IT - Is this normal?

Hi, I am an IT guy and I have been in the business for the last 10 years.

I have played different roles since I started: testing, software development, frontend, backend, DevOps… I climbed the corporate ladder and now I am a manager in a multinational company in Europe. The corporation is quite large and it is hard to navigate the bureaucracy, yet easy to get by.

I lead a DevOps team of 4–5 people that was already well-oiled before I became the manager, and here is my main “problem”: I sometimes have nothing to do for days and I don’t know how to hide it.

The company is reluctant to accept changes or value proactivity. They have asked me to delegate all the technical work to my team and simply focus on keeping the service I lead well maintained (audit and security compliance, uptime, user satisfaction, infrastructure monitoring…). However, no new developments are expected.

The job is hybrid, so I only have to go to the office about 16 hours per week. Everyone seems busy all the time, although the actual output is relatively low.

What would you do in this situation? I am afraid my skills might become outdated quickly and that I won’t be able to find another job.

Thanks in advance!