I don’t know I’m in a right place, so pls if there is somebody who knows my wondering, tell me your experience or though. I just began to work a month ago after my MBA. My position is a business process analyst. It sounds like extremely busy position, isn’t it?

Yes, sometime it keeps me extremely busy so even I can not notice a day end already, however, sometime I feel like there is nothing to do and feel like a stranger. My boss once told me that I’m working so fast with some joke (I’m not sure if he intended a good, though) when he was with other managers in his office.

Ok, let me get back to the original question.

When I worked in Korea, and I have like nothing to do, sometimes I red a book without any unusual feeling or something emotional guilty as long as it is related with the job, and right now I’m doing like that and feel very very strange maybe because I have no idea how people think here. Do you know how American thinks of this kind of colleague who read a book during shift? Of course the book seems to be potentially related with my job but I don’t know other people think it is.

I was going to ask this to my boss or other co workers, I worried if they think that is very unusual. Please no bad comment or taking a shot like “If you think that is strange, then don’t do it! Bla bla…” I just like to know how other workplaces are like.

I’m writing this during my shift…..

My boss once told me that I’m working so fast with some joke (I’m not sure if he intended a good, though) when he was with other managers in his office.
-> I think you have to control your work load not to have time for nothing to do.
It may be not a problem to read some books but people may think you don’t do anything. If I were you, I’ll try to manage my work load and I’ll delay my work sometimes if I don’t have anything to do after the work. During the mean time, I’ll find a work which is valuable to the company. If you have time, have time with other workers and it’ll be better than just reading a book. It’s my idea and somebody will have different idea. I wouldn’t ask my boss or my co-workers about the situation. I’d rather giving them a proposal about new works we can do.

I think it’s more about time management. I may say you want to estimate your worlkload before you start the real work. If you think you can finish the work so early, you may pick up more work from he bin, taking extra credit by doin so, or you can insert your own project to enhance your skill set.
If you take the work without knowing how much effort it is going to take and happen to finish it too early and idling for the rest of time, it may not look exactly positive. It is not because you are idling or read some books, but because of the impression that you don’t know your work very well. Of course, work environment differs from area to area, one employer to another.
In general, I think it should be OK to read books or papers that relate to your work and skill.