"Am I being used?"

I find myself in an interesting situation at work these days. I don’t have enough work to keep me busy and even though I keep telling them I need more to do they just can’t believe that I have everything caught up, I am an enigma to them.

Recently my boss’s boss, one of the VPs has been trying to create a new position at the company that he would like me to fill. This has been going on for a couple of months and finally yesterday he came to me and told me that the job was approved and that if I was interested I needed to apply for it. He and I went to his office where he told me that he really wanted to move quickly with this and it was, in his mind a formality for me to apply for the position, in fact he has asked me to start as of today doing the work of that job.

Now here’s were the problems start. I want to be used, but I don’t want to be used, and part of this feels like I am being ‘used’.. This new position carries a whole lot more responsibility, which is not a problem, however when I asked if the pay would increase along with the increased responsibilities he told me that it would be a lateral move, but it has lots of exposure and potential for pay increases. Potential doesn’t pay the bills and all too often in Corporate America potential is just vaporware, to quote Jerry McGuire, “Show me the money”.

Another problem is that this job is really just something created in this VPs mind and I’m not so sure that after six months there will be anything left to do. Right now there are task not being completed because there have been a couple of key players that have left the company and the company is trying to eliminate the “positions” but the task still need to be done. This position will pick up some of those tasks. So what happens when the company decides they made a mistake and really do need to fill those other positions? I’m again deemed expendable and who knows where I would end up.

The final problem is that I really, really, really hate being bored and need something to keep me occupied. I also feel bad about getting paid and being under utilized. So I will apply for the position and do everything I can to make the job, the VP, and the company a success, I know no other way to work. I will work hard to be utilized and not to be exploited.