Now that the project I've been working on for the last couple months is wrapping up, I'm realizing that my job might not be all that busy. At my interview I made it very clear that I really like to be engaged and productive at work. I told them how I've never had a job that's kept me busy enough and want to feel like I'm really making meaningful contributions. I stressed this a lot because it's very important to me. It seemed to strike a chord with them because they offered me the job the next day and were very amenable to salary negotiations.
However, now that I'm almost 3 months in, I am definitely not busy. There was a recent period of busywork, but it wasn't the kind of intellectually stimulating, problem solving work I was hoping for. I was told by the director of the department and my boss that things would pick up after this recent project and it would become more engaging. However, my boss and I have discussed what's coming up for the next couple of months and while it's worthwhile stuff, it doesn't sound like it'll take a lot of work on my part. I'm a project coordinator at a healthcare organization, and much of what's coming up will be scheduling and leading meetings, keeping track of decisions, and coordinating the work of others. So while there will be more meetings every week, there won't be too much work outside that, at least for me.
I'm trying to figure out what my next step will be. I have competing desires here. I want to be very productive and engaged at work, but I also want to have a really good work-life balance and maybe after a year or two move down to 30 hours/week. I feel like pursuing more responsibility and additional projects may make it harder for me to find a work-life balance. I really dislike not having enough to do. I end up wasting time and it makes me feel guilty/bad.
I think I'm leaning towards bringing this issue up with my boss and framing it as 'I want more responsibility.' I'm afraid of being given menial/pointless projects if I say I want to be busier. I do have a concern that the area I'm working in just might not have enough work to satisfy me, and if that's the case I'm thinking about talking with the director of the department and seeing if there are projects I can work on in other areas. Anyone else have experience with this sort of work boredom?