I'm quite familiar with job burnout. I posted this in the other job community thread, but this thread seems to be the only active one, so I'll copy paste here:
I'm pretty miserable at my current job (Digital Court Reporter Tier 1 Support), but not because of grueling work or long hours....it's actually the opposite problem, it's incredibly boring and it's left me mentally checked out.
First, let me tell you what my daily duties are:
1. Pre-morning check on the reporters, one floor per day. This averages to 30-60 minutes
2. Follow-up check on the reporters, this takes even less time
3. Inventory check on the A/V equipment (varies based on floors/issues, but rarely exceeds one hour either way)
During the periods between those three tasks, I must sit on my desk and observe the reporters on my PC monitor, making sure they're doing their job. I'm also to be on-call whenever there's an issue. This ranges from simple tasks that come from human error ("Your headset isn't plugged in") to escalated tickets, depending. But for the majority of the time, there are rarely any problems to handle.
So in maybe 5 of the 8 hours I'm working, I'm sitting at my desk, looking at my monitor.
I'm not allowed to look at my phone, browse the web, read a book, read a study guide, not even listen to music. I must observe them at all times.
I know it sounds like first world problems, but it's a different kind of mental exhaustion to be literally staring into space for most of my shifts. If I was at least given something to pass the time, it wouldn't be nearly as bad. The rare moments of mercy are whenever my boss steps out or when he takes the day off. A couple of weeks ago he took a week long vacation....I looked at my watch and holy shit it was Friday before I knew it. And I still did my job, it wasn't like I slacked on my duties that week either.
I used to be able to look at whatever I wanted to pass the time, but somewhere along the line he changed policies, so I'm at a point where I almost get panic attacks having to go to work. It's a literal struggle to keep my eyes open, and I have to obsessively stretch out my time like someone rationing his last loaf of bread ("in 20 minutes go use the bathroom, in 40 minutes do your follow-up, in one hour make an excuse to go next door just to walk around...").
I don't know what to do. My boss is a very nice and patient guy....I know he isn't doing this to torture me. He says he's aware that I need more duties, which is something he's discussing with his boss, but one thing I've learned when it comes to government jobs is that things do not move in a steady pace, if at all. Rather than wait around I'm just applying to anything I can online, but more than once I've been tempted to just quit while quickly talking myself down (I need the steady income, it would be incredibly foolish to drop my job under the assumption I'd get a new one right away).
I don't want to bring this up with his boss either (who in turn would be my...mega boss, or whatever), because it could make me look bad and potentially damage my relationship with my boss.