I am in a new job for a few months now. I just recently finished all my training projects and I'm now waiting for new instructions on how to proceed. The colleague responsible for training me has been very busy over the last days and has kept postponing our meeting for new instructions to 'tomorrow' for a few days now.
Last Friday, I told this colleague that if I didn't have a task assigned to me by Monday, I'd have nothing left on my to-do list and that I'd have to resort to finding myself things to learn online to keep myself semi-busy. At least two others in the team are aware of my idling as well, as I specifically told them I was idling.
But so far no one was able to give me new instructions so I kept myself busy with self-learning over the last days.
Today I am going to have a regular 4 eye meeting with my manager, and I feel like there won't be a way of getting around telling him that I have been idling for quite a few days now. But I don't want to cause any discomfort in the healthy nature of my team.
So how could I inform my manager of my idling when he asks what I have been working on over the last week, without making my colleagues look bad, or at least as little as possible?
Clarifications from comments
My manager is not the one who gives me tasks and won't be as long as I'm being trained. I have no idea how it's continuing after that. But for now there is a specific coworker responsible for my training.
I specifically said I'm idling to at least two of my co-workers. To the responsible colleague I even said already last Friday: "If you don't assign me a task by Monday, I won't have anything left on my to-do list and will have to find e-learning training to keep myself semi-busy".