Just talked to a Ph.D colleague in Tianjin, amazingly, she has the same feeling like me. The business group she is working for has been suffering from the business environment change in past two years. She is not fully utilized, though she is quite capable. She is very depressed because of this type of situation.

 

Maybe it's because of my nature, I do believe that they are much much more good employees than good managers out there. Take this friend for example, two years ago, when she was under a US manager who doesn't know much about technology but good at inspire his employees, she did several good problem solvings and helped her group recover from several quality crisises. After this manager, she turned to be idled a lot. There are many good people in our company, we are lacking of a good system to utilize their talents.

 

I feel that I am more self driven on my job, however, to some extent, I share the same characteristics with this colleague. I feel most unhappy and uncomfortable when I am not very busy.

 

I made a couple of suggestions to her today, hope this helps.