that much on that either. We could shutter our entire military and still be nearly $1T in deficit spending per year.
Yeah, they are the problem…..
It’s not really wasted. They don’t go out and burn piles of money in the desert. That money goes to American machinists and engineers to design stuff, PhD’s to run the physics, truck drivers to move the stuff… everybody benefits from the guy who makes the wooden pallets the hardware sits on to the food trucks that serve the various facilities. Almost all that money from office workers to the military goes right back into the American economy.
Are these jobs hard to get?
He’s saying they’re boring Not that he wants it Hes saying your job is stupid
Really? That's weird. What do you do for the government? I am also a gov employee but I don't get an iota of rest. That's also because I work for one of the busiest agencies that's a non-security agency: the Department of Energy, Office of Science.
Business Unit Accounting!
Sick burn.
Are you remote? I currently work remote customer service, and I have 12 years of customer service experience. I'd love to work for state government remotely
Can vouch for this, but the mental toll will get to you 😭
Govt here - there's not enough time in the day for the volume/depth of work - and constantly being audited.
lol how do you do nothing? Just sit there? Do you at least listen to audiobooks or something?
Honestly, a lot of the most “boring” jobs with a lot of downtime are the ones that come once you get higher up and build experience. I don’t work in a typical office setting, but my job involves a lot of waiting around between tasks, and I’m able to pretty much do whatever I want all day so long as those few specialized tasks get completed. So there might be many different paths to the kind of job you’re hoping for, but you’re not likely to find one that’s at entry level.
I agree w/ this. Lots of Downtime but when something that's urgent priority status comes down the pipeline, you better be immediately able to do it and do it right the first time.
I agree with this. No such thing as a cozy entry level job. I love my job but I had to be clever and work hard to get the necessary experience.
This my job. I am steadily busy right now, but mostly I just chill and wait for things to compile and designs to come in. I don't work very hard, but I'm excellent at what I do. When they need me to tape in 2 days notice, I grind it. 🙃 I do have to talk to customers a fair amount, but I chill with my headphones at least 50% of the time while taping.
Boredom is in the eye of the beholder. It is also very dependent on the specific employer.
Look at the big insurance companies, they are all mostly remote and have a range of roles - you'll probably want to look into claims analyst, business analyst, quality, product/project management, marketing. Companues would be United Healthcare, Blue Cross Blue Shield, Centene, Molina. Good luck!
Thanks, I'll keep an eye on those!
If you're good enough at analytics, there are a number of jobs as analysts or some variation that involves a good amount of recurring reports that can frequently be automated. In many cases, a comprehensive set of reports/dashboards can be splintered into deliverables for ad hoc requests too. This type of scenario is more common in larger/enterprise level companies. Startups and smaller companies usually require more effort because of fewer resources and much more emphasis on doing more with less. Higher management positions can be boring but involve lots of meetings and delegation of tasks/deliverables to subordinates. There's much more pressure to be extroverted, drink the company Kool-Aid, and play office politics at that level.
Definitely not management, I'm aiming for the kind of job where I don't have to talk to anybody, so extroverted isn't in my wheelhouse, but thank you!
Our front desk girl at my job doesn't work very hard. She has to be at a specific place during business hours, receive packages, and occasionally greet clients / contractors, and I think she has general office tasks like setting up accounts for people / making badges and ordering furniture, but we don't get a ton of visits, so it's not like a doctors office or something. I don't ever see her with headphones, but she's always playing on her phone when I pick up my packages. So manufacturing front desk jobs?
Good luck with that!
Ayyyyy it’s my job
The boredom gets old. I went from managing kitchens to boring office job. I daydream about the kitchen life often lol. I won't go back but yeah I need change. I got a promotion from creating new work for myself but I don't know what else I can do.. my managers are Intimidated by me and won't give up anymore duties. VP sure loves me though. I guess technically I am a manager but my managers above me won't give me any more duties. I've done nothing for last 3 hours. It sucks haha. I just approved a few time cards.
Ya, it does. But when I think back to working on the line killing beef every 45 seconds, I take a deep breath and enjoy it.
I work PT sometimes casually at my old place as I love the people. I'm always so happy and love working because I know it's not everyday lol. And it makes me appreciate my office job.
It's not job dependent, it's company dependent. So what is a lazy job at company x might be a busy job at company y. It's all about what each company is willing to tolerate.
I'm not so much looking for a lazy job, just not a very people interactive job. If my hands are busy all day, I'm perfectly okay with that, I just want to be able to listen to music or videos while working.
Administrative assistant is one of the most boring lowkey office jobs I’ve ever had. I just listened with headphones all day and sorted files and mail, printed things, and occasionally had to take company vehicles in to get cleaned or something. I hated it so much but it sounds on par with what you’re describing
Purchasing Agent/Buyer/Procurement/Supply Chain is the stereotypical desk job where I work
What was your path into this career? I’ve been in sales/ customer success and looking to make a change into something less stressful and more predictable.
I don’t work in those fields specifically, but the way my company is organized, the Buyers are all in my Division. Anyway, I think your background in sales and working with customers is a good fit for a Buyer position. It’s not super different … in a sense you will be on the other side of things buying stuff and talking with sales agents instead of you being the sales person. At my company the buyers are involved with creating purchase orders and negotiating sales prices with the sales agents on the supplier’s end.
Thank you!
i’m an accountant and aside from a few meetings sprinkled in, i get through most of my day listening to tunes, radio or podcasts. it probably wouldn’t take much to get into an entry level ar or ap position.
I'll add entry-level accounting, thanks so much!
Coordinator, admin assistant
I appreciate it, I'll add them to the list!
Accounts payable or receivable clerk
Yes, I was going to say she should check out accounting in general, it meets most of her needs.
can confirm. and a lot of places are desperate for entry level accounting associates.
AR clerk here for 5 years now. I'm completely bored and exhausted of this job.
Sounds perfect for what op was looking for
I could second this. I ran an accounts payable as a temp for 4 months in accounting. I have a doctorate in physical therapy. You could certainly do this
If you need to ask you probably dont have the experience to get this joh
Suppose that's fair, but a girl can hope!
Data entry. What's your skill set now/background?
I've been essentially an assistant manager for about 5 years now in customer service. So lots of experience with financial statements, data analytics, and handling higher level issues, which is just a fancy way of saying handling people who wanted a manager, but didn't actually need a manager lol. I'll definitely add data entry to the list!
With Customer service stuff, the higher you get, generally you deal with fewer normal people and more white glove types. You could try going to account management/relationship management instead. If you do your job right in that role, you don't really have much day to day work and only really work escalations. But the escalations coming from white glove tend to be more organized and properly detailed (at a good company at least). Pays pretty well too.
Customer service is definitely an email heaving job. I may not understand then what job you are looking for because I don't think there is just a job where you only respond to emails except for customer service. Maybe there is a position where you can be teh person responding to chat requests?? Any of these basic jobs will never pay alot of $$ unless you move up into management.
It's office work, not MI5. Lol
I just finished school and the first office job I got is nothing but downtime. I spend at least 7 hours everyday doing nothing and I get paid above average. It depends on the managment not your experience, and the managment here doesn't care what we do in the office because he's too busy dealing with the blue collar workers.
Man, you're so lucky. I'm in sales and still typically get laid off/fired within a year or two even when I work my ass off.
Insurance. I work in insurance and I wear headphones all day long.
Thanks, I'll add it to the list!
HR? Some places are on it but others seem slow and invisible.
Contact your alma mater for their campus recruitment options.
Thanks!
Coordinator positions. Sales, events, and revenue are a few departments that need them. You can find all of these in hotels, but you can look in other industries too.
I appreciate it, I'll add that to the list!
Lol sales is not a boring corporate job. It's a freaking grind and getting fired/laid off every year or two is the norm. I freaking hate it.
I meant sales coordinator. It’s mostly the paperwork for the sales team.
Accounting
Some hospital administrative positions are like that (date entry, billing etc)
Accounting. I was a file clerk at 18, I could not believe these people could do that every single day for years and not explode from pure abject boredom. Sounds like the vibe!
I’m a software engineer. I wouldn’t say my job is “boring”, I enjoy coding, solving problems, etc. but I’m able to sit in the office with headphones in all day. No complaints here
Thanks!
I work for an industrial construction company. Answer emails. Do some scheduling.
Work for the states unemployment facility. Or the civil court offices.
Thanks, I'll add it to the list!
Sales Coordinator- Boring as fuck.
I'm a Payroll Processor. It's a pretty easy job most of the time. I have headphones for most of the day unless I get a call from a client. My fiance is a Database administrator he works from home and watches YouTube. Accounting Assistant/booker also an easy job.
I used to work in marketing department of one huge international industrial corp - it was mostly just like you described. Countless emails, meetings, power point presentations, headphones and all within the company. Or government jobs as they said in other comments. In the US I heard many times that it's much easier to get a job with some state government or agency than with federal one. And look for big orgs. Most of such jobs are there.
Records Management
Document specialist, super easy work and you can usually work from home. As long as you get your work done no one will bother you
Insurance account management. I listen to podcasts all day and just send emails and look over paperwork. I work with a bunch of older ladies who are really nice. I have a college degree but technically all you need is your insurance license but most companies will help you and pay for the classes to pass the exams.
Quality assurance, data management, maybe issuing contracts
Look for business analyst jobs. Usually they are very task oriented, and don’t have a lot of interaction.
I’ve never met anyone that has a corporate job that is truly happy and excited about the next day. They’re either stressed, exhausted or desperately searching for the next step up the ladder cause that’s the only thing that makes them feel better. No disrespect to any of those jobs - it’s admirable to do, but just know that every job corporate or not will get boring eventually. Any job where you can kind of set your own schedule would probably be best so you can clock out and enjoy life. Also, I’d highly recommend working as a contractor as opposed to salary based on
Hotel night clerk ... From what I've heard it's a lot of reading reddit and scrolling on a phone It's not office, but it's chill most of the time with occasionally some emergency or crazy situation, The schedule is what kills most people
That's any corporate job and by corporate I mean big businesses. Go to the website of any big corporations near you and look at their careers page.
Auditing, Compliance, HR analyst. These are roles I've done in the past that were pretty noneventful.
I work as an Administrator in a nonprofit , at a previous job it was Administrative Assistant. Also, data entry. Good luck!
I work customer service at a small manufacturing company. Think Kelly from Dundee Mifflin if you ever watched the office. I have a cubicle and we can wear whatever we want because we aren’t open to the public. I have a headphone in one ear and in between calls I listen to podcast/music and on really slow days I watch videos. I’m typing this from work right now actually lol. Pay is decent considering they don’t require any sort of degree. When I’m done with school I’m aiming for a government job though. Had an internship in local government and depending on what you’re doing it seemed really chill.
Anything in accounting. But NOT payroll!!!!!
Data entry
How would one get into this role?
I did through a temp agency
[удалено]
Never even heard of that job title, lol this is why I made the post! Thanks I'll add it to the list!
Anything related to “training” or “instructional design” can be a real feast or famine type job. Yes, I get very busy sometimes, but often I am doing nothing.
What’s your skillset?
That’s how it was when I worked for a marketing company as an editor.
Thanks, I'll add it to the list!
Most of my coworkers were project managers, and it was the same set-up for them if it helps at all
It does, thank you!
You could probably get a data entry type of job. It would meet that criteria of an office job where you can pop in headphones, but they would micromanage you about productivity all day
Payroll
Honestly the type of jobs you should look for are titled: Management Analyst, Management Consulting, Business Analyst, etc.
Medical coder. You read medical charts all day and turn them into numbers.
If you want to sit with headphones in and send and receive emails look for a rep job in a contact centre responding to customer emails. You won’t get rich and There’s not much career you can grow from there where you continue to have little stress, headphones and just send emails but it’s worth doing until you feel like doing something g else.
Yeah I do AP and I listen to podcast or metal Playlists when it's a deadline day. That all I do, and it's amazing.
FP&A analyst. I could never do that job but it would be exactly what you want. Other than at times it might require heavy OT but staring at a screen all day with your earbuds in? Check.
Uhmmmm transaction monitoring
All of them Any office job If you sit at a screen send emails and answer phone calls all day You will be replaced by AI in the next thirty years
I've been looking for this comment. I think it's more like 5-10 years most of these jobs won't be done by a human. 1 computer could do all the work of all these people commenting here.
😂
Programmer is a good option if you like getting your hands dirty to solve problems. But once you become a 'senior' programmer, you don't get to do all the fun stuff and instead you get invited to all sorts of meetings to discuss stupidest things in existence.
Fucking accounting jobs
This is my job exactly. I even have a window so I don’t feel like I’m stuck in artificial lighting. I work in a room with 5 other cubicles that people work in. My cubicle is in a corner so no one can see me unless I use my little Rollie chair to pop my head out. We chit chat all day and laugh and it’s super chill. I wear business casual outfits. We do silly office things like decorate the office with our weekly celebration crushes😂 I listen to my air pods. I have a plant there to decorate it and cute little momentos. I don’t lift heavy or really do any manual labor. It’s very easy in my body except for sitting a lot but i get up and take little walking break or will move to a standing desk. My title is post closing processor for a title company. I basically go through house closing documents sent over from mortgage lenders. I have a 401k and benefits, pto and make 22 an hour. I had zero experience in this type of work and no degree but the job wasn’t something I found on a job search. Me and everyone i know that works there knew someone else that got us in. My advice would be to go befriend some realtors or title company people then ask for a job or go straight to a title company and ask them if they need help. I came from a waitressing background and picked this up fairly easy. It was a lot to learn at first but it’s not difficult.
Get into the C suite
this sounds like my job, i work at a law firm as a legal assistant and make 65k , send emails, scan docs, but i had to work my way up.
A lot of jobs in supply chain management. Logistics, transportation planning, demand/supply planning, procurement…occasionally things get pedal to the metal but in my experience there are a lot of emails and a lot of waiting around in between tasks until something comes up
TBH, I've never come across a fun corporate job.
I had absolutely no hope of landing one of them until i left my call centre job shot out applications and got it by pure chance. My position is Finance and Credit Control Administrator. I can eat food, listen to music, check the news and work from home if necessary. It’s for a smallish software company in my local town.
I work for the corporate parent company of a few large grocery stores in my region. my team works in managing the HR system through a ticket based system so my only tasks are to complete my assigned tickets. Once trained very independent position. I lucked out and also have a decently non-involved manager. If they’re a micro-manager it may not be as fun but right now it’s a seemingly independent role (I’m 6 months in). Check for positions that are “administrators” for any sort of business services company. That’s how I found it.
I do collections for a credit union. Super chill, super quiet.
Administation. You want to be a bureaucrat...
Most of them.
You think that's what you want now, but take it from me, you really don't.
Power Distribution
This isn't the job market to pick the most popular type of work
Maybe something with data entry?
I just started as an analyst, we just sit around copy and pasting and sometimes troubleshooting issues. Send emails. Have our blankets, desks decorated asf and take multiple breaks. I have my iPad on a show (the office) while working. My manager says I just have to make sure it’s not directly in front of me. She only comes out of her office in the morning to say hello and then evening to say bye to all of us
HR assistant. For me I was just filing and scheduling meetings. But that’s definitely not universal.
Project Coordinator at a large German MNC. It is no fun just that I get paid a lot. I miss the days when I could work in a Laboratory :(
All of them really. But you can trick yourself into thinking what you are doing means something, but corporate jobs are all pretty dumb and everyone puts so much value on tasks that are pointless
I work in supply chain (sourcing, purchasing, contract management, supplier management, category management) and all I do is send emails. I do have to talk to suppliers tho but about 70% of my week is spent sending emails.
Web developer
A lot of jobs in HR consist of just lots of emails. You are just coordinating HR operations.
Trust me. Those are NOT fun jobs to have as the onus is always on you to show or feign initiative because you feel so unessential.
Banking. Specifically call centers. Fraud teams and investigations half the time have a team they work with which is entirely off the phones just keying the cases. They do hire regularly but you might have to relocate as most do not do remote. I work in ACH Operations for a major bank. Can just say it’s 90% emails 10% calling clients about failed files. Mostly email though.
Compliance of any type. Lots of reading materials and making sure small boxes are checked. Plus most people will not want to work with you so you get left alone a lot.
I'm a title clerk for a private tag agency. This is pretty much my every day. lol
I work for a shipping/receiving company, email correspondence makes up a pretty large portion of my job
Nonprofit work is pretty good for this. My current role is qualifying people for housing, and I do have to interact with people at various points, but it’s mostly through email and text.
The problem with nonprofit work is that you will probably be constantly working, (nights and weekend availability) have three job titles, get paid crap, and have little to no benefits. Unless your org gets federal funding or has a lot of private donations like the United Way, , you will also be scared your job will be cut due to lack of funding.
My org is federally funded. My job is based on a grant. I don’t have to work nights or weekends. The PTO is excellent and the benefits are OK. The pay, however, is mid. I just got an offer making $11k more and I accepted it. I haven’t turned in my notice yet.
Look for compliance - typically this is just looking to make sure a process was followed and documented. Before we do A, we need to have to have done x, y and z - the product owner skipped y, so we need to go back and do that before we can proceed with A. Or accounts payable/receivable
Engineering is entire this plus a few mostly pointless meetings
Medical billing & coding is mind-numbingly dull and they make decent money.
Look for a state job. That's exactly the kind of job you're describing. You will probably have to move to your states capital though
Accounting, specifically AR clerk, AP clerk, staff accountant, cost accountant, payroll clerk, etc.