Starting a new job and running out of work within the first few weeks is a specific kind of professional purgatory that more people have experienced than would like to admit.

A new accounting hire who started in August found out quickly that outside of tax season there simply wasn’t enough work to fill the required seven billable hours a day.

He thought asking his boss for more work would win him some brownie points, but each time he asked, his boss was no help.

So when he tried using the the timesheet’s unassigned time code, his boss made it clear this wasn’t acceptable.

Now he’s stuck feeling trapped in a job he just started.

Keep reading for the full story.

Boss wants me to always ask for work, I’m at my wit’s end.

I started a new accounting job in August and at first it was fine.

I had plenty of work during tax season, but the issue comes outside of that time.

Other parts of the year, he feels unbearably bored.

I don’t have much work and management doesn’t seem to care enough to assign me more.

We have a strict timesheet where we have to log seven billable hours a day, so pretending to be busy is out of the question since I always have to be working on something specific.

The timesheet even has a code for “unassigned time,” but I’ve gotten comments about it when I’ve used it for about an hour a week.

He tries to get ahead of it by taking initiative, but his boss doesn’t do much to help.

I’ve had several conversations with my boss already, and he keeps telling me I need to ask for more work if my load is light.

However, when I ask, I’m either told there’s nothing available or I’m given a task that takes about an hour to finish.

I’ve asked several people and the response is usually the same regardless of who I ask.

He keeps trying to take on more, but he’s slowly starting to lose his mind.

I currently have a couple of clients, literally two to three, that I do bookkeeping for, but that’s only enough work for the first week of the month.

I keep asking for work and I keep getting the same replies.

I was even told I can’t work from home if I don’t have enough work for the day, but I don’t understand how it’s better if I’m in the office while not having work.

I’m actively looking for a new job right now, but historically it’s taken me months to find something new, so I’m just stuck in an awful place, dreading every day.

We all know too much work is bad, but too little work also presents its own problems.

If you enjoyed this story, check out this post about an employee who is told to work a holiday without overtime pay, and how they ended up getting their money.

Redditors are sure to have a thought or two.

Demanding so much billable time doesn’t make a lot of sense when there’s no work to be done.

This user suggests a clever way to push back.

It’s harder to pace your work in an office setting.

It never hurts to form a paper trail.

Being lectured for using a code the company created for the exact situation you’re in is the kind of workplace experience that accelerates a job search significantly.

This employee did everything right. He competently completed his assigned work, took initiative in asking for more, then improvised when plans changed. But to his boss, it still wasn’t enough.

The cruel irony is that the firm hired an accountant who clearly knows how to manage his time, and then gave him nothing to manage it with.

Some jobs just aren’t meant to be — and this may be one of them.