(FORTUNE Magazine) – Dear Annie: Last year I started my first "real" job at a FORTUNE 500 company. The problem is, there is not enough work for my team (the biggest thing I do all day is copy and paste data from one spreadsheet to another), and now our project manager is adding more people, so we'll be even less busy. I've tried getting moved to another project, but no dice. After only six months, is it too soon to look for another job? Will employers see me as flighty? -- Rock Steady

Dear Steady: To the contrary, you'd be making a mistake by staying anyplace you're as underutilized as this. A study recently crossed my desk that confirms what most of us know intuitively: People who have nothing worthwhile to do all day are far more unhappy in their jobs than employees who are buried in work. Sirota Consulting, which specializes in gauging employee attitudes and morale, surveyed 800,000 people at 61 companies worldwide and found that those who say they have "too much work" scored an overall job-satisfaction rating of 57 on a scale of 100, while those who, like you, have "much too little work" scored lowest of all, at 32. Especially at this early stage in your career, your mission should be to learn as much as you can, and shuffling spreadsheets around ain't going to cut it. If interviewers ask why you're leaving so soon, tell them you're looking for a bigger challenge--which is, after all, the plain truth.

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