I actually like my job and work (when it's available), I'd like to try and get out of this "jam" without doing something drastic. My initial ideas are:
1. Talk to my team lead about getting more work. 2. Talk to my manager (who oddly leads other teams) about the situation/options
3. Scrounge and dig for any meaningful work I can, concocting some if I must (been doing this...sucks)
Admittedly, I'm not great with people and I've never been in a spell like this that didn't resolve itself naturally (didn't have to force some issue). I'd like to accomplish 1/2 without making things weird if at all possible. Is there anything else I should know about these things to avoid stepping on a land mine? Are there options I haven't considered?
> Admittedly, I'm not great with people
It's good that you admit this, in fact if you're more of a just-business, get-it-done kind of person, it gets us access to some new questions. I'd start with this one:
- Is it possible you're working at a business centered around affinity culture or work-tradition culture, rather than business-economic culture?
In these environments it can be really frustrating to find that you've outworked your incoming projects pile, with no promise of future projects that you can see.
It can feel very foreign to realize that the implicit purpose of working there is either 1) building relationships and integrating with the culture or 2) syncing with the traditional pace and style of work, and looking backwards/listening to seniors' hints.
If it's the former, it may be worth spending time figuring out if you've inadvertently harmed any work relationships through lack of attention, i.e. people who matter to your success don't really care about your solo-competence, but they do care about what you're doing together with them, starting with how you're relating to them, and how that vibe is supporting sustainable work.
If it's the latter, it could be worth your time to relate to those with ideally 1Y+ on you, listening closely to what they say about the workplace, the employer, and its history.
Some other possibilities include a really speculative workplace, where new employees are gathered by the employer out of a perceived duty to the work-prospecting process: Get the people, throw them at the work (implies less attention to individuals and their status), adjust. It's more of a big-picture style. These organizations tend to procrastinate the care for what individuals are doing until they can't avoid it anymore, and then they often call in consultants to interview and analyze. Your competency could be really helpful here in the long run, but also your patience would be needed on the day-to-day.
In any case, the move here is to look at the company itself as an organism and understand what it's metabolizing well over time. The day-to-day move is more like managing your energy and ensuring that your need to feel competent is taken care of through successful & sustainable day-management practice, rather than closing tickets / chasing productivity unicorns based on someone else's work efficiency.
Good luck, I hope that helps a bit, this kind of situation can feel pretty frustrating.