You get really nervous and you start pretending to do stuff. When someone walks by your desk, you toggle between the screens on your computer. When you get a chance, you sneak onto the Internet against your company’s policy and try to find something interesting in the news. Maybe you make some personal calls or send a few text messages to some friends, and then you start feeling sorry for yourself and getting bored.

Please remember that YOU are in charge of your own career. It is not in your best interest or that of the company that you work for if you simply wait for your boss to bring you something to do. Obviously, it’s okay from time to time to look at something interesting on the Internet or take a few minutes to get a drink of water or warm up your coffee. For those of us that care about our careers and care about making a contribution to the company that we work for, we must take these opportunities seriously.

I call them opportunities because that exactly what a problem is. It is an opportunity to improve. Without them, there is no point in business in the first place. When you work in a position that frequently does not have enough work to keep you busy, that is a special opportunity because it gives you a chance to evaluate what your strengths are and what you can individually bring to the table.

Start by asking what you want to do? You can use a legal pad in your office’s supply closet to make a list of things that you generally enjoy doing in your life. Then you can see if there is any way to integrate these things into your job.

Now before you say, “no way in hell,” just hear me out. Right now, you’re not creating a plan to solve your problem; you’re brainstorming. Brainstorming is the process of coming up with raw ideas without judgment so you have some material to work with when you get to the next stage of the problem solving process.

Let’s face it - none of us works for a perfect company. There are always problems that need to be solved, from great to small. Writing down a list of the company or department’s problems is another phase of the brainstorming process. When making this list, you should be as exhaustive as possible; again, you’re not passing judgment on your ideas. You’re just coming up with ideas.

Here is a short list of problems that I see in the organization I work for:

• Departments have trouble agreeing on solutions.

• People leave the coffee pot on after the pot is empty.

• Employees do not understand the process for ordering supplies

• Employees become annoyed and irritable when the housekeepers run the vaccuum.

• Employees feel uncomfortable asking for help when they are overwhelmed.

• The noise in the office is distracting when people talk

• Sometimes supervisors’ instructions are unclear resulting in diminished work quality.

As you can see, this is a short list - certainly not exhaustive. If I were to spend a whole day or even a whole week coming up with such a list, I bet it would be very long. Again, you don’t have to worry about trying to solve every problem on this list; it’s just something to go by when you’re creating your plan.

Ahh, another brainstorming exercise, but just as important. You need to be gratuitous in listing all the things you’re good at. If you’re good at making apple pies, put it down. If you’re a good diver, write it down. Chances are you will not be able to use these skills in the workplace (well, you never know), but the idea is to keep the ideas flowing. Write as long as you can. And let me tell you this - you will be SURPRISED at how much you’re good at if you really allow yourself to make a comprehensive list.

Why is this list so important? Well think of it this way - most employees use less than half of their skill set in their jobs. And while it’s unlikely that any employee will ever be able to use every single skill that he or she has in a job, there is always room for improvement.

After you make this list, your brainstorming session will be over. You’ll need to pull out the three lists you’ve made, and then go on to the next exercise. Keep in mind though, you might want to give yourself a week or more to write all of these lists. Jot down ideas whenever you think of them. And don’t be afraid to work on more than one list at a time.

At this point, you need find the common ground in your lists. If your lists are very long - and they should be - then you will have to spend some time looking at them, but you should have no problem finding common areas.

You might try categorizing the lists. For example, look at the list I wrote above. You can open up your favorite word processing program or spreadsheet program and categorize each of your lists in a matter of minutes. Here’s how I categorized my list above:

Communication Problems

• Departments have trouble agreeing on solutions.

• Employees do not understand the process for ordering supplies

• Employees feel uncomfortable asking for help when they are overwhelmed.

• Sometimes supervisors’ instructions are unclear resulting in diminished work quality.

Work Quality and Safety Problems

• People leave the coffee pot on after the pot is empty.

• Employees become annoyed and irritable when the housekeepers run the vaccuum.

• The noise in the office is distracting when people talk

So you can see that I have made two categories with these lists. Don’t worry about putting the list items into the perfect category; categorizing just makes this process easier when you start to compare the three lists.

Also, there are a lot of ways your lists might be similar that you would not immediately think of, so you need to spend some time on this exercise, maybe even a few days. For example, if you find that employee morale is low, you would not necessarily associate that with liking and being good at cooking. But if you can bring in an apple pie once a month for your coworkers to enjoy, that can most certainly improve employee morale. (Believe me, food in the workplace often improves employee morale.)

Next you need to take the similarities on your lists and come up with a plan of action. In other words, you’re going to write a mini-business plan. If you can type, you’ll want to type it up on the computer. There is no set format have to follow except that you should always describe the problem, how you plan to solve it, and what you want your boss to do specifically.

Here are some sample heading for such a plan of action:

Purpose:

The purpose of the document. You will want to say that you are proposing new job responsibilities for yourself and that you are presenting them to your boss for approval.

Statement of Problem:

In this section you can discuss the problem that you have seen. You’ll want to put every single aspect of the problem, but you’ll want to be as diplomatic about it as possible. DO NOT mention names of people that are contributing to the problem. Remember, your objective is a solution, and any short-term sympathy you may gain by blaming others will result in long-term lack of trust and respect, as others will see you as a gossip.

Statement of Solution:

This is where you talk about how you’re going to solve the problem. I prefer to use bullet points when addressing this section, but again, there is no set format. Use whatever format makes you most comfortable. Remember that in this section, you’re going to need to address what you will do to solve the problem and when and how often you will do it. You should spend some time on this and make it right.

Requested Action:

As simple as it sounds, sometimes bosses get documents like this and end up saying something like, “What the hell do you want me to do?” Even if it seems obvious to you, always let your boss know what you expect him or her to do. Even if your requested action is as simple as this: “Please review this document and approve this plan. Please also tell me when I may start implementing this solution.”

Oh, bloody hell, you say. You’ve written a nice document and now I have the audacity to ask you to present it? You bet. It’s easy to say no to a document; it’s much harder to look an employee in the eye and say no. Plus, it’s very important for you to be able to address your boss’s concerns in person.

Think of it this way: seven times out of 10, your boss is not going to peruse a document like this one. He or she might skim it. So you need to make sure that your boss has this document in advance and that you’re able to set up a meeting - preferably no longer than 15 minutes to half an hour - to discuss this.

Allow yourself to be calm and forgiving if your boss says she hasn’t had time to review the document when you sit down with her. Chances are, she’ll be embarrassed by that, and that embarrassment can work to your advantage in the presentation. Remember to focus on the solution and how it will help your boss and the department or company.

When you’ve finished making your presentation and have answered all your boss’s questions, tell her that you know she will need to think about it and that you don’t need an answer right away. Go ahead and set up an second meeting for her to give you an answer.

If she ends up saying yes, then congratulations! You’ve earned the opportunity to increase your workload on your terms. That will probably come in favorably in your next evaluation and might even earn you a nice pay raise!

Sometimes, bosses say no to our requests, no matter how much time we spend preparing them. It’s disappointing and frustrating when that happens, but these painful experiences can also be very helpful learning tools.

• Ask the boss why she came to this conclusion

• Ask if she would be willing for you to present another idea.

• Assess whether your boss is making a sound business decision or if she is making a decision based on emotion or some other non-merit factor.

• Try again.

Sometimes in life we are unfortunate to work for what I would call a dud boss. Maybe he’s emotional or even just a jerk about everything. Maybe he’s afraid of progress or a progressive employee that takes initiative. Maybe he just doesn’t like you.

So now the controversy comes in. If you have given your boss’s response a lot of thought and decide that you cannot get anywhere with him or that you don’t think he will be very helpful to you in your career, you might consider an act of insubordination.

Let me put it this way. When Jews were imprisoned in concentration camps, it was against the rules to steal food from their guards. But it was also in the prisoners’ best interest. So you have to ask the following question: Is going to your boss’s boss with your next idea in your best interest? And, Is working for your boss like working for a Nazi? If the answer is yes, then maybe you can’t afford to not anger your boss to save your career. Make sense?

Ultimately, if you don’t have enough to do, you must use your own creativity to find a solution. You must make that presentation to your boss or to someone with authority, and you must be prepared. If that makes someone mad or stirs the pot a bit, so be it. Have courage. Take charge of your own career and it can be the adventure of a lifetime!